News

Tidal launches from Alphabet's Moonshot Factory with funding from Perry Creek, Kverva-backed IVC, and Futurum Ventures

Tidal will focus on helping the salmon aquaculture industry accelerate data-driven productivity, cost-efficiency and sustainability.  

TRONDHEIM, NORWAY. AUGUST 12, 2024 - Tidal, a team that has spent the past six years developing and scaling novel underwater perception technology to help revolutionize the aquaculture space, launched in July as an independent company from X, the moonshot factory, Alphabet’s innovation engine. With funding from Perry Creek Capital, Norwegian-based Ichthus Venture Capital (IVC) backed by Kverva, and Futurum Ventures, Tidal is poised to rapidly continue expansion and give salmon aquaculture a new level of insight to improve business performance and sustainability.  

THE TIDAL PLATFORM 

The Tidal team has partnered for years with industry leaders such as Mowi, combining their deep-rooted knowledge of fish farming with Tidal’s expertise in AI, underwater robotics, and data science. The result is Tidal’s patented and commercially available underwater camera system and software platform, installed across more than 250 pens globally. “Tidal’s technology focuses on providing precise and real-time data at scale to support the salmon aquaculture industry to address major challenges and unlock new opportunities,” adds Rajesh Jadhav, CEO of Tidal.  

The system allows farmers to track real-time growth and estimate harvest results, monitor and act early on fish welfare trends, act decisively in response to sea lice pressure, and feed fish with the industry’s first fully-integrated AI-powered autonomous feeding capability. This suite of tools enables fish farmers to better understand and optimize their operations to reduce costs and waste, make data-driven decisions to improve production efficiency and planning, and proactively manage fish well being and the surrounding environment. “The Tidal system is the most advanced sensing and analysis platform in aquaculture, and undoubtedly the one with the greatest potential,” said Øyvind Oaland, COO of Mowi Farming Norway.  

NEXT WAVE OF AI 

With this new investment in Tidal to catalyze ongoing growth, the company is establishing an even stronger base in Norway, and expanding to new geographies Chile and Australia.“We see huge potential in the value that Tidal can offer farmers. Based on our deep industry knowledge and understanding, we are confident in Tidal’s capabilities and ability to succeed and provide solutions for key challenges and de-bottleneck growth opportunities within the aquaculture industry,” says Mats Malvig, Managing Director from IVC, the newly launched seafood venture investment company owned by Kverva. “Tidal has already established a strong track record working at scale, and we’re excited to support them as they continue to expand their operations,” said Brian Zingale, Perry Creek Capital, who led the round.  

Tidal’s aquaculture platform ties into the company’s mission, to support global food security and protect ocean health. In a recent blog post about Tidal’s graduation from X, Captain of Moonshots Astro Teller wrote, “We’re excited to launch climate-based businesses like Tidal at a time when the world needs these moonshots more than ever.” TIME magazine recognized the Tidal platform as one of the Best Inventions of 2023 in its sustainability category.

About Tidal: 

Tidal is a leader in smart aquaculture technology with a suite of novel AI-based tools to enable sustainable and resource-efficient aquaculture through unprecedented visibility and insights into pens. Founded as a project at X, the moonshot factory (formerly Google[x]), Tidal is backed by several investors, including Perry Creek Capital, Ichthus Venture Capital (IVC) owned by Kverva, Futurum Ventures, and Alphabet. The company is headquartered in Silicon Valley and has operations in Norway. More information can be found at their website tidalx.ai.