AlgaLife
case study
Platform for optimizing productive processes based on microalgae
Pre-Seed
Costa Rica

What's the Problem?

The oceans have already lost 90% of their population of large fish species. Aquaculture was born as a solution to solve this problem, but another problem arose: feeding the stock. Nearly 3.5 million tons of fish (the equivalent of 2.5 million cars) are used as fish feed each year, putting enormous pressure on ocean resources. In addition to being unsustainable, this creates another problem, as fish are fed an inefficient diet, developing diseases that involve the death of around 20% of the world's total production. Currently, salmon or shrimp producers, for example, cannot produce without microalgae, as they are the basis of feed for larvae and fry of marine species. They are therefore subject to limited microalgae production in their hatcheries, accounting for 30% of their production costs.

AlgaLife
AlgaLife
AlgaLife
AlgaLife

How are they Solving it?

Microalgae as a live feed, or on a dry basis as a supplement for pellets, are the solution to fix this productive sector completely. But production is so limited, niche and expensive that it is actually impossible to meet the demand. In fact, only 0.7% of the demand from aquaculture is covered. At AlgaLife we have been working on the solution for the past 16 years and we are ready to change this production constraint. AlgaLife has worked on the production of a consortium of microalgae that, when incorporated into animal diets, have shown improvements in gut health and reduced mortality in juvenile tilapia, corals and ornamental fish, and improved conventional diets. Like other organisms, microalgae do not live alone, which is why we developed the patentable MBC technology, growing algae in partnership with other microorganisms, to obtain formulations of higher quality than those available on the market and with production costs up to 95% lower than those of a hatchery.

APEXzymes

Next Startup

APEXzymes