MIIN Member Spotlight - Konree Innovation

[Transcribed]

1. Introduce yourself and the organisation. What is your role and focus area?

Hello, I'm Margaret Rae. I'm the founder and CEO of Konree Innovation. Our focus area is in pests in fish aquaculture, and our initial target there is sea lice in salmon aquaculture. 

2. What is your organisation's unique selling point? Are you developing any new products or innovations?

Konree is a start-up, so everything is new for us and our product. Konree is developing a product to reliably manage and control sea lice in salmon aquaculture and its a deep-tech solution that we're developing. Sea lice are tiny little crustaceans that are parasitsed fish and in this instance, salmon, and like all parasites, basically, just the very nature of their biology and the way they do things, they can rampantly develop other ways of coping with different solutions that have been put against them. So, that's one of the greatest challenges about parasites. And so, in any case, it's sea lice for us and we're developing a deep-tech solution, as I said, to reliably manage and control them.

3. What do you see as the biggest opportunity for your company as part of Ireland's Marine Industry in the coming 5-10 years?

It's really - for us, it's all about fish aquaculture. And fish has a very, very low carbon footprint, compared to beef, or pork, or chicken. For instance salmon is about ten times less that of beef five times less that of pork, and one and a half times less that of chicken, and not a lot of people understand that. So there is big opportunity for the industry itself, in Marine Industry Ireland [Network] in terms of fish aquaculture and of course, alongside that come all the pests with it. That's where we see our opportunity.

We want to grow and develop that in Ireland. Of course, in Ireland fish aquaculture is at a small scale really, compared to globally. Globally, for instance, I think figures from 2020 tell us there was 135 billion worth of fish aquaculture. 15% of that is marine fish species and then the rest, 85%, are freshwater species. But no matter where you are, there are parasites, either in marine water or in fresh water, and that's where we want to be. So, we see ourselves growing beyond Ireland and looking, for instance, for salmon to Norway, Chile, Canada, Scotland, Faroe Islands, Iceland, and of course Australia and New Zealand as well.

Then, if you look on the freshwater side, there is food fish, of course, from freshwater, there's also recreational fish, sports fishing, that side of things, and then, of course, also there is the ornamental fish and in freshwater, there are also lice species, and that's where we want to be. So, we see ourselves growing beyond Ireland, and looking very much at those markets and presenting our solutions for those.

4. What is the biggest challenge, in your opinion, facing businesses like yours in the marine industry today?

Well I think awareness is one thing, and it's awareness with investment institutions about the marine and about the opportunities that the marine offers. There's been a lack of awareness of that in Ireland, generally speaking, but I think programmes like BIM's Innovation Studio, and I think of some of the fantastic marine companies that are here in Ireland, like XOCEAN and CATHX Ocean these are world-leading companies and they really inspire me, for instance. And I hope they inspire the investment side of things with angel investment and VCs [venture capitalists] as well to look more on the marine opportunities that are there.

So one is the awareness and then the second one, I think, as a challenge, would be climate change. Climate change is playing havoc everywhere and it will do more, so in a few years there's going to be a lot of flooding, but then there are also equal opportunities in terms of renewable energy and for us in Konree it means more marine in warmer waters. Warmer waters means that parasites are going to go beyond their current, let's say, geographical bounds and so they're going to infest other fish species - new hosts, in that regard. Also, theres going to be more, and different, sea-lice coming into our regions and that. So, it presents a lot of opportunities for us aswell.

Awareness, in the beginning, and climate change as well. These are both challenges here in Ireland.

5. Is there anything you would like to share with the network?

We're currently looking for engineering skills. We're looking for a Controls Systems Engineer, or a Mechatronic Engineer, who has a few years experience behind them and may be looking for something different.

Certainly, we're something different working in the marine environment and with fish aquaculture. Just pop on down to the ATU iHub in Galway, you can come look us up there, or you can find me on LinkedIn. Reach out if you're thinking about making a move. Give us a shout. We're a small team with big ambitions and there's plenty of travel opportunities with this as well. We're looking forward to harnessing your skills and your imagination.

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Where can we find more information about Konree Innovation?

Website: konreeinnovation.com
X: @KonreeBio
LinkedIn: Konree Innovation

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