In our Female Founders series, we're following the stories of inspiring women who have founded start-ups in the blue food and aquaculture space.
Our latest Female Founder is Carolin Ackerman of SEAWATER Cubes, a RAS container farm manufacturer from Saarbrücken in Germany. In this interview, Carolin tells us about her inspiration as CEO, and her vision for the future of land-based aquaculture.
Location: Germany
Year founded: 2018
Key innovation: Fully automated container fish farm
SEAWATER Cubes markets a fully automated container farm for onshore farming of marine fish. Customers are mainly farmers who want to establish a sustainable business branch with fish cultivation. In addition to selling complete systems, the company offers components for biofiltration and conducts research on innovations in aquaculture.
"Our vision is seafood security for the growing population. Therefore, we empower new economy farmers to establish de-centralised and circular systems for on-land farming of clean and healthy marine fish."
"we are convinced that decentralized, small-scale farms are the future of fish supply."
– Carolin Ackermann, SEAWATER Cubes
"For me, in 2017, the penny dropped: Frankfurt Airport is the largest fish port in Germany. Since then, I've been concerned with the origin of food. I questioned our consumption behaviour, and I learned how important independence of food supply and environmental compatibility are."
"Today, I lead a team of 12 and have acquired €2.5 million in federal funding with my co-founders to develop onshore marine fish farming. I'm breaking new ground and bringing our technology to the market. In my daily work, I am inspired by other successful people who share their stories and learnings on conferences and in podcasts."
"What's unique about SEAWATER Cubes is that we look at aquaculture from an engineering point of view and thereby develop our product in a way that serves the environment and the people who operate it. Besides, we are convinced that decentralized, small-scale farms are the future of fish supply."
"I see huge opportunities for the development of the industry, as seafood already covers 20% of the protein we eat, and its consumption will further grow."
"In my opinion, recirculating aquaculture systems are the technology of the future, as water will become a scarce resource in many countries. Already today, groundwater levels, even in Europe, are threatened due to climate change."
"Hence, recirculating aquaculture farms need to be as resource efficient as possible and be integrated into other systems such as biogas, plant or insect farming."