Ocean Impact Organisation has picked 3 Australian startups for its latest accelerator

Australia’s Ocean Impact Organisation (OIO) has selected six startups working on ways to improve the ocean’s health to take part in the latest Ocean Impact Accelerator Program.

The three startups from Australia, and as well as three from the US. will spend five months working alongside OIO to expand their business, and impact on cleaner seas.

Nick Chiarelli and Tim Silverwood cofounded OIO in February 2020 as Australia’s first ocean impact ecosystem and startup accelerator for companies focused on dedicated to transforming ocean health.

OIO CEO and cfoounder Nick Chiarelli said the six startups were chosen from more than 100 applicants across the Pacific Rim. 

“I’m thrilled to announce the 2023 cohort of the Ocean Impact Accelerator Program,” he said.

“We were blown away by the quality of the applicants this year and are ecstatic to see such diverse and impactful startups accepted into the program.” 

Following the accelerator program, the companies involved will pitch at OIO’s Innovocean showcase event in Sydney on November 22

The six startups taking part are:

Aquacultr (Port Stephens): Scalable land-based seafood production. Aquacultr addresses the impact of the global demand for seafood on oceans and waterways by enabling scalable and sustainable seafood production with its land-based Smart Aquatic Farms. 

Azul Bio (New York, USA): Probiotics for the ocean. Azul Bio reduces the impacts of climate change and pollution on marine ecosystems by creating microbial-based treatments and probiotics that restore ocean productivity and breakdown contaminants at scale. 

Clean Earth Rovers (Cincinnati, USA): IoT monitoring and cleanup solutions. Clean Earth Rovers is a marine robotics and water quality data company tackling pollutants in coastal waterways by providing scalable low-cost IoT monitoring and cleanup solutions. 

ecoSPEARS (Orlando, Florida): Eliminating ‘forever chemicals’. ecoSPEARS develops and deploys groundbreaking technologies to extract and eliminate ‘forever chemicals’ (PCBs, PFAS, and other persistent organic pollutants (POPs)) from the environment. 

Hullbot (Sydney): Robots for healthy oceans. This Sydney-based startup addresses the massive global issue of biofouling on vessels with its autonomous, in-water robot which inspects, maps, and cleans boat hulls. 

Shark Stop (Byron Bay): Shark bite resistant wetsuits. Shark Stop is the only scientifically-proven shark bite resistant wetsuit on the market. The precision polymer fibre technology can reduce the depth of a great white shark bite, preventing the catastrophic blood loss and loss of limbs that cause death in many shark attacks.