Heather and Matt, Poseidon Ocean Systems
BC couple to take their made-in-Vancouver Island aquaculture technologies global and deliver innovations for sustainable seafood farming.
By Samantha McLeod
SeaWestNews
Poseidon Ocean Systems, a Vancouver Island-based full-service aquaculture technology company, has raised $5million to further optimise and deliver its innovations for sustainable seafood farming.
The Series A financing led by Ag Capital Canada (ACC), a private equity fund based in Ontario, will help Poseidon fuel engineering and delivery of new proprietary technologies to market. Additional follow-on investment is expected from Export Development Canada (EDC).
Already a global leader in aquaculture solutions and technology, Poseidon has introduced 15 innovative products over the past few years to address some of the most challenging problems facing the aquaculture industry today. It also has four patents pending for its marine engineering solutions.
Over the past two years, Poseidon, based in the coastal community of Campbell River, which prides itself as the ‘Salmon Capital of the World’, has introduced two key aquaculture innovations, both with a focus of improving quality and safety of salmon farming operations.
The first, the Trident Hybrid ™ Steel Cage System, is a breakthrough in floating steel structure design. It’s advanced safety, strength, and stability features allow fish farmers to operate confidently in higher energy locations. It’s forward-thinking design also allows for seamless transition to advanced technologies such as rigid nets and floating closed containment without the need to invest in new structures.
The second, the Flowpressor™ compressor system, is the company’s first step at sharply reducing energy consumption and lowering the carbon footprint of off-grid fish farming systems. The Flowpressor was designed to improve water quality while reducing diesel fuel consumption by up to 56%. Paired with Poseidon’s IOT firmware, the system offers farmers significant additional operational advancements.
“We can lower capital costs, shrink equipment space requirements and drive higher profits for our customers around the world, while also delivering environmental returns for the planet.” Said Rick Segal, CEO of Poseidon Ocean Systems.
“That’s the operational and financial advancements of integrating Poseidon’s engineering, mechanical, and software systems.”
John Lansink, Managing Partner at Ag Capital Canada said he is impressed by Poseidon’s technologies and management team.
“The company is in a growth position, ready to capitalize on a macro trend to meet global protein demand. Poseidon’s systems can cut operating costs and improve efficiency for the industry – and create healthier fish,” he said.
“The Poseidon leadership team brought their technologies to market amazingly quickly. Their culture of collaboration with stakeholders, commitment to developing their products within Canada and strong relationships with global customers and partners were key factors driving us toward closing this partnership agreement,” stated Lansink.
“Ag Capital Canada was the perfect choice to lead our Series A, as they are focused on food production in Canada, the advancement of ag technologies and entrepreneurship,” said Heather Clarke, who co-founded Poseidon, with her husband Matt Clarke.
“The partners bring a wealth of hands-on experience, particularly in agricultural systems deployment – and they are fully Canadian.”
In an earlier interview Heather Clarke told SeaWestNews, “We invested heavily in technology and R n D in 2018 and 2019 which has been good for us…our growth trajectory looks at helping fish farmers in Chile and Scotland and we have had some talks with producers in Turkey, who are looking to grow sea trout
“But everything starts here in Campbell River,” she said.
Poseidon is among several local companies on Vancouver Island that are making a name for themselves globally when it comes to technology to service BC’s aquaculture industry that is dominated by Atlantic Salmon farmers.
The Campbell River Business Recovery Taskforce, comprised of community and business leaders, estimated the annual spending by fish farmers on supplies and services via local businesses and vendors at $132.65 million.
The aquaculture tech companies are a critical component of plans unveiled by the BC Salmon Farmers Association to invest $1.4 billion in innovation, new technology and infrastructure.
The investments through 2050 would create almost 10,000 new jobs and add a cumulative $44 billion in new economic activity to propel Canada’s Blue Economy.
(Image shows Matt and Heather Clarke who co-founded Poseidon Ocean Systems at their office in Campbell River, BC)
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