South Africa-based OceanHub Africa offers accelerators for African startups addressing ocean pollution and restoring marine ecosystems. It has rolled out a new financing initiative, the Blue Loop Facility, to provide interest-free loans to companies in its accelerator cohorts.
Blue Loop will write checks of $30,000 to $80,000 to two dozen startups working on sustainable seafood production, ocean energy, circularity, and low-carbon transportation and ports. The Coca-Cola and DOEN foundations anchored the fund.
Blue economy
Investing in ocean health is one of the least funded sustainable development goals but it’s quickly gaining attention (see, “These young entrepreneurs aren’t giving up on the climate or the oceans”). In Africa, OceanHub has supported more than 30 startups in 23 countries, including Kenya-based Kuza Freezer, which provides solar-powered refrigeration for small-scale fish farmers; and Reef Pulse on Reunion Island, which provides coral reef data and monitoring.
