Umitron launches data service for aquaculture insurance leveraging IoT and satellite remote sensing with US$11.08 million in early stage funding

Umitron, a Singapore-based startup that develops computerized sustainable aquaculture model by using technology such as IoT, satellite remote sensing and AI, has raised additional US$2.7 million from Mirai Creation Fund operated by SPARX Group. Co., Ltd. on 6th September as the additional closing of first enterprise equity finance announced on 8th June. The total investment in this round becomes US$11.08 million and would be the largest amount of fundraising as an early-stage startup in aquatech.

Founded in 2016 and based in Singapore (HQ) and Japan (R&D HQ), Umitron builds user & eco-friendly data platform in aquaculture to improve farm efficiency and manage environmental risk for sustainable ocean. In June 2017, Umitron launched “UmiGarden” as its initial product. UmiGarden provides feeding optimization in aquaculture through fish school analysis.

Also, since August 2018, Umitron has started demonstrating data service for aquaculture insurance using IoT and satellite remote sensing to evaluate and mitigate risks associated with ocean environment and farm operations. Umitron aims to “install Sustainable Aquaculture on Earth” and believes risk management is a key for sustainable aquaculture development.

Umitron has also announced that it has started demonstrating new service to provide reliable data for aquaculture insurance. Umitron’s patent-pending technology enables users to quantify the asset value of fishes and provides environmental data for risk assessment. With an aim of expanding its services, Umitron currently invites overseas business partners such as enterprise aqua farms and insurance providers for sustainable aquaculture.

Marine aquaculture production could potentially be increased by over 100 times compared to today’s value by estimating location-specific growth potential using the temperature tolerance of aquaculture species with other important factors such as ocean depth.* On the other hand, one of the challenges is to find ways to support aqua farmers from environmental risk such as disaster on open-ocean.

There have already been several insurances in Aquaculture today to reduce risk for farmers, but aquaculture insurance has been facing technical challenges to evaluate value of the fish insured as well as to accumulate environmental data from farming sites. Umitron’s patent-pending technology provides reliable data for aquaculture insurance and support farmers to keep their management risk to a minimum for sustainable aquaculture.

The demand for protein has increased, but the area of cultivated land food production and the yield per unit area are limited. Also, the expansion of agriculture, factory and city has led to usage of more freshwater resources. Land animals such as cattle, pigs, and chickens have been farmed by human hands for thousands of years, while marine fish are still being supplied by capturing. For those reasons, marine-aquaculture industry is growing rapidly now.

Umitron is solving the aquaculture issues using technology. The biggest challenge faced by the growing aquaculture industry is optimization of feeding. The aquaculture feeding cost shares more than 50% of total production one. In addition, overfeeding beyond the amount required for fish appetite causes water problem such as eutrophication of the ocean and red tide. Umitron provide technology to optimize feeding in aquaculture and reduce environmental risk.