Calling All Entrepreneurs

This week I took a rare moment to reflect on 10 years of applications, finalists and winners for the Global Seafood Alliance’s yearly competition recognizing entrepreneurship. I flipped through more than 150 applications (151 to be exact), representing an impressive 50 countries, stretching from the edges of the Arctic Circle (Sweden, Norway and the Faroe Islands) to the valleys of East Africa (Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania) to the mountains Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan and Nepal). I’m reminded of just how global aquaculture is.

I’m also reminded of just how far aquaculture has come. At the competition’s birth in 2012, aquaculture was not yet trendy. The term “blue foods” had not yet been coined. First-time investors were watching quietly from the sidelines. Since then, there’s been a?flurry of investment activity. Venture capital firms like?Aqua-Spark and Katapult Ocean are swiftly building their portfolios. Sustainably minded investors from outside of the space are pouring in.

The Global Seafood Alliance has played a small but spirited role in filling the pipeline with entrepreneurs since 2012. So it’s a pleasure to announce that applications for the 11th annual?Responsible Seafood Innovation Awards, sponsored by the?U.S. Soybean Export Council, are now being accepted. The recently renamed competition has two categories – one for aquaculture and one for wild-capture fisheries.

This year, we are inviting six finalists to join us in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada, for the 22nd edition of the?Responsible Seafood Summit. One of last year’s two winners,?John Felts of Cruz Foam?(pictured second from left), has since landed?$18 million in funding. As always, the hope is that the recognition will help catapult these entrepreneurs to bigger and better things.