Ohad Maiman and Thue Holm, co-founders and Managing Partners of AquaFounders Capital.
Photo: AquaFounders Capital.
Aquafounders Capital, the development platform of land-based aquaculture pioneers Ohad Maiman and Thue Holm, announced today that its Amsterdam-based startup Farm in a Box (FiaB) - a modular, prefab solution for sustainable land-based fish farming using Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) - has received EUR 350,000 in funding from the North Holland Innovation Fund.
With this funding, the Amsterdam-based startup, which already presented the initial design of its plug-and-play aquaculture solution in March last year, will go a key step further, as it will use it to develop the software prototype of the operating system for Farm in a Box and apply for patents.
The company has already concluded design and costing of the system, which shows that it can deliver at 30-50% lower Capex than current RAS systems. According to Aquafounders Capital's release, at the moment, FiaB is also preparing for the construction and commissioning of a demonstration unit to support its further commercialisation.
To this end, Ohad Maiman confirmed to WeAreAquaculture, they are fundraising for EUR 3.5 million to enable the hardware of the solution, this is the physical farming unit. Although there is no specific date for the closing of this funding round - the company is currently in talks with different potential investors - once it is concluded, Farm in a Box will be ready to build the unit within 3 months.
Established, as mentioned above, by The Kingfish Company founder and former CEO, Ohad Maiman, and Atlantic Sapphire founder and former CTO, Thue Holm, Farm in a Box was born with the aim of addressing the high costs and long construction times currently hindering growth in the land-based aquaculture sector.
As Maiman himself commented in an interview with WeAreAquaculture, "Farm in a Box is built on lessons learned." Having built two of the industry's leading companies, both land-based aquaculture pioneers teamed up to rethink the design and construction methods that have made today's systems costly and complex.
That union, AquaFounders Capital said in its release, "led to the groundbreaking development of a system that can be shipped globally and assembled on-site at significantly lower cost and with shorter build times than existing alternatives."
Thus, using prefabricated, modular components that can be assembled on-site, FiaB has completely rethought the RAS design, as the system includes only essential and proven elements, enabling fish farmers globally to quickly and affordably set up production — unit by unit — without the need for costly and complex custom installations, which are still common practice nowadays.
"Having built some of the largest systems in the land-based sector, we know the challenges firsthand. We're excited to tackle these pain points with our innovative modular and prefabricated solution," Thue Holm, co-Founder of Farm in a Box, explained. As said, the funding provided by the North Holland Innovation Fund will now help to take the next step.
For his part, the Fund Manager at the North Holland Innovation Fund, Ludolf Stavenga, claimed that FiaB demonstrates how technological innovation can drive sustainable food production. "The team combines deep sector expertise with a scalable concept that can make a global impact. We are proud to support this promising initiative in its crucial development phase toward market launch," he added.
Farm in a Box co-founder, Ohad Maiman, expressed their appreciation for the support. "We are grateful for the support and confidence of the North Holland Innovation Fund. Their funding enables us to take the next step in our development, advancing both our control system and our patent applications," he said.
The good news for Farm in a Box is in addition to the news we recently learned about The Black Cod Company. The other Aquafounders Capital company, dedicated to sablefish production in Kamperland, Zeeland, also in the Netherlands, recently confirmed that it had secured investment from InnoGo! Fund to begin broodstock import and acclimation.
