OCEANIX Busan Proves Innovators, Investors, and Governments Can Collaborate to Build the Future
This week, one of our portfolio companies, OCEANIX, in collaboration with UN-Habitat, the city of Busan, South Korea, and architectural firm Bjarke Ingels, unveiled the prototype of the world’s first floating city (OCEANIX Busan) at UN Headquarters. The announcement garnered significant media attention on the TODAY Show, CNBC, and numerous other outlets. Prime Movers Lab is honored to be a part of this historic project because it will not only be a technology breakthrough that could save millions of lives in coastal cities around the world that are impacted by climate change, but it also provides a model for how innovators, investors, and governments can work together to solve problems facing humanity.
As a deep technology venture firm, Prime Movers Lab is a firm believer in the power of human ingenuity and determination to solve our biggest challenges and positively impact the human experience. From climate change to affordable housing, we face some daunting problems over the next several decades. But these problems are also an opportunity to build our infrastructure more sustainably while simultaneously providing greater access to more people.
We and OCEANIX are deeply committed to sustainable floating infrastructure as a solution to climate resiliency as well as the housing affordability crisis driven by continued urbanization. Investors have shifted their focus toward impactful technology solving our most acute problems. The impact of these breakthroughs will capture enormous value while forging a more sustainable path forward both for the environment and society. We are proud of our investments in nuclear fusion, 3D-printed housing, affordable broadband, and floating cities through OCEANIX.
It is time for action. It is time for us to devote our resources, both intellectual and financial, to face the challenge of coastal city resilience and capture this opportunity for building more sustainable and inclusive cities.
Executing on this will take multi-stakeholder partnerships that include everyone — we need each other. Innovation without capital does not work. Capital without innovation does not work. Capital and innovation without a conducive regulatory environment will not work. This will take all of us. Not only entrepreneurs and investors but also scientists, academics, policymakers, and regulators.
OCEANIX’s partnership with UN-Habitat and Busan is a clear example of our collective ability to bring public and private institutions together to design and ultimately build this future. We cannot afford to decouple governments and the private sector. We need clear lines of communication and clear guidance on permitting, regulations, and approvals. We want policy-makers to tell us the problems that need solving. Let us know the best way to engage — not only to design this infrastructure — but to build it.
We can create even stronger partnerships between the private sector, investors, and coastal cities to spur innovation and, more importantly, action toward climate-resilient cohabitation with our oceans.
We also want to praise UN-Habitat and the Mayor of Busan for supporting a bold but also practical idea on how we can ensure that our coastal cities thrive in a sustainable way.
We hope Busan is the first of many partnerships to come. We are appealing directly to all the cities and governments around the world — we want to build this resilient infrastructure with you.
Prime Movers Lab invests in breakthrough scientific startups founded by Prime Movers, the inventors who transform billions of lives. We invest in companies reinventing energy, transportation, infrastructure, manufacturing, human augmentation, and agriculture.
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