What is the BlueInvest Project Pipeline?
Ocean Twist Biotechnology
Alessandro is a young entrepreneur pushed by his passion for the ocean in all his career choices. He obtained a Master in naval architecture and marine engineering in the UK while racing internationally on sailboats. In his early career, Alessandro worked in the ship finance sector in Switzerland, and there he realised the huge impact humans are having on the marine environment. He set sail on a 40-day trip to reconnect with the ocean by only using sails to move on a cabinless catamaran and only eating the fish he could catch. There came the idea of replacing all the fish that is caught to produce fishmeal used in the aquaculture industry. Alessandro decided to move back to Rome, his hometown, and establish Ittinsect with a team of young, talented marine biologists and biotechnologists.
Farmed fish is among the least impactful sources of animal proteins, as aquaculture is developing towards the most sustainable farming methods. Nevertheless, aquaculture feeds still contain a large quantity of marine-sourced ingredients. This causes two problems:
On one hand, for the environment, because a quarter of all marine-sourced fish is used as a feed ingredient, causing pressure to the already overfished marine areas. On another hand, economic, because fish feeds represent 50% of a fish farmer’s costs. The lack of fishmeal caused a four-fold price increase since 20 years ago.
Ittinsect is the biotech startup that developed the sustainable alternative to aquaculture feed. Ittinsect produces high performance feeds through the microbiological treatment of novel raw ingredients including insects, microalgae and agricultural by-products, in line with the circular economy principles. With Ittinsect, there is no longer need to catch fish from the marine environment as nutrition for farmed fish.
.png)
What is the BlueInvest Project Pipeline?
The BlueInvest Project Pipeline is a database and showcase of projects, scale-ups and SMEs who are driving innovation and sustainability in the Blue Economy.
The projects featured are innovative, scalable and sustainable business ventures from traditional and emerging sectors of the maritime economy.
The aim is to facilitate connections between projects and investors, helping innovative ventures gain visibility and access to funding opportunities.
Want to be featured?
Login to the BlueInvest community & Submit your project
Selection criteria
- Your company is EU-based or from an eligible sea basin region (Georgia, Turkey, Ukraine, Moldova, Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Serbia, Israel, Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Lebanon, Syria, Libya, Mauritania, United Kingdom, or Norway)
- Your project TRL is 4 or higher
- Your project sector is in one of the 10 blue economy sectors identified for this initiative
- Your solution has a clear sustainable impact on the blue economy
- Your project is looking for investment