The fund aims to help close the SDG 14 funding gap in Asia by investing into early-stage and growth companies in sectors such as maritime decarbonisation and sustainable aquaculture.
Norwegian impact investor Katapult and Singapore-based impact investment firm OCTAVE Capital have partnered to launch a $75m (€63.5m) Asia Ocean Fund.
The fund, whose launch was announced today at an impact investor conference taking place in Singapore, will be co-managed by the two fund managers focusing on both early-stage investments as well as scale-up opportunities in Asia across a range of sectors. It aims to reach first close by the first half of next year.
Jonas Skattum Svegaarden, CEO of Katapult’s ocean business, which already manages four ocean-focused impact funds, including the $50m Katapult Ocean Deep Blue Fund, said that this is the first ocean fund aims at driving systemic impact in Asia.
“There are niche Asian aquaculture funds and maritime funds, but no one has really looked systemically at driving impact across Asia’s blue ocean economy, until now,” said Skattum Svegaarden.
The fund will target both Asian investors, including shipping and maritime corporates, family offices, foundations, and mission-driven investors, and global investors interested in gaining exposure to Asia’s blue economy. Its aim is to help close the $5.5trn financing gap in the Asia Pacific needed to meet SDG14: Life Below Water targets by 2030.
“We created the strategy as a response to vast amounts of capital in the region eager to invest in the ocean on a regional basis. There are many family offices and philanthropic capital that we are hoping to steer towards impact investing.
“In northern countries like Japan and Korea, there are also a lot of corporate venture capital (CVC) funds and institutional investors that we think this could interest,” said Skattum Svegaarden, giving the example of the CVC MOL PLUS, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Japanese Mitsui O.S.K. Lines’ one of the largest shipping companies in the world and an existing investor in Katapult’s Ocean Deep Blue Fund.
Partnership with OCTAVE Capital
OCTAVE Capital is part of Tsao Pao Chee, a purpose-led family business with several subsidiaries, which Skattum Svegaarden explained has significant impact investment as well as maritime expertise.
“The owner Chavalit Frederick Tsao and his family have been engaged in impact investing for a long time. They also have a family foundation, social impact and wellness funds and a significant footprint in the maritime sector through the IMC Industrial brand,” he said referring to the specialist shipping, logistics, and marine engineering services company, also based in Singapore.
“Overall, they have a great reputation in Asia and a large business network,” said Skattum Svegaarden, explaining that Katapult has coinvested in the past with the company and its subsidiaries.
“Katapult Ocean on the other hand brings expertise in ocean impact investing as well as a global network of investors. In the last few years, we have also picked up a good network in Asia, which will be complementary,” he added.
Asia’s blue economy
According to Katapult, Asia’s ocean sector is unparalleled in scale and importance, producing most of the world’s seafood, managing over two-thirds of global maritime trade, and supporting millions of livelihoods. At the same time, the region faces urgent climate and sustainability risks, which Katapult said makes accelerated investment essential for food security, decarbonisation, resilience, and the global transition to a new blue economy.
“Asia is the world’s most populous continent with some of the richest biodiversity on Earth but it also faces the biggest challenges, whether that’s from plastic pollution, food insecurity or large unregulated industries, but all this presents an enormous opportunity too,” said Skattum Svegaarden, adding that an additional issue was that the ecosystem of impact driven entrepreneurs is very fragmented.
“We want to see mission-driven solutions to some of these challenges being developed across countries and regions. This will help to speed up the systemic shift towards a more sustainable ocean economy,” he added.
The six themes targeted by the fund will include maritime decarbonisation, ocean renewable energy, green shipping infrastructure, ocean biodiversity and restoration solutions, circular resources, and sustainable aquaculture and marine biotechnology.
Investment distribution
The fund will allocate 25% of capital raised to seed stage companies who will join Katapult’s accelerator programme in the first half of 2026 with the aim of making around 20 investments over five years. Average ticket sizes will range between $150,000 and $500,000.
The remaining 75% of investments will be aimed at series A and series B companies to support the scale-up of their business and impact with investments ranging from $1.5 to $4m.
The fund aims to hold around 60 investments when fully invested.
