Hatch, a business accelerator program focused on aquaculture, has named the members of its new advisory board as it progresses with a multimillion-dollar fundraising effort.
The new board members include Brian Wynn, Einar Wathne, Eric Archambeau, and Kai Sato. Wynn is the founder and former CEO of Rubicon Resources, which was sold to High Liner Foods in 2017 for USD 107 million (EUR 96.6 million). Wathne is the former CEO of Ewos, which was sold to Cargill for USD 1.5 billion (EUR 1.35 billion) in 2015, where, until January 2019, he served as president of Cargill Aqua Nutrition. Archambeau is a founding partner of Astanor Ventures, a venture capital fund focused on technology-enabled sustainable agriculture and food investments. Sato is the founder of investment advisory Kaizen Reserve and founding partner of investment firm Vintage Capital Investments.
The advisors were selected for their experience in venture capital, aquaculture, and entrepreneurship, according to Hatch Co-Founder and Managing Partner Carsten Krome.
“We are combining some big names in aquaculture and venture capital in our board of advisors, all of them successful entrepreneurs and investors themselves,” Krome said in a press release.
Hatch has thus far raised about half of the EUR 8 million (USD 8.9 million) it is seeking through its fundraising campaign, Krome said. The fund is “entirely dedicated to high-potential aquaculture technology startups” and is slated to close in November 2019, he added.
“Our fund advisory board has been instrumental in helping us raise the fund so far and most of our advisors are also invested themselves,” he said. “This is the first seed fund that has ever been raised for aquaculture start-ups. It´s a great indication that investor interest in the sector is continuously growing and that is to no surprise to us given the opportunities we are presented with. Aquaculture is ready to become a mainstream venture capital target“
The board will play an active role in Hatch’s accelerator program, and will also help with fundraising, Krome said. Hatch’s third accelerator cohort kicks off 26 August and will take place this year at the Natural Energy Lab in Kona, Hawaii.
Photo courtesy of Hatch
