With over 3 billion people globally depending on wild-caught and farmed seafood for protein, the world’s aquaculture production has reached an all-time high, with 89% of aquatic animal products directly consumed by humans. This surge in global aquatic food consumption has led to startups in the aquaculture sector leveraging AI technology to help farmers enhance production and sustainability.
One such startup is Wittaya Aqua, based in Canada. Wittaya Aqua’s data-driven platform enables seafood farmers to integrate data across the seafood supply chain, enhancing profitability, sustainability, and efficiency. The startup recently raised $2.8 million in a seed round to further develop its feed-to-farm platform and expand into Asia, the largest aquaculture-producing region, following its entry into Singapore in 2023.
“Our vision is global, and Asia is crucial to that vision. The region leads the world in aquaculture production, contributing significantly to global seafood supplies,” said Wittaya Aqua co-founder and CEO Evan Hall to TechCrunch. He emphasized the potential for further growth in Southeast Asia through data-driven practices.
While many countries engage in aquaculture, the top producers include China, Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and South Korea. Wittaya Aqua’s platform uses AI and machine learning to enhance science-based models, predict animal growth, and recommend optimal feed types and quantities based on real-time data and growth projections. Historical data and environmental factors are analyzed by the platform’s machine-learning algorithm to suggest strategies for maximizing yields.
Wittaya Aqua was co-founded in 2017 by Evan Hall, a wildlife conservation photographer, and Dominique Bureau, a professor of animal nutrition and aquaculture at the University of Guelph. They identified inefficiencies and challenges related to fragmented data in the industry. Hall recounted his own challenges as a fisheries biologist, including the cumbersome process of transferring field notes into Excel for data analysis.
Traditionally, aquaculture data has been fragmented and slow-moving, hampering informed decision-making. Wittaya Aqua addresses this by consolidating data from various supply chain points, such as farmers, feed mills, and ingredient suppliers, into a single platform. This transparency provides actionable insights, helping users make better decisions at every level.
“Our unified view allows us to create robust, science-based models that offer stakeholders actionable insights,” said Hall. For instance, farmers can see the direct impact of their feed choices on growth rates and compare their performance to industry benchmarks. Similarly, feed mills can evaluate their feeds’ performance across various farms, refining feeding strategies for specific customer needs.
Wittaya Aqua’s clients include ingredient suppliers, feed mills, and farmers. The startup is in the revenue-generation stage and has secured customers like BioMar, De Heus, Uni-President, US Soybean Export Council, Soy Aquaculture Alliance, Temasek Lifesciences Laboratory, and AquaChile.
The global aquaculture market is projected to grow from $299 billion in 2023 to $355.6 billion by 2033, according to Precedence Research.
Wittaya Aqua competes with farm management solution providers such as Fieldin, Taranis, eFishery, Victory Farms, Atarraya, and AquaEasy. What sets Wittaya apart is its unique combination of nutritional information with field performance, enabling the modeling of different feed ingredients’ impacts on animal performance. Additionally, the platform supports multiple species across various geographies, unlike many competitors that focus on a single species and region.
Looking ahead, Wittaya plans a two-pronged approach to improve farmers’ financial stability. The startup aims to reduce the perceived credit or insurance risks related to production mortality by offering robust data and insights. Additionally, Wittaya intends to connect its users with lenders and insurers who can provide customized financial products.
Wittaya Aqua operates with a team of 16 staff members across Canada and Singapore.
