Blue Economy

The Blue Economy, or ocean economy, describes the economic activity tied to the oceans and seas. The World Bank defines it as the "sustainable use of ocean resources to benefit economies, livelihoods and ocean ecosystem health", and the European Commission as "all economic activities related to oceans, seas and coasts". It spans a wide range of interlinked established and emerging sectors. The Blue Economy has existed for millennia and formed the base for much of human civilisation, but current economic trends have been rapidly degrading ocean resources. In response, a new generation of startups is emerging to tackle the ocean's potential for sustainable resource production and climate change mitigation. We break the Blue Economy down into 10 segments and over 30 sub-segments.

The Blue Economy is not one market. It spans everything from capital-heavy shipping, ports and offshore renewable energy to early-stage ocean biotech and observation software, and the capital profile changes completely across that range. Reading a single Blue Economy funding chart without this split tends to blur very different markets together.

Blue Economy venture capital is concentrated in a handful of ecosystems. The map below has a long tail, but a few hubs explain most of the global total.

We break the Blue Economy into 10 segments and over 30 sub-segments. Each has a very different capital profile, maturity and set of leading companies. Below is a closer look at where the venture capital has gone and the startups defining each segment.

The Blue Economy startup ecosystem is still in its early days, held back not only by low awareness but by structural barriers specific to the ocean. At the same time, a wave of public initiatives and cluster organisations is building the scaffolding a private ocean-tech market needs.