ThisFish offers a software designed to improve seafood traceability and production efficiency in seafood processing plants and canneries. The company is improving the social, environmental and financial sustainability of the seafood industry by making supply chains more transparent and enabling consumers to make more informed choices.
Company overview
ThisFish is an emerging world leader of seafood traceability technology that improves business efficiency and increases trust and transparency in seafood supply chains. Their mission is to improve the social, environmental, and financial sustainability of seafood enterprises and fish harvesters by making seafood supply chains more transparent. The company provides user-friendly and cost-effective solutions for operators, large and small.
How it started
ThisFish Inc. was initially incubated and founded by Vancouver-based nonprofit Ecotrust Canada. Co-Founders Eric Enno Tamm and Steven Moon spun out ThisFish into a for-profit company in 2017 after developing proprietary Tally software in partnership with seafood processors in Indonesia and Vietnam.
Market position and competitive advantage
In the seafood industry today, the supply chain is fragmented. Both the cost and complexity of existing technology solutions have limited market adoption. As a result, paper record keeping and Microsoft Excel continue to dominate the market. With this market need in mind, ThisFish has developed software to improve industry compliance and make reporting more efficient. ThisFish’s Tally software is user friendly, can be installed within a week with minimal disruption, and is much more affordable than existing ERP systems.
Key accomplishments
Since launch, ThisFish has worked with fisheries and supply chain operators in Brazil, Chile, Belize, United States, Europe, Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand. The company has established themselves as global experts in building scalable technology solutions for seafood processing enterprises. A key partnership includes working with The Nature Conservancy and Conservation International. ThisFish has also recently joined Techstars Sustainability and is developing relationships with business mentors from the tech accelerator program.
Challenges and opportunities
ThisFish is focused on both expanding their team and market presence. Operations and sales are two key areas where the company is looking to recruit top talent. The team aims to scale the company with an operations leader to manage a diverse, distributed team, as well as a senior executive to further drive software sales.
Reason for competing
Winning the NVBC competition will provide further credibility around ThisFish’s solution, help connect the team with key partners to scale the business, and provide validation to direct next steps.
Five-year outlook
ThisFish is looking to scale up operations with seafood processors in the shrimp and tuna industry in Southeast Asia – primarily Vietnam, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines. They also aim to expand their presence in North America and continue to refine their technology to work with different types of seafood processors. ThisFish is currently testing off-the-shelf configurations and cloud-based servers for the small-scale sector in North America.
Company Team
Eric Enno Tamm, CEO & Co-Founder
Eric is recognized as a global leader in seafood traceability. He has more than 20 years of experience in commercial fisheries and seafood policy development. On top of that, he has 10 years of experience in digital marketing and communications. Eric was born and raised in a commercial fishing family in Ucluelet, carrying on a family legacy from many generations. He holds an enormous amount of technical knowledge on seafood processing and supply chains.
Steven Moon, CTO & Co-Founder
Steven has diverse expertise in electronics and software development. He was recently the Software Team Lead for Corvus Energy developing battery technology for marine propulsion and has worked for several Vancouver startups. He has more than 15 years of experience developing electronic hardware and software technologies in power, hydrogen fuel cell, and large-scale battery systems. Steve holds an Honors Diploma in Electronic Engineering Technology from Red River College, Winnipeg.
Vinay Balaji, Software Developer
Vinay worked for PricewaterhouseCoopers for a decade doing risk assurance and control solutions in Southeast Asia and the United States. He’s particularly strong in process control and has a Master’s degree in Management Information Systems from Indiana University. He graduated from CodeCorde as a full-stack developer and worked for Curatio.me before joining ThisFish.
Wanjohi Mugo, Engineer
Wanjohi was first hired as an engineer to run Ecotrust Canada’s electronic monitoring program for fisheries. He joined the ThisFish team after it was spun-out from Ecotrust. Wanjohi has experience living and studying in Southeast Asia, and comes to ThisFish with a strong background in electronics. He has a degree in electrical engineering from the University of Victoria and is focused on helping ThisFish integrate its software into factory hardware.
