“The Discoveries didn’t get it right,” said Emeritus Pedro Nunes sometime in the 16th century. We are not afraid to err – but we must always be aware of not forgetting to learn from error. So in our action, Portugal will be an unstoppable wave of innovation in the new blue economy!
By Ruben Eiras – Secretary General of the Ocean Forum
The blue economy has a very remarkable growth potential, due to the multitude of sectors that make up it: fisheries, aquaculture, fish processing, ports, maritime transport, tourism, ocean renewable energies, blue biotechnology, finally. Thus, it seems that, at first glance, it is a sector prone to attracting investment and generating new business.
But that’s not quite the case. Despite regular annual growth in Portugal (up to 1% annually since 2012), according to the Sea Economy satellite account published by the Directorate-General for Maritime Policy (DGPM) and the National Institute of Statistics, and also the same trend within the European Union, the fact is that investing in the blue economy remains a high risk.
And why? First, because of the natural environment where the investment is implemented. The sea is the most hostile environment to human activity after outer space. The marine liquid environment is unstable, the salinity corrodes the materials, the pressure ruthlessly crushes while the depth increases, the communication is made primarily by acoustic signals and image visualization in physical situation of high limitation.
Second, due to the information asymmetry that exists not only in the marine ecosystem (there are still many data “gaps” about the sea), but also in the various sectors that make up the sea economy. That is, as an investor, if I want to focus my capital on ocean renewables and shipping, I will have much better information about the last sector, due to its greater maturity. But even in “Shipping”, this information is narrow, because it is an industry still very grounded in the paradigm “the secret is the soul of the business”.
To mitigate information asymmetry in the blue economy market, and facilitate an environment of trust that leads to a better connection between investors and innovators, the Fórum Oceano launched the Hub Azul Dealroom on May 22, the first digital platform for blue economy businesses in the world, in the context of its mission as responsible for the coordination and design of the business model of the Hub Azul Portugal Network, in conjunction with the Presidency of the Strategic Council of the same, chaired by the DGPM.
With almost 1100 startups listed in 10 sectors of the blue economy and with more than 1200 registered investment funds, the Hub Azul Dealroom platform works based on an advanced artificial intelligence engine that not only automatically updates the database, as well as providing a powerful “matchmaking” tool for investors with startups.
But the features do not stop there. You can have your custom company monitoring lists, investment funds and accelerators, as well as market values and investment rounds by blue economy sector, according to the categorization used by Blue Invest of the European Commission. And startups can also include a “pitch deck” in their profile to increase the attractiveness of investors, and it is also possible to identify those whose business model meets the “Sustainable Development Goal 14 – Life underwater”.
Access to the Hub Azul Dealroom is free and is a first concrete result of the PRR funding being implemented by the Ocean Forum, in the mission assigned to it as the managing entity of the Portuguese Sea Cluster and which will greatly increase the value of our services to our associates, increasingly positioning us as a business association providing value-added innovation services for the sustainable blue economy.
Proof of the trust in this navigation route is the association of Caixa Geral de Depósitos, Euronext Lisbon, Startup Portugal, Katapult Ocean, the Port of Lisbon and Blue Invest of the European Commission as “co-igniters” of Hub Azul Dealroom.
But we cannot flag in arch and forget the humility that so strategic is to build a truistic project.
“The Discoveries didn’t get it right,” said Emeritus Pedro Nunes sometime in the 16th century. We are not afraid to err – but we must always be aware of not forgetting to learn from error.
So in our action, Portugal will be an unstoppable wave of innovation in the new blue economy!
Article published in Jornal de Negócios: https://www.jornaldenegocios.pt/opiniao/colunistas/detalhe/a-imparavel-onda-de-inovaca-na-nova-economia-azul