SEAFOOD INDUSTRY IMPACT FUND MAKES FIRST ACQUISITION

Seafood industry impact fund makes first acquisition. Norway-based impact investor Bluefront Equity’s (Bluefront) second impact fund has made its first investment: Acquisition of FiiZK Digital AS – a company that drives impact for the seafood industry through digital solutions that optimise production for fish farmers.

Bluefront launched its second fund – Bluefront Capital II – in April this year. The fund’s investment mandate covers investments in companies with products, services and technology contributing to a more sustainable seafood value chain. More specifically this includes product services and technologies aiming to improve ocean health and biodiversity in addition to animal welfare.

Bluefront’s second fund is given thumbs up by one of the world’s most renowned global impact investment firms, Cambridge Associates, which builds custom portfolios investors in pursuit of outperformance and making positive, real-world impact. Investors in the fund include Havfonn, the Steensland group, 3S Invest, Klaveness Marine, TD Veen, Cubera, and more.

FiiZK Digital

Bluefront has reached an agreement to acquire 100 percent of the shares in FiiZK Digital AS, which delivers digital solutions that enable fish farmers to conduct strategic production planning through optimising both biological and financial conditions.

“More than 40 percent of the salmon that is produced in Norway is supported by FiiZK Digital’s solutions. This is a fantastic starting point to further develop the company. We will streamline the business and contribute with new equity that will enable the company to develop even better and more holistic solutions that will make fish farmers’ operations more efficient, sustainable and profitable,” says Kjetil Haga, partner at Bluefront.

FiiZK Digital has more than 20 years’ experience from development and production of digital solutions for the seafood industry. The company’s main product, named “Horizon”, consists of various applications that cover everything within biological and financial planning, strategic and tactical optimisation, presentation of historical data, budgets and rolling forecasts that are integrated with customers’ other solutions. The system is typically utilised by fish farming companies’ employees that are in charge of production planning and finance.

In addition, FiiZK Digital provides the solution «CTRL» (pronounced «control»), which is a specialised solution for production monitoring that is utilised by those responsible for fish farming operations. CTRL feeds operational data into the planning tool Horizon. Both products are used by both traditional ocean-based farmers and land-based fish farmers.

“Optimizing production through data-driven decision-making enables fish farmers to enhance sustainable food systems by improving efficiency, reducing mortality, and promoting better fish welfare,” says Bluefront-partner Simen Landmark.

FiiZK Digital is headquartered in Trondheim, Norway, with an additional office in Ålesund, Norway. The company has 20 employees and its customer base consist of small, medium-sized and large fish farming companies, primarily in Norway but also internationally.

The transaction

Bluefront Capital II acquires FiiZK Digital for an undisclosed amount from FiiZK Topco AS, which has Bewi Invest AS and Oslo-listed Nekkar ASA as its largest owners.

Bluefront, FiiZK Digital’s original founders – Torbjørn Skjetne og Magne Johnsen – plus newly elected chairman Olav Jamtøy injects a substantial amount of equity into FiiZK Digital to strengthen the company’s balance sheet and provide growth capital to facilitate further expansion in both Norway and abroad. After all transactions have been completed, Bluefront will own approximately 90 percent of the shares with the remaining shares being held by Skjetne, Johnsen and Jamtøy.

“As the FiiZK Group wanted to focus their efforts on closed and semi-closed fish cages, and Bluefront is already heavily invested in suppliers of digital solutions, this transaction suited all parties. The employees in FiiZK Digital are positive to our new owners and we look forward to developing a streamlined digital solution provider to the seafood industry together with Bluefront,” says Torbjørn Skjetne, co-founder and managing director of FiiZK Digital.

Olav Jamtøy, who is also chairman of Bluefront-owned Spillfree Analytics, becomes the new chairman of FiiZK Digital. He is joined at the board of directors by Kjetil Haga and Johan Kostveit from Bluefront.

After the transaction has been completed, FiiZK Digital will initiate a process to re-name the company.