The Barcelona-based company focused on marine life regeneration, Ocean Ecostructures, has closed its first capital increase, with 1.6 million euros. The company has brought BStartup of Banco Sabadell; Ship2B Ventures through BSocial Impact Fund, and Inclimo Climate Tech into its shareholding. With this operation, the startup will boost a strategic plan to extend its technology to other markets and industries.
Investors have bet on the company for its own technology to combat the negative impact historically generated by marine infrastructures. The company, founded in 2020, aims not only to reverse this impact but to turn these infrastructures into biodiversity hotspots. How? By installing bioregeneration structures on the seabed that act as small reefs, through a natural substrate.
The design of these structures, called Life Boosting Units, imitates real ecosystems and blends in with them, in order to foster this diversity of flora and fauna in the sea. Since its founding in 2020, Ocean Ecostructures has installed more than 100 units. This technology can turn ports into Nature Positive actors without interfering with their operations, highlights the company's founder and CEO, Ignasi Ferrer. "It represents a before and after that we now want to apply to other structures, such as offshore wind farms," he adds.
Ocean Ecostructures has been selected by the Swedish accelerator Norrsken to operate from its new hub in BarcelonetaIts technology, called Bio Boosting System, has been installed in ports such as that of the Catalan capital itself, as well as those of Tarragona and Palma, and also in sports marinas such as Marina Palamós and Puerto Banús. The company, formed by a multidisciplinary team, vertically integrates the entire value chain of its activity, including the improvement of its technology and the installation of structures. It also encompasses the subsequent monitoring of the impact of the units placed in the sea. These have a system that periodically calculates and provides their impact, which allows evaluating their impact on the ecosystem.
This monitoring also allows valuing the natural capital generated with its interventions. Thus, the startup can accompany other companies to become Nature Positive companies, as it already does with several initiatives from different sectors. Thus, Ocean Ecostructures welcomes companies that want to integrate the promotion of marine biodiversity into their ESG policies into its project. The objective? To generate natural capital above the impact produced by their activities.
"If we recover lost marine life, we will increase the planet's capacity to absorb CO2, reducing the climate threat," proclaims Ferrer. With Ocean Ecostructures, "we bring life back to the oceans thanks to its technology," assures Ship2B Ventures co-founder Xavier Pont, while the director of BStartup of Banco Sabadell, Yolanda Pérez, has described the company as an "excellent exponent of the new blue economy." The co-founder of Inclimo Climate Tech Fernando Casado has praised the startup for its "ambitious vision of combining economic profitability with the preservation of the oceans, responding to the climate emergency."
New headquarters with the Swedish Norrsken
Ocean Ecostructures opens its new headquarters in front of Barceloneta beach. The startup has been selected by the Swedish accelerator Norrsken to operate from the new hub it has opened in the building that houses Desigual's offices, next to the W Hotel. The technology company was one of the 20 startups chosen from among more than 2,500 companies. It was selected after completing an eight-week acceleration process in Stockholm in the summer.
"Being part of Norrsken represents a boost to our project," according to Ferrer, as the Swedish foundation expands its connections with investors and companies that are committed to reversing and valuing their impact on the environment. All with the aim of regenerating marine life in our seas and accelerating the fight against climate change.