LISAqua

About LISAqua

LISAqua, established in Nantes, France, in 2018, is a deep-tech company addressing the environmental concerns of conventional aquaculture. The founding team combines diverse expertise: Charlotte Schoelinck, who holds a PhD in Marine Biology and originated the idea; Caroline Madoc, an engineer from Mines de Paris; and Gabriel Boneu, an entrepreneur from HEC Paris. Schoelinck's initial concept was sparked during her postdoctoral work in Canada, where she observed the heavy reliance on antibiotics and the environmental pollution from traditional aquaculture, inspiring her to adapt a marine co-culture system to a land-based, closed-loop model.

The company's core business revolves around its patented "permaquaculture" technology, an indoor, closed-circuit system that co-cultures shrimp with microorganisms and marine invertebrates. This symbiotic approach recreates a marine ecosystem where the waste from the shrimp is naturally processed and valorized by the other organisms in the system, which can then be used in animal feed. This methodology allows LISAqua to produce fresh shrimp with a "triple-zero" guarantee: zero antibiotics, zero polluting discharge, and zero preservatives. Furthermore, the system saves 99% of water compared to conventional shrimp farming and helps preserve natural mangrove ecosystems, which are often destroyed for traditional shrimp ponds.

LISAqua operates on a direct-to-market business model, selling its fresh, locally-raised shrimp to fishmongers and high-end restaurants in the surrounding region. The company began commercializing its first shrimp in 2019 and, after five years of research and development, launched its first production farm in Saint-Herblain (Nantes), with an annual capacity of 10 tons. The product is priced competitively with high-end organic and Label Rouge shrimp imports. Looking ahead, LISAqua is scaling its operations significantly. The company is developing its largest farm to date in the Greater Paris region, slated for 2025, which will have a capacity of 500 tons per year. This new facility will employ an industrial ecology model, using waste heat from a household waste treatment plant to maintain the optimal water temperature for the shrimp, further reducing its environmental footprint. The long-term vision is to establish a network of these urban-adjacent farms near major European cities, aiming for a cumulative production of 10,000 tons annually by 2030 and disrupting the market currently dominated by frozen imports.