Singapore-based aquaculture-service provider Qian Hu Corporation has signed an agreement to provide an unsecure convertible loan worth SGD 1 million (USD 733,000, EUR 650,000) to AquaEasy, a subsidiary of the Bosch Group, Qian Hu said in a 20 December press release.
AquaEasy, which offers sensors, software, and services to provide data analysis supported by artificial intelligence to the shrimp sector, is the first start-up to receive funding from Bosch and EDB New Ventures, an in-house innovation operated by Singapore’s Economic Development Board, a government agency under Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry.
AquaEasy will use the loan to finance its capital expenditure needs and other operating expenses, Qian Hu said.
Since 2020, AquaEasy has been working with Qian Hu to build a sustainable shrimp-farming system at the latter’s farm in Choa Chu Kang. The project utilizes real-time data analysis to provide recommendations of water-quality management, feeding optimization, and harvest predictions, with additional support from Qian Hu’s Hydropure filtration system to enhance water quality.
According to Qian Hu CEO Yap Kok Cheng, the company has put a focus on aquaculture since 2017.
“We developed a recirculated aquaculture system for super-intensive shrimp farming, which achieves higher output compared to traditional shrimp-farming methods,” Cheng said. “With AquaEasy, our aquaculture processes can achieve higher productivity and profitability with its revolutionary intelligent feeding systems using Internet of-Things technology. We hope that our collaboration with AquaEasy will take Qian Hu’s aquaculture strategy to a whole new level.”
The two partners are also looking to explore further collaboration in research and development activities, integration of AquaEasy’s solutions into Qian Hu’s aquaculture systems, and development of a new platform to digitalize the aquaculture supply chain, Qian Hu said.
AquaEasy Head of AI Ivan Tay said the company has already provided its AI-based solutions to other customers across Singapore, Indonesia, and Vietnam.
Photo courtesy of AquaEasy
