AQUA-SPARK, PIONEER INVESTMENT FUND FOR SUSTAINABLE AQUACULTURE, ANNOUNCES ITS INVESTMENT IN BRAZILIAN TILAPIA FARM, FISHER PISCICULTURA
New York, NY (October 2, 2019) — Today, Aqua-Spark (“the Fund”), the first investment fund focused on sustainable aquaculture, announced an investment in Fisher Piscicultura (“Fisher”), an impact-driven Tilapia farm. Based in Brazil, Fisher combines an optimal farming location and innovative cage system with an experienced team that shares Aqua-Spark’s vision for an environmentally responsible aquaculture industry.
Aqua-Spark is a primary investor in Fisher’s latest round of funding. Aqua-Spark investment will contribute towards expanding production capacity on the farm from 50 to 300 tonnes per month, using Fisher’s unique cage system to streamline and automate operations. Fisher is also in the process of developing an Integrated Production Unit, which verticalizes the chain of fish farming and places cages, feed mill, processing plant, rendering plant, and infrastructure in a single site.
Mike Velings and Amy Novogratz, co-founders of Aqua-Spark: “Aquaculture is booming in Brazil, and we’ve been keen to help the Brazilian sector develop sustainably — especially where Tilapia is concerned. Tilapia farming has been in practice for thousands of years, and the species is one of the most consumed fish in the world. Because Tilapia is so well-known and naturally suited to aquaculture — when farms choose to get it right — it can be truly sustainably produced. As our second investment in Tilapia, Fisher impressed us with its commitment to creating the best possible operation for fish and their local community.”
Founded in 2011, the Fisher team’s expertise spans agribusiness, the Brazilian electricity industry, and water management. Through Fisher’s collective knowledge of fish farming and the Brazilian hydroelectric sector, they were the first to farm the Aqua Vermelha reservoir, a man-made pond that’s highly suitable for Tilapia farming.
Fisher is known for its new cage system with integrated automatic feeders and hyper-efficient grading systems. The cages are built from aluminum, which makes them sturdy and less vulnerable to rough weather conditions and predators. The cages stay buoyant by using recycled PET bottles. The system contributes to significantly decreased labor costs, improved animal welfare, increased growth, and higher than average production parameters.
Alexandre Pulino, a co-founder of Fisher, believes that innovation is key to the development of Brazilian aquaculture: “Brazil has all the requirements needed to become a world leader in aquaculture – water, feed ingredients, proper climate, and a large internal market. To make the best of our local conditions, we need to develop our own technology package as we did for other agroindustries. With the help of Aqua-Spark, we believe that in the near future our cage in combination with integrated producers’ systems can become the leading technology of the Brazilian sector.”
About Aqua-Spark:
Launched in 2011, Aqua-Spark is a global investment fund with a mission to transform the global aquaculture industry into one that is healthier, more sustainable, and more accessible. They invest in aquaculture companies across the value chain — spanning
farming operations, alternative feed ingredients, disease-battling technology, and consumer-facing aquaculture products. These companies are solving some of the industry’s big challenges while bringing returns that are comparable to today’s traditional industry. The portfolio works as an ecosystem, with the companies agreeing to collaborate on optimal solutions, and working together toward this shared vision of a more efficient global aquaculture industry.
Since 2015, the fund has invested in 17 complementary SMEs. Thus far, Aqua-Spark has EUR 95.6 million in assets under management, dedicated to investments in elements of the aquaculture industry that will make fish farming sustainable. The goal of the fund is to ultimately make sustainability widespread and profitable enough that it becomes the only way to farm fish.