ocean future impact fund

The fund invests in early-stage deep-tech companies across Europe and the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, which helps us transition towards a “New” blue  economy::

1. Unlocking Regenerative Blue Foods and Bio-Products: We can now produce food, ingredients, materials, aquanutrients, etc, by leveraging technology like synthetic biology, moving from extractive systems to ones that preserve and enhance aquatic life. 

2. Natural Carbon Cycles: We invest in the growth of marine carbon sequestration—using microalgae and other systems to transform CO2 into blue food & other value-added products, turning the ocean into a powerful, scalable climate solution.

3. Financing Ocean Regeneration: We invest in the transition from an extractive to a regenerative ocean economy by backing technologies that restore aquatic biodiversity.

Target sectors include deep tech that contributes to the regeneration of ocean ecosystems—such as alternative protein production, regenerative bio-economy solutions, and nature-based approaches to address climate change, biodiversity loss, and marine pollution.

By combining Beyond Impact’s international impact investment track record with UMITO Partners’ deep expertise in fisheries and marine ecosystems, and its on-the-ground APAC field networks, OFIF delivers a new model of blue finance that integrates competitive financial returns with measurable ocean impact.

The fund aims to simultaneously accelerate business growth in Europe and Asia while contributing to the restoration of ocean sustainability and strengthening its resilience.

The world’s oceans underpin climate, biodiversity, and global food security.
However, five crucial environmental impacts: —increased GHG emissions, coastal ecosystem degradation, overfishing, declining water quality, and marine plastic pollution—are accelerating the loss of marine ecosystems and biodiversity, decreasing fish stocks, and undermining ocean resilience.

At the same time, the ocean economy (excluding tourism,
shipping, and oil & gas) still represents a USD 750 billion market with significant potential for technological disruption.Breakthroughs in synthetic biology, precision fermentation, algae-based applications, and biomaterials are enabling sustainable alternatives across food, pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and materials sectors.

Yet, ocean-related technologies remain severely underfunded globally, including in Japan and Europe, where startups face significant barriers to capital, industry access, and commercialization, even though these countries are highly dependent on oceans for generating economic outputs.

In response, UMITO Partners and Beyond Impact designed OFIF as a fund that can simultaneously:

• Invest in technologies directly addressing ocean-related global challenges
• Connect innovations with real-world fisheries and coastal ecosystems in Japan and APAC to help them transition to a “New” blue economy.
• Bridge European cutting-edge science with Asia’s large-scale market potential

By integrating Beyond Impact’s global investment track record in bioeconomy solutions (including, but not limited to,
alternative proteins, advanced materials, and ingredients) and blue-bio investments with UMITO Partners’ deep expertise in oceans and its implementation capabilities and stakeholder networks, OFIF serves as a cross-regional hub for ocean innovation, linking Europe and Asia.

The fund was established to catalyze this “ocean-driven transformation” at the nexus of natural capital, food systems, and climate, and to help realize both ocean regeneration and sustainable industry growth.