The Business of Aquaculture
The Business of Aquaculture
Season 2 Episode 4, Co-Founders Claire Pribula & Larry Taylor on The Global Aquaculture Challenge
Lourdes Gant:
As an aquaculture business, how do you attract sustainable partnerships to support your agriculture business. This episode is dedicated to answering that question. So listen in and I hope you enjoy this episode. If you listen to the previous episodes I've interviewed some of the experts in the industries. We've amalgamated the top trends and the top challenges in the business. Welcome to Episode Four Season Two of the business of aquaculture. I'm so delighted we have with us today, The Yield Lab, Claire Pribula, and Larry Taylor. In this episode I'm so delighted to interview you guys because I didn't realize that this institute actually existed. The Yield Lab Institute drives sustainable agri food tech innovation globally. They believe that sustainably feeding the growing global population will require an increase in diverse innovation, entrepreneurs and startups in the area of agri food technology. We have with us today, again, welcome Claire, and Larry. Claire is the managing director of The Yield Lab Asia Pacific, capitalizing on impactful and sustainable technologies, towards the food and agricultural production change chain. She has qualifications as a venture capitalist agribusiness and is skilled in driving significant increases in profitability by leveraging business synergies and innovation to build new companies and corporate lines of business. Larry has 40 years of experience as a senior international executive building businesses in global markets. Larry’s professional career has encompassed a wide variety of international experiences started up in Indonesia, marketing in Taiwan, China, Singapore Korea, Thailand and India, general management in Japan was over 200 million US dollar agriculture business. Welcome to the show, guys, I'm so excited, I'm so nervous I'm making all these mistakes.
Claire Pribula:
That's okay. That's all right I'm just glad you said my last name properly. That's amazing. Thank you, Lourdes. Great.
Lourdes Gant:
Welcome again to the show so let's get this ball rolling so maybe we'll get started with, I started season one with the top trends, and then this season two, I'm asking our guests to probably give us insights and your experts views on some of the challenges that the industry is facing so I'd like to start right off the bat with the question is what is your advice to small businesses wanting to embark on sustainable aquaculture and or green technology.
Claire Pribula:
Okay, I'll take this one first. Thanks, thanks Lourdes and thank you for the lovely introduction. You know, Larry and I are the co-founders of The Yield Lab Asia Pacific Fund, which is a venture capital fund focusing on early stage seed and series A investment. Also, we have a not for profit side called the Institute, which is what we are running. As far as the global aquaculture challenge. So the institute's not for profit. We are The Yield Lab Asia Pacific is supporting the Institute in doing this nonprofit profit global aquaiculture challenge. I just wanted to make that distinction there. As far as the, you know, advice to small businesses is kind of around, focusing on agtech or aquaculture. It's, it's kind of a reason why we were created in the first place. So, the lab which is now a global Federation of funds in the US, North America, Europe, Latin America and now Asia Pacific was created because the early stage investment vehicle is really more geared towards the tech industry. We're like touch everything in an agriculture aquaculture. And for us, agriculture is includes animal health with aquaculture Crop Science precision a Animal Health sustainability traceability and food ingredients all of it. Every everything in what I just described has a growing season, and, and if so, it's, it's, you can't rush it, but also within each of these sub pillars, it's very meaty very deep in the knowledge required to understand the relevance of the innovation, let alone be able to help these companies, and it's for that reason that we were created were all of the industry from the industry 20 30 year relationships, I encourage all businesses that are looking at an innovation that they've got, they're creating and they want to advance is to get yourself with an align yourself with an early stage VC that's in and out of the industry, get someone who can help. Not only you with just the capital capital is yes, I mean, that's important, but also having that knowledge and industry relationships to help you get to commercialization. Commercialization is something that, and someone that's going to stay with you for the long haul. It's something that, that in that case, money can't buy. So it's like a twofer, to find someone that's got that not only the ability to do early stage investment but also the knowledge base and it is an of an industry of the industry. You know, if, if, if you're going to survive, you're going to have to be able to get someone that understands those pain points, somebody who's got that those relationships that can help to close the gap with the strategic companies and the R&D that are more than likely going to invest, reinvest in you, or even acquire your innovation. Most companies and ag tech and aquaculture will not go public, they're going to be acquired. So the faster you can close that gap, the better. And, and that's you know that's what we spend a lot of time doing through our vast global network and helping to take these innovations and through our network of Federation of funds be able to pull these innovations globally, if you know if you can find somebody that is also global in their presence because your addressable market is, is not just where you're sitting here total addressable market is going to be if it's a smallholder farmer solution it's going to be in in Asia Pacific, it's going to be in Africa, it's going to be in Latin America, so try to get somebody that can pull you and help you with great velocity get into these other addressable markets as fast as possible.
