Singapore -Japan based UMITRON has raised around SGD 15 million in their pre-series B round from ENEOS Holdings, QB II Investment Limited Partnership, Toyo Seikan Group, and other commercial banks by combining equity and debt finance. Combined with its Series A financing in 2018, Umitron has raised SGD 30 million With this funding, it will strengthen the business foundation of our existing and new services, accelerate overseas business development for salmon and shrimp farming, and increase collaboration with partners. The global services are:
â– UMITRON REMORA -an AI software service that can be installed in existing facilities at large-scale
aquaculture farms without needing additional equipment. The process is simple – farmers install the software on the computer they use at the aquaculture site and connect it to the existing cameras installed in fish pens. It has unique edge AI technologies to perform appetite analysis utilising the farm’s existing IT resources and does not require a stable communication environment or additional local servers. Furthermore, with real-time feed monitoring and dead fish detection capabilities, farmers now have a powerful tool to optimise their feeding protocols and better manage their production performance. Umitron has already introduced this service in most major salmon farming regions such as Northern Europe and South America and expect to expand the service in the future.
â– UMITRON EAGLE is the world’s first real-time AI analysis solution for shrimp farming. Despite undergoing significant growth, technological improvements have been limiting for shrimp producers, partly due to challenges overcoming poor water transparency and an increased focus on digital transformations in fish production. However, Umitron has created a product to assess shrimp production conditions using customised AI algorithms to track real-time biological conditions and other factors in highly turbid and intensive production environments. These include but are not limited to real-time appetite analysis, health and growth conditions, and biomass. Umitron is currently affiliated with Charoen Pokphant Foods (CPF), the world’s largest shrimp farmer, and will expand to Southeast Asia, India and China in the future.
â– UMITRON PULSE is a platform that utilises satellite remote sensing technology to acquire global high-resolution oceanographic data for aquaculture applications. Parameters include seawater temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen, chlorophyll concentration, wave height, winds, and currents. Regardless of species, small changes in the marine environment can significantly impact producer operations such as feed amounts and timing, harvesting and logistics. In addition, major events such as
harmful algal blooms can also cause mass mortalities or result in temporary farm closures due to health
safety concerns if not detected early. It currently provides a 48-hour forecast, the latest available location data, and two years of historical data, which can be used for long-term planning and risk mitigation. The service is already being used in more than 20 countries worldwide, including Europe, Southeast Asia, the Americas, and Oceania. We will continue to develop partnerships with global stakeholders with whom we can collaborate on big data analysis utilising long-term data.
Accelerating overseas business development
In addition to strengthening its existing business, Umitron intends to enhance the global development of the services mentioned above with this financing. The company has already formed multinational teams with diverse backgrounds in Singapore and Japan. Furthermore, it will further accelerate the establishment of local subsidiaries and business development in key salmon production regions such as Northern Europe and Chile, and in Southeast Asia, a major market and production hub for shrimp farming.
