Three X2 Labs startups pitching at world's leading seafood business conference

Stavanger 03.03.2018

 This week, Blue Lice, EIR of Norway and Fishency will be pitching to global investors at the world’s premier seafood business conference. Picked as three amongst a number of global startups to present at North Atlantic Seafood Conference, this is an opportunity to compete with the very best in the world and showcase what Norwegian startups can achieve in less than 12 months.

THE 5X SEAFOOD & AQUACULTURE INDUSTRY

Under the leadership of the Norwegian government, the seafood and aquaculture industry is projected to grow by a factor of five by 2050. Within that time horizon, the industry is expected to pass oil & gas as Norway’s premier growth industry. To achieve this ambitious growth target, entrepreneurship, cross-industry transfers, a growing number of startups and larger sums of venture capital are driving trends in the industry.

“It was with this backdrop we launched and ran two X2 Labs programs on the seafood and aquaculture industry, in turn developing startups like Blue Lice, Jete, Fishency, Sound Eagle, Fishency, Accu Sea and more”, says Co-Founder Christian Rangen.
 

This trend is now picking up, seeing a serious effort from the Seafood Innovation Cluster, Blue Planet, international accelerator program Hatch to develop future thinking startup and scale-up programs for the seafood industry.

PUTTING FEMALE-LED X2 LABS STARTUPS ON THE GLOBAL INDUSTRY MAP

With a total of 18 global startups selected, and three of them coming out of X2 Labs, this is a huge achievement by three startups, all less than 12 months old.  “We are simply very, very impressed by the dedication, the tenacity and the drive we see among the three startups”, says Board member Linn S. Jensen.

“While this should not be an issue, I am also thrilled to state that all three startups, Blue Lice, Fishency and EIR of Norway are led by a female CEO and have a majority of female co-founders at 2/3 female and 1/3 male”, states Elisabeth Øvstebø, original investor and co-founder in X2 Labs.

A GROWING FOCUS ON FEMALE ENTREPRENEURS

Blue Lice CEO, Karoline Sjødal Olsen, will not be attending the Conference, as she is in New York, nominated as Norway’s Female Technology Entrepreneur of the Year. Equally, EIR of Norway CEO, Vicky Green Samuelsen will not be attending, as she will be in Oslo, pitching for Female Founder of the year by She Conference. Both startups will be represented by other team members at North Atlantic Seafood Conference.

GLOBAL, YET LOCAL

The founders behind the three startups range from Peru, Iran, Brazil, Turkey, France and Norway. Just this past week, they have been travelling to South East Asia, California, Turkey and New York to build market access, initiate research programs, meet potential large-ticket investors and explore international accelerator programs like Nhack in China.

“I don’t think most people realize how amazingly global the seafood startup landscape really is”, says X2 Labs co-founder Christian Rangen. “While the political leadership is largely Norwegian, the market landscape and the three X2 Labs teams are truly global”. Ranging from Norwegian seafood to Asia, new sea lice solutions and advanced technology, the three startups capture very different parts of the growing value chain for Norwegian aquaculture.

PITCHING FOR 250.000 PRIZE MONEY AND STRATEGIC INVESTORS

All 18 teams, coming from Europe and Americas, will be pitching for NOK 250.000 in direct prize money.  Yet the true value lies in the opportunity to meet and showcase for strategic investors, new business partners and the industry overall. “It is a unique opportunity to lean in, and I am delighted to see our startups seize the opportunity like this. We wish them an awesome week putting Norwegian Seafood & Aquaculture startups on the map”, says X2 Labs Co-Founder Elisabeth Øvstebø.

Learn more:

Blue Lice
www.bluelice.no

EIR of Norway
www.eirofnorway.com

Fishency
www.fishency.no

X2 LABS
www.x2labs.io

Contact information:

Christian Rangen
Co-Founder, X2 Labs
Christian@x2labs.io