Lourdes Gant:
That's wonderful. I really never thought about that way, Claire, when you mentioned about, you know you can't rush it, and as we know with alliances and Federation, it takes time to build those relationships so that's wonderfu. What’s your take on this Larry.
Larry Taylor:
I just think there's so many resources out there that these young entrepreneurs can reach to whether it's their local or joining global organizations. There are lots of resources available, and hopefully, such as our challenge they weren't. It was quite competitive. But hopefully we'll be able to repeat and include others, the next round.
Lourdes Gant:
Sounds great, I like that you mentioned about the challenge because when we did our initial conversation you talked about guys about how many ended up joining and then you're now at the eight finalists, which I know the grand finale, that would be on October 7.
Larry Taylor:
Yes, there were 180 applications which is about double what we normally experienced, and it took quite a bit of time we calculated that the, the total amount of subject matter experts invested in doing the selection was on the order of 600 hours in order to be able to do the analysis and and select the ones that would be going through the program.
Lourdes Gant:
Wow, that's amazing. Well we're going to discuss that about a little bit later. So I go to my next question which would be, I know you guys are global so it's very pertinent that one of the challenges that we had. I mean one of the challenges that people have in the industry is government rulings and so how would you solve the bureaucracy challenge that regulates the industry. So the business is not hampered.
Larry Taylor:
Yeah, we have some thoughts on that. So, oftentimes the bureaucracy and regulations are seen as as hampering or in the way. But we'd like to think of this as if we have well designed compliance, they're not going to be a hindrance, and a way to get that is to some of the organizations, which really work in this direction. One of our favorites is the organization that's newly been re branded as the GSA Global seafood Alliance previously widely known as GA global aquaculture Alliance. And if you look on their their website, they talk about building trust and seafood. The entire purpose of their programming is to allow the quality, not only to be achieved at production, but also have the credibility by the consumer. And in order to achieve that they have certification processes they're not the only one, but they're ones that we collaborate with closely, and they're widely known that the bhp and BSB that best aquaculture practices and best seafood practices contribute to create this well designed compliance. So that, yes, there is a cost of time and some money to do the that the follow the regulations, but it's a way that's industry driven, you'll be able to read, FAO is point on this, they call it, private standards, private standards are then going to be designed by the industry themselves. It's voluntary compliance, and that way. The implementer doesn't have to feel they're being imposed upon, because these are designed by the industry itself.
Lourdes Gant:
Sounds great. I would like to be a devil's advocate and add a question on that as one of the things that I always mentioned in the podcast interview is you know we're now in a society and I know Japan launched this, it's called business 5.0, entrepreneurship 5.0 We're in you know, 1.0 was the hunter gatherer stage 2.0 was agrarian 3.0 was information technology, and we're now at a point where in some of the rulings, and I can relate to this coming from Canada are still 1.0 and government cannot catch up. And so even though some farmers are complying, their rulings are sometimes not applicable anymore but that has not been updated. So what can you say about that?
