A Week of Celebration: SeaAhead Celebrates Five Years and World Oceans Day

Co-founders Mark Huang (left) and Alissa Peterson (right) being presented with SeaAhead’s birthday cake (held by Liam Van Fleet).

Happy World Oceans Day to all our readers! The UN has announced the theme for 2023 as “Planet Ocean: Times Are Changing” which is consistent with SeaAhead’s mission of rocking the boat in the world’s ocean economy. 

Following the celebration of our 5th birthday on Tuesday, June 6th, we at SeaAhead would like to take this opportunity to reflect. Since our founding in 2018, we have hosted three BlueSwell cohorts and graduated 19 companies from this program. Our Mississippi-based Gulf Blue Navigator program also graduated its first cohort of six post-pilot startups. Additionally, 24 investments have been made via our Blue Angels investor group since 2020 while our list of corporate partners and global affiliates has grown exponentially. 

The 100+ bluetech startups we have supported have gone on to make waves in ocean data, sustainable food, climate tech, and beyond. Our community has raised over $17 million in the sustainable ocean industry–and as exciting as this is– we know there is still work to be done. 

By 2030, the blue economy will be valued at $3 trillion and support 40 million full-time jobs. The number of impact-driven ocean startups is expected to increase concurrently by 91 percent. This means SeaAhead’s job is far from over. So we now set our sights on the future and all the unknown opportunities it brings. 

We would like to express our gratitude to everyone who has made SeaAhead’s journey possible. Additionally, we would like to thank the National Philanthropic Trust (NPT) which has helped support our Blueswell incubator, a collaborative project with the New England Aquarium. 

Check out their new video which highlights this project and SeaAhead!