I was calling this industry OceanTech, but the sector calls itself BlueTech, it refers to any technology or problem solving startups who are focused under the water (salt or non-salt water). so I have adopted BlueTech as the term.
The deeper I dive (no pun intended) into BlueTech the more fascinating it is. So many talented people in one sector building earth saving or evolving things. From my conversations, these are the concepts Boost VC is looking to invest in (Every link below will link to the Tribe 12 applications):
Bio-discovery
There are more organisms beneath the surface of the ocean than above it. Many creatures with many amazing abilities. What if one of them had the secret to curing cancer, or rapid regeneration, or longevity? Let’s explore and discover!
AquaCulture
Fish farming is a $1T market. There is very little technology. Anything that can happen on a farm can happen under the water. Need better ways to keep fish healthy, more efficient ways to manage them. I think that there are going to be massive SAAS businesses entering this space!
Energy Generated by Water
The ocean is extremely powerful, not sure if you have noticed. It releases energy like Yoshi releases turtle shells in Mario kart. Humans have not figured out how to retain this massive energy source at scale!
Real Estate
As the world moves toward mega cities, and becomes over populated, it makes sense to me that if it was possible, real estate off the coasts would become immensely valuable. We would love to invest in the future here.
Under Water Living
Again, related to the real estate, there are many technologies that need to exist in order to allow humans to live beneath the earths surface: robotics, software, communications. Let’s build the ecosystem. Also, hotels under water would be incredible.
Ocean Cleanup / Climate Change
There is a trash pile the size of Texas in the middle of the ocean, there must be a profitable way to clean that up. The ocean is the most important regulator of climate change, keeping the ocean healthy will determine our next 100 — 1000 years.
Desalinization
Lots of research has gone into this, but until now the cost of energy has been too high. I believe now strikes a time to truly generate drinking water from the ocean at a low cost. Let’s do it!
Data Collection
In order to understand the earth, humans and the ocean better, we have to start listening better. We need better sensors, better imagery, better data collection in order to analyze and help predict changes. We have higher resolution photos of mars than the oceans seabed.
Underwater Communications
Having a submarine communicate with an airplane is still a very hard task. Communications have always evolved to being enormous markets, and underwater access is extremely limited if not, non-existent.
Crypto Mining in an Offshore Energy Rig
Transportation of energy to land is the most difficult problem in sourcing the oceans energy, and because crypto mining is essentially generating value from energy, this seems like an epic experiment that could be amazing.