Lourdes Gant:
This is the reason why a large organization that can amalgamate the opinions and the data and presents to the regulating authorities has credibility because they are a neutral party. I came from a history in the regulated sciences for agriculture in the pesticide world, and there was sort of an adversarial, a bit sterile relationship between the regulators and the and the science and commercial community, but by creating relationships through these larger organizations, you have a forum by which you can present your data and, and, obviously, the people who are in the regulatory world would not be aware of the most front edge science, because that's not their job. So therefore you need this platform to introduce the newest of technologies to the people who are responsible to protect society and nature from whatever is new. and, and that's a good tension. If there are these platforms for good discussion.
Lourdes Gant:
That's so brilliant, what you shared because I remember all the time in any industry you know if you have more voices than just one. I love the word that you use what's conglomerate. Because and also not being making government evil but having them as an alliance together with a bigger platform will surely make traction so thank you for saying that. So, did you have any take on that Claire, are you on the same page?
Claire Pribula:
Larry and I are completely aligned.
Lourdes Gant:
Now, my next question is, what is one thing you think will still be here and will not change, a decade from now and I asked this question because in the first season I ask everybody what's the future trend so for these, and I'm asking everybody what's not going to change and and this is in line again with what I've been talking about on the podcast, in terms of you know the techs that you mentioned you know green tech FinTech med tech space tech now, and Ed Tech, and with agricultural technology, all the technology seems to be like, it's going to be changing because it's so fast paced so what do you guys think that's not going to change.
Larry Taylor:
Well, well, I think it's pretty fair to say that after only 12,000 years. Agriculture is just now getting its attention, it's deserved so, so I think it's fair to say that in 10 years, with over 10 billion people to feed will still be looking for ways to produce more highly nutritious food with less. We will be adapting along the way to climate changes that we can't control. And this great digitization of this last trillion dollar industry to be transformed is going to be continuing to be underway. There's so many different components of agriculture. If you've just looked at this question of yours and I thought about it, you know, from a venture capital perspective, let's just look at it from that way. Ag tech right now is just a small portion of the VC deals at 4 billion for ag tech investments for the full year of 2020, which is still just a fraction of the 300 billion invested, globally, across all sectors. So, you know, if you, if you look at this just, at, at, in the US, let's look at that a little bit more definitively, Let's just take the US q1 of 2021. There are only 380 AG tech investments with aquaculture, making up just a tiny fraction of those 300 deals, which, although it's a great, it's to say that AG tech agriculture across the board has increased from just only 30 investments in 2015 which was the reason why we were created to 300, so that's good news, you know and you know what, six years. But aquaculture is just still just a fragment. So it's such a very stark contrast to the internet industry with over 25,000 deals in the same quarter, just in the quarter. Wow. Yes. So I think it's fair to say that, you know, we got a lot of work to do over these next 10 years. And I think with the, you know, we're going to be looking for continuing to look for more and better ways to do more with less, because we're going to have less. If we don't do more, to try to turn this back things that we can't control like the climate and other things, and the population growth. So, you know, I think that we'll still be at it 10 years from now I think that hopefully we will have accomplished a great deal, and we started off by talking about agriculture, I hope that we will be accomplishing a great deal to get aquaculture investments and innovations, and driving and efficiencies out of this industry across all species at a rapid pace over these next 10 years so that we're all having access to fresh highly nutritious fast growing protein that comes out of the all species of the aquaculture industry.
Lourdes Gant:
Wow, those numbers are mind blowing. And that's one quarter, that's just one quarter. Oh wow. Okay now I'm speechless. So maybe tell us about the global aquaculture challenge and your experience about it. I know you mentioned a while ago that you guys were very surprised to have 180 applications compared, half of what you were expecting so tell us about all these experiences, I'm so excited about it I'm hearing all these challenges all over the internet so I was so pumped. When I heard that we actually have an aquaculture challenge.
