The Portuguese Blue Bioeconomy
2023 BBV cohort members (Photo credit: Lawrence Taylor, IntegraSEE)
Last October - November, the founding team were afforded the fortuitous opportunity of participating in the Blue Bio Value (BBV) Accelerator run by MAZE Impact, which served as a 7-week online program, followed by 3 weeks of in-person events/meetings within the Portuguese Blue Bioeconomy. The online program offered curated networking sessions with experts across all industries, topic-specific workshops, and pitch coaching. The in-person portion of the program was focused on exploring the country’s bioeconomy and engaging with industry stakeholders and research facilities on their role in building the Portuguese blue economy.
For us, this was a great platform to gain deeper insight into the Portuguese aquaculture sector and its pain points, while exploring synergies with potential research partners. Below, I explore 3 main takeaways for our company during its involvement in the program.
The Portuguese Blue Bio ecosystem
One of the most valuable aspects of this program was being able to engage quite widely with the BBV network through the weekly mentoring sessions, which exposed us to experts across the various value chains in the different subsectors of the Blue Economy. Through these sessions we were able to gain better insight into not only how the Portuguese Blue Economy has grown over the last 5 - 10 years, but, more importantly, how interconnected the wider industry is. The partnerships between the BBV, the Blue Bio Alliance and the Blue Demo Network (with the support of the Oceano Azul and Calouste Gulbenkian Foundations) provide an extensive network for supporting and promoting the acceleration and implementation of blue biotech within the country, as well as internationally. We had some really invaluable meetings with network mentors across the board: from research, biotech and fish production, to investment and strategic business development. It became clear that Portugal, a country that has its own bureaucracy like most countries, has and is continuing to create an ecosystem that fosters new blue biotech and supports startups in their mission to shift the status quo. And one of the overarching sentiments/feelings we got from everyone in this space in Portugal, was how incredibly passionate they are about creating a Blue Bioeconomy that benefits its people and the ocean, and how government organisations and NPOs are banding together to promote sustainable blue activities and conservation to align with UN and EU’s international ocean agenda.
From our perspective, it was particularly great and inspiring to be reminded that there are groups of people and organisations in the world who actually want to do some good in the ocean space, which is evidenced by the collaborative nature of the blue economy’s network and the sincerity with which people share their stories and visions.
Value proposition & positioning
When you are building a company, it is so easy to be so stuck in the thick of it, believing you are on the right track, oftentimes neglecting to soundboard certain things. We have come a long way from when we first started and the invaluable tidbits we have learnt have certainly shaped who we are today. One thing we have largely struggled to do is to assign economics to our value proposition: how much (in money) value does our solution bring? How much can our clients save? And what other economic impacts can proteomics positively contribute to? This problem is two-fold for us: 1. How can you assign economic value/impact to biology (because let’s be real here, biology is complex and fundamentally influenced by innumerable factors)? 2. Compared to genomics (or other omics technologies), proteomics is relatively “new” and rapidly changing/advancing - so dollar signs are hard to ascribe to its true/potential value, because that too is advancing. And perhaps, in essence, being scientists, we never definitively make bold claims, and so fall short in truly expressing the value technology like ours can provide. I mean, we don’t operate in shades of grey.
We still have a long way to go in successfully addressing this conundrum, but programs like BBV, where we are exposed to a variety of expertise, have helped in further shifting our mindsets, with bits of advice that are slowly chipping away at how we can address our value proposition with NUMBERS. We sometimes forget how beneficial it is to climb out of our rabbit hole and engage with our surroundings, and the BBV program was particularly invaluable in that regard: having weekly scheduled networking sessions meant we had to face a bit of scrutiny so we could adapt and grow. We especially benefitted from a strategic standpoint through these engagements, as we ended up welcoming one of the network mentors to our board of directors. Our first meeting with Nicky was easy, engaging and perhaps highlighted where we fell short and needed support as we grow the company and look to international shores. Nicky’s background in strategy and business development with international companies was especially attractive for our team, while her passionate and supportive nature meant she was a clear and easy fit for our company. So, beyond the usual insight and support these kinds of programs can provide, they also expose you to unacknowledged gaps in your business that could be supported in other ways, like team expansion!
Collaboration, collaboration, collaboration!
It’s not new that collaboration between academia, industry and private companies lends itself to enhanced value and job creation, while identifying common problem areas to solve. The program’s in-person sessions and meetings across the country really framed how the industry is leveraging collaboration throughout the various value chains and sectors of the Blue Economy. Perhaps it helps that it is a small country, or that there is a strong “blue” focus, but to see how a lot of marine-related research is being translated to the commercial space was exciting. The research facilities and the kinds of research being undertaken were impressive, but left us lamenting over this major gap in our own country. South Africa is comparatively larger and has a longer coastline than Portugal, and yet our blue bioeconomy network is seemingly fragmented, with a lot of R&D happening in silos and minimal economic incentive or financial means to truly tap into its potential. Nevertheless, the collaborative projects across Portugal highlighted how interconnected the sectors and research are, and that there is a common goal of information sharing, with the acknowledgment that industry advancement requires an interdisciplinary approach.
Albeit an intensive 10 weeks, the BBV program served us well in broadening our knowledge base of the Portuguese Blue Economy, it’s support organisations and their frameworks, as well as shedding light on the challenges experienced in the aquaculture sector and how the industry in Portugal is funding solutions and research in tackling these. Beyond this, we also benefited from connecting with a wider group of people from different disciplines, learning from their experiences and witnessing their growth in the blue economy space, while building friendships based on common goals and passions. Because, at the end of the day, that’s what life is really about: surrounding yourself with those with a common resonance in life. So, for all this, we are grateful to the BBV and MAZE impact teams, and their partners, for supporting us in our startup journey.
Some snippets of beautiful Portugal. The sights, the sounds and the tastes will forever be treasured. Photos subject to copyright | MariHealth Solutions 2024
