The Thesis

Aquaculture: identifying the technology drivers for continued growth

Aquaculture is a quickly growing market with potential to produce protein with a lower carbon footprint and less damage to our oceans. With that growth comes opportunity to invest in its continued success.

I’m now a rising second-year MBA student at The University of Chicago Booth School of Business, and have spent the last quarter conducting a deep dive into aquaculture as part of my summer internship with Cultivian Sandbox Ventures, a Chicago-based venture capital firm that invests in innovative entrepreneurs and technology companies building the next-generation food and agriculture system.

Consumers’ appetite for seafood won’t diminish any time soon. In fact, since 1961, per capita seafood consumption has increased by more than 60% in North America. However, as demand has increased, wild stocks have struggled to keep up, with global wild capture fisheries taking the brunt of consumers’ appetites.

From 1978 to 1989 alone, the percentage of wild capture fisheries that were overexploited increased by 18%. Today, 1 in 3 wild capture fisheries is overfished, while 60% are considered fully fished…