Umitron expands early stage funding to US$11mil

By Digital News Asia September 12, 2018

Raises US$2.68 million from Mirai Creation Fund operated by Sparx Group Co
Patent-pending technology provides reliable data for aquaculture insurance

Umitron expands early stage funding to US$11mil

SINGAPORE-based Umitron Pte Ltd announced that it has raised S$3.7 million (US$2.68 million) in funding from Mirai Creation Fund operated by Sparx Group Co, Ltd on Sept 6 as an additional closing to its first enterprise equity finance round announced on June 8.

The total investment in this round now stands at S$15.2mil (US$11 million) and would be the largest amount of fundraising by an early-stage startup in aquatech (as of September 2018).

Umitron also announced that it has started demonstrating a new service to provide reliable data for aquaculture insurance. The company’s patent-pending technology enables users to quantify the asset value of fish and provides environmental data for risk assessment.

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 alongside other factors such as ocean depth.

One of the challenges is finding ways to support aquafarmers who face environmental risks such as disasters on the open ocean. Insurance for the aquaculture sector does reduce the risk for farmers, but aquaculture insurers face technical challenges in evaluating the value of the fish as well as accumulating environmental data from farming sites.

Umitron's patent-pending technology provides reliable data for aquaculture insurance and supports farmers in keeping their management risk to a minimum for sustainable aquaculture.

Based in Singapore (HQ) and Japan (R&D HQ), Umitron builds user & eco-friendly data platforms in aquaculture to improve farm efficiency and manage environmental risk for sustainable acquaculture.

In June 2017, Umitron launched "UmiGarden" as its initial product. UmiGarden provides feeding optimisation in aquaculture through fish school analysis.

Since August 2018, Umitron has started demonstrating data services for aquaculture insurance using IoT and satellite remote sensing to evaluate and mitigate risks associated with the ocean environment and farm operations.

Umitron aims to "install Sustainable Aquaculture on Earth" and believes risk management is a key to sustainable aquaculture development.