Victoria-based Centre for Ocean Applied Sustainable Technologies (COAST) has teamed up with Founders Factory and Blue Action to launch a Canadian chapter of the oceantech-focused Blue Action Accelerator under the name Blue Action Canada.
“We’d like to see this widen out to Canada-wide [and] launch the second cohort towards the end of this year.”
Jason Goldsworthy
COAST
The accelerator’s pilot cohort will support eight British Columbia-based blue economy startups within its areas of interest, which include offshore energy, ocean monitoring and data collection, aquaculture, and coastal resilience.
COAST executive director Jason Goldsworthy told BetaKit in an interview that these areas of interest are where he thinks the blue economy is going to thrive.
“The oceans have the ability to have a huge impact on our climate and, regardless of which way you want to look at it, they’re very important in regulating the [Earth’s climate],” Goldsworthy said. “I think any of the technologies that are really focusing on that are going to be key in the future, the hard part is how to commercialize those and how to turn them into businesses.”
Launched in 2021 and financially backed by BC’s Ministry of Energy and Climate Solutions and federal regional economic development agency PacifiCan, COAST has a mandate to support technologies and innovations focused on ocean sustainability, also known as the blue economy. As part of that mandate, Blue Action Canada’s four-month program is looking to support established early-stage ocean companies that are members of COAST, and have a physical presence in British Columbia.
The accelerator will coach founders on their operations, product development, technology, customer discovery, and commercialization, with an emphasis on fundraising.
The original Blue Action Accelerator launched in 2023 as a collaboration between London, United Kingdom-based venture studio Founders Factory and Bahamas-based ocean hub Blue Action.
As part of the program, Blue Action is providing a platform to access its network of ports around the world to explore pilot projects and testing grounds. Goldsworthy said that Blue Action brings an environmental conservation focus that COAST found to resonate with the BC oceantech community.
Additionally, Goldsworthy said Founders Factory provides a “high net worth” investor network interested in the sector, while COAST provides resources, mentors, and potential customers from its BC network.
COAST has already filled out the pilot cohort with eight of its 61 member companies. Goldsworthy added that the intention is to make the accelerator available across Canada and potentially support two or three cohorts annually.
“This is Canada’s first dedicated blue economy accelerator, that’s only for Canadian companies,” Goldsworthy said. “So we’d like to see this widen out to Canada-wide [and] launch the second cohort towards the end of this year.”
Feature image courtesy COAST via LinkedIn.