Stockholm (NordSIP) – According to the Asian Development Bank (ADB), there is a US$5.5 trillion funding gap in the Asia Pacific region, undermining our ability to meet the 2030 targets of the fourteenth sustainable development goals (SDG14 – Life Below Water). While investment in ocean start-ups in the region has doubled, reaching US$400 million between 2020-2024, it still represented a small fraction of the US$10.2 billion in Blue economy VC investment that took place during the same period. Given the vast water resources available in the region, much more can be done.
To address these concerns, OCTAVE Capital and Katapult Ocean announced the launch of the Asia Ocean Fund, an impact investment vehicle targeting US$75 million. This fund was formally introduced at IMPACT WEEK 2025 in Singapore on 18th September 2025, marked by the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two organisations.
The fund will invest in Asian and Pacific private ventures and will be directly co-managed by Katapult Ocean and OCTAVE Capital. The two asset managers will form an investment and accelerator team to manage the fund 50/50, host accelerator programs and do ecosystem-building and field-building in the region.
“Asia’s blue economy holds immense promise, but what’s been missing is the bridge between innovation and capital,” said Jonas Skattum Svegaarden, CEO of Katapult Ocean. “The Asia Ocean fund is that bridge—de-risking early-stage ventures, attracting broader investment, and empowering entrepreneurs and the Asian ecosystem to drive the global transition towards a thriving ocean economy. We’re proud to co-manage this pioneering eff ort with OCTAVE Capital,” Svegaarden adds.
The Asia Ocean Fund is to be established in Singapore and denominated in Singapore dollars. The fund will follow ordinary cross-border passporting and marketing rules, while targeting large financial institutions, family offices, foundations and UHNW/HNW investors, but not retail investors. However, the fund has not yet been formally passported. The plan is for the fund over 40 investments over the next 5 years, with a target minimum of 15% to 20% net IRR.
“Oceans are a shared global lifeline and an investment frontier for regeneration. Asia is at the frontline of both challenges and opportunities. By channelling capital into ocean solutions here, investors can unlock growth while tackling urgent environmental and social needs,” May Liew, CEO and Executive Director of OCTAVE Capital says. “With Katapult Ocean, OCTAVE Capital is harnessing our maritime roots and systems perspective to build an investment platform that restores, not extracts,” Liew continues.
The fund aims to catalyse scalable solutions tailored to Asia’s unique ocean challenges and potential and focuses on six key sectors: maritime decarbonization, ocean renewable energy, green shipping infrastructure, ocean biodiversity and restoration solutions, circular resources, and sustainable aquaculture and marine biotechnology.
“These target sectors are the same as those for the global Katapult Ocean investment strategy, which includes investments such as Flocean¹, Hullbot², Full Circle Bio³. We see a variety of water technologies that create investment opportunities in the region, including desalination, waste management, and air capture, among others. These can help us target improvements in drinking water as well as wastewater management, infrastructure for small island developing states (SIDS) and the management of polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), also known as forever chemicals,” Svegaarden tells NordSIP.
Discussing sustainability metrics and performance tracking for the Asian Ocean Fund, Svegaarden points to the Ocean Impact Navigator framework, co-created by Katapult Ocean, which is open sourced with the 1000 Ocean Startups Coalition. The framework covers 30 foundational ocean health KPIs that start-ups can use to report impact, including volume of biomass preserved or restored, volume of primary micro-plastics diverted from nature (or landfill), area of coral reefs protected or restored, GHG emissions reduced or avoided, length of coastline protected, and number of jobs created.
¹ Flocean is a business that works with desalination to transform seawater into drinking water. It has received investments from Norway’s Nysnø Climate Fund.
² Hullbot is a company founded in Australia which provides cleaning services for the hull of maritime vessels with the hope of decreasing fuel consumption.
³ Full Circle Bio is a Thailand-based company producing alternative feed for aquaculture.
