Trondheim, Norway-based aquaculture technology company OptoScale has acquired Bergen-based Optimeering Aqua, another technology company which produces Bioplan, an AI-driven aquaculture production planning software.
In a release about the news, the companies said they are “combining with one clear goal: to provide customers with better decision support, even more precise predictions, and a more powerful tool for planning future production.”
“We have followed Optimeering Aqua closely for many years and have been genuinely impressed by both the technology they’ve developed and the insight they’ve built," OptoScale CEO Sven Kolstø said. "By combining our strengths through this acquisition, we can give fish farmers more than just data. We can provide insights and recommendations based on deep industry experience."
OptoScale, which has offices in both Norway and Chile, creates AI-enabled cameras that fish farmers can use to document and analyze fish welfare and growth. Bioplan, by contrast, models growth and other features of an animal's life cycle. The companies said that they plan to connect the two technologies into one platform for ease of use.
“Our customers want actionable insight not just data,” Kolstø said. “Camera data, prediction models, and decision support systems must work hand in hand to answer questions like, ‘How is the lice situation developing?’ or ‘What should we do with consideration to growth, mortality, and welfare development?’ These are the hard questions that combining our forces now enables us to answer in one solution.”
Optimeering Aqua CEO and Co-Founder Erlend Torgnes will now lead a dedicated Bioplan team within OptoScale.
“With access to even more granular, precise, and relevant data from OptoScale, our models become stronger. That means better answers for customers and new possibilities to understand what’s happening in the pens. This takes our product development to the next level,” he said.