Claire Pribula:
Yeah, you know the aquaculture challenge and I'll let Larry weigh in to that, the aquaculture challenge was born out of our proactive looking at all aspects of agriculture, and where there needs to be more focus and attention and aquaculture was is one of those industries that, except for the high end salmon industry, it has a great deal of work to be done across all species there's, you know, animal health issues in different species, there's a high percentage of smallholder farmers, you know that don't even have sensors in the water, let alone being able to do innovation that's precision analytics or predictive analytics. So, or using IoT of any sort. So there's just so much opportunity for growth in this industry and that's the reason why the lab took this focus as our next challenge and our challenges are run just as we do our equity taking side. So we're were there over the course of a year, we're applying deep subject matter experts working with these companies that get selected that make it into the cohort, they're getting access to the best and the brightest in the industry, one on one, to help them either finish their science helping them with their technology helping them to advance their presence in the industry to get tilt closer connections to the strategics many different aspects they all come in some have come in with funding some have come net with never having any external funding, and that's what's exciting about the this global aquaculture challenge is that you know we're picking the best innovations, but some of them are a little bit more nascent to the to being ready for venture capital, but at the end of this, they all are, and they're actually all getting in front of investors so although, you know it's non dilutive, there will be one winner at the end that wins the grand prize. This is all sponsored external sponsorship because like I said it's a not for profit so we need to utilize external sponsorships to run it. But in the end, they're all getting along the way value through the, the technology providers that are giving them free access to services and technology, as well as this mentoring, and, and at the end everybody gets follow on investment, which is great. And that's what this is about this is about helping to stimulate innovation and advance it and then hopefully we the last one to invest in some of these companies and others well so it's our give back to the industry but it's also our stimulation of innovation, focusing on culture globally. Larry, you want to add in.
Larry Taylor:
I would just add that we were so pleased with the global participation from a sponsorship point of view. So for instance, we had the Chilean organization called Saman system Doblin to come on as a sponsor to provide one of the prizes would be a tailor made development program for that market. Similarly, in the Middle East. We had Aqua bridge Come on, and offer that kind of a program and enterprise Singapore for the Asia market. So we have the world covered in terms of the interest in sponsorships to get the word out
to technology, and then IBM
for technology helping globally. And similarly with the experts who are participating to provide the mentoring, are from all over the world, the World Wildlife Fund, the aquaculture Innovation Center in Singapore and totally global in terms of the expertise that's being presented to these companies on a one on one basis. And, and so this different from some of these challenges which are very short term for purposes of, of getting these companies in front of the investor class at a conference. What this does is a more extended program that's based on the standard yield lab process.
Lourdes Gant:
That's amazing. So you guys check out www dot global Aqua challenge.com For this event’s, virtual finale 8am Central time in North America in Canada and the US on October 7 That is so wonderful you guys I am so pumped about this challenge. My biggest takeaway from this episode is I really loved what you guys talked about collaboration, strategic alliances, partnerships, and this is very much in line, on how to bridge the gap between what I guess 1.0 and 5.0 is going to be about, is to have these partnerships together, so that we can bring the industry together to the next level. Thank you so much for being here. How do they get in touch with you.
Claire Pribula:
Well, they can, they can reach out to either of us Claire at the yield lab. COM or Larry at the yield lab Com, we're pretty easy to be reached. Aand thank you for mentioning the date of October 7, which is our global aquaculture challenge finale. At that you're going to see innovation that's just unbelievable. I mean it's, there's innovation that spans animal health, that, that spans wetland habitats and providing a circular farming system, you've got different species that are being covered with these solutions, tilapia bear Monday shrimp salmon halophytes different technologies water IoT nutrition health. They're spanning the globe like like Larry mentioned Argentina, Chile, Israel, Canada, US, UK, Singapore, Indonesia, we are just so proud of these companies, and you know please come and listen to them. The innovations that they have are spectacular. And I think that you'll find it very enjoyable and suspenseful on who's going to win this amazing challenge.
And in less words there.
Thank you, I will see you on October 7
Lourdes Gant:
To our subscribers, do leave a review of the podcast so we can get more people to be aware of the value our guests are providing in these conversations. If you're new to the podcast, I'd like to hear from you. Thanks, everyone. Thanks Claire, thanks Larry.
Claire Pribula & Larry Taylor:
Thank you Lourdes, thanks for the opportunity. Bye.