October 14, 2021

By Lynda Kiernan, Global AgInvesting Media

Launched in 2013 as a Harvard Innovation Lab as Cryoocyte, a high-precision technology fish breeding project, Ecto has admittedly kept a low profile over the ensuing years. But during its work gathering data to reflect the high success rates of its breeding process, the founding team came to the realization that the true power in its data was in its predictive optimization – and so, Ecto was born. 

“Ecto is a global decision support platform for aquaculture that grew out of a project for low temperature preservation technology for salmon eggs,” explained Dmitry Kozachenok, CEO and Co-Founder, Ecto. “By 2018, the firm was handling nearly 10 percent of all Atlantic salmon eggs produced globally for grow-out.”

Kozachenok continued, “Our customers wanted to see data showing that the fish our breeding service provided wouldn’t be swimming upside down in two years. The company dived deeply into this question and transformed itself into a data analytics powerhouse breaking down the data silos across the aquaculture industry. We understood that our grip on industry data was probably more valuable in terms of its predictive power for optimization.”

Today, Ecto is a revolutionary digital decision platform for aquaculture producers that uses machine learning combined with science-based biological insights to provide the necessary data needed to make the aquaculture industry more efficient and sustainable.

Through the connection of disparate data, the platform discovers patterns previously undetected by producers that have the ability to reduce preventable losses. For instance, the company’s predictive model issued early alerts to a salmon farming company in regard to algae-related mortality outbreaks, or the discovery that ash concentration in feed rations was strongly correlated to high mortality rates at a particular growth stage of fish.

Kozachenok explained, “Each production aspect provides a degree of variability and has an associated data set. The raw materials for each feed batch are different due to commodity price fluctuations, resulting in variable portions of proteins and lipids in feeds. The feed company has that data, but the feeding equipment has other data related to, for example, the frequency and duration of feeding times. Labs have results of tested water quality, and so on. Even fundamental things such as oxygen levels are hard to include into multi-factor assessment because a single aquaculture producer with many sites would often use four to five different oxygen hardware suppliers. The range and means of measuring the variables snowballs into a storm pretty quickly.”

Gary Livshin, CTO, Ecto and a veteran software executive, added, “While others saw an unsolvable puzzle, we saw untapped data and potential insights. We realized there was an opportunity to reduce preventable losses and increase industry output by collecting raw data existing in disparate silos and generating insights from previously disconnected streams of information that could answer serious questions.” 

In support of the potential for this performance optimization platform to advance the $264 billion global aquaculture industry (the main protein source for three out of seven of the world’s consumers) Rabobank Food & Agri Innovation Fund, Aqua-Spark, and Seventure Partners have participated in a $7 million Series A for the company. 

“We’re excited to be a part of the progress Ecto is making to improve aquaculture with the power of technology,” announced Mike Velings and Amy Novogratz, managing partners, Aqua-Spark. “We believe sustainable farming requires rigorous management practices. Ecto’s decision support platform will increase output, reduce environmental degradation, improve animal welfare, and increase transparency and traceability in the supply chain.”

Ecto’s digital infrastructure creates deep integrations with more than 100 data sources throughout the aquaculture value chain. Its platform then uses multi-generational data already in the possession of producers to automatically build models for the early detection of patterns associated with bio risks. Highly granular parameters related to individual populations and locations are used to generate more accurate forecasts than ever before – covering multiple environmental factors affecting fish welfare and development from the hatchery, to grow-out, transport, and the processing phases.

“The future of sustainable aquaculture is in data and analytics to reduce preventable issues and human error,” said Kozachenok. “Over the past 15 years the industry has seen a lot of innovation in hardware, sensors, vaccines, genetics and feed engineering, but the majority of industry data is locked on paper, spreadsheets, and disparate software systems.”

“Our goal is to build analytical connective tissue between all parts of production to drive evidence-based insights that improve habitat welfare, reduce economic losses for producers, and further advance the sustainability profile of the industry.”

Livshin added, “Aquaculture today is where banking software was 20 years ago — large companies are debating build vs. buy decisions with integrations and interoperability still in their infancy.”

With the capital from this investment, Ecto plans to strengthen its position as the market leader for digital decision support tools for aquaculture – the fastest growing animal protein industry in the world.

“Aquaculture will be a critical part of how we produce protein for the global population in the 21st century,” said Kieran Furlong, venture partner, Rabo Food & Agri Innovation Fund. “However, fish-farming can be incredibly complex. There is huge scope for optimizing production if producers can only get a handle on real-time data. Ecto allows them to improve their production immediately – with the systems, fish, feed, and labor they already have.”

Gorjan Nikolik, senior global seafood analyst, Rabobank said, “Ecto emerges as the unique data platform in a period of technology proliferation in the aquaculture industry,” with Kieran Furlong, venture partner, Rabobank, explaining, “It provides aquaculture farmers and CEOs insights into the operations which can transform the business, improve efficiency and reduce risk.”

Lynda Kiernan-Stone is editor with GAI Media, and is managing editor and daily contributor for Global AgInvesting’s AgInvesting Weekly News and  Agtech Intel News, as well as HighQuest Group’s Oilseed & Grain News. She can be reached at lkiernan-stone@globalaginvesting.com.