Australia’s Ocean Impact Organisation (OIO) has announced the successful candidates of its 2023 Ocean Impact Accelerator Program. The six pioneering startups (3 from Australia and 3 from the USA) are working on solutions to transform ocean health that will spend 5 months working alongside OIO with the ultimate goal of expanding their business, and their impact on the ocean.
Each startup is addressing a complex ocean challenge with an innovative approach to help improve the overall health of the ocean, climate, and the broader environment. The six startups were selected via a highly competitive process from a pool of ~100 applicants from around the world.
The six startups and the solutions they are working on are:
Aquacultr | Port Stephens, Australia: Scalable land-based seafood production. Aquacultr addresses the impact of the global demand for seafood on oceans and waterways by enabling scalable and sustainable seafood production with its land-based Smart Aquatic Farms.
Azul Bio | New York, USA: Probiotics for the ocean. Azul Bio reduces the impacts of climate change and pollution on marine ecosystems by creating microbial-based treatments and probiotics that restore ocean productivity and breakdown contaminants at scale.
Clean Earth Rovers | Cincinnati, USA: IoT monitoring and cleanup solutions. Clean Earth Rovers is a marine robotics and water quality data company tackling pollutants in coastal waterways by providing scalable low-cost IoT monitoring and cleanup solutions.
ecoSPEARS | Orlando, Florida: Eliminating ‘forever chemicals’. ecoSPEARS develops and deploys groundbreaking technologies to extract and eliminate ‘forever chemicals’ (PCBs, PFAS, and other persistent organic pollutants (POPs)) from the environment.
Hullbot | Sydney, Australia: Robots for healthy oceans. This Sydney-based startup addresses the massive global issue of biofouling on vessels with its autonomous, in-water robot which inspects, maps, and cleans boat hulls.
Shark Stop | Byron Bay, Australia: Shark bite resistant wetsuits. Shark Stop is the only scientifically-proven shark bite resistant wetsuit on the market. The precision polymer fibre technology can reduce the depth of a great white shark bite, preventing the catastrophic blood loss and loss of limbs that cause death in many shark attacks.
CEO and Co-founder of Ocean Impact Organisation Nick Chiarelli said, “We were amazed by the quality of the applicants this year and are ecstatic to see such diverse and impactful startups accepted into the program.”
The programme will be delivered online over the next 5-months and culminate in each startup pitching live on stage at OIO’s INNOVOCEAN showcase event in Sydney on 22 November 2023.
To read more about the startups and ways to get involved as a mentor, investor or future program participant, please visit here.