Based out of Cape Town, this incubator is fostering a multitude of innovative ways to protect our oceans.
7 questions with Alexis Grosskopf, CEO of Ocean Hub Africa
Ocean Hub Africa is an ocean-impact accelerator, providing business and product development services to startups geared towards cleaning up our oceans. Ours to Save spoke to CEO Alexis Grosskopf about working to change minds in tourism and shipping, biomimicry, and finding your purpose in life.
How successful have you been in your mission to support ocean-focused startups so far?
That depends on how you define success. We started with 30 applicants for our first cohort and we've gone up to just under 150 for the second cohort. In terms of inspiring entrepreneurs and getting more people interested in this ocean-impact space, it is growing.
We are seeing more proposals with higher-level technology coming our way. There’s also more private capital going into sustainable ocean growth.
1000 Ocean Startups is something we are a part of, which brings together people who focus on sustainable life below water and positive ocean impact. We know the deadline is 2030 and we are running out of time.
Catalysing partnerships is important because oceans belong to everyone. If someone does something wrong in Panama, it can have an impact in the UK. We need to come together to see success. Especially with the first IPCC report in 2019, we see that looking after our oceans is a high priority for climate change.
You currently support startups across Africa with a goal to protect oceans around the world. Would you ever expand beyond the continent?
Our coalition, 1000 Ocean Startups, is an international one – but we are mainly looking at helping and growing African-based startups.
We don't see anyone else as competitors as they are usually ecosystem based, and our programme can still be used in other parts of the world, but our expertise is around the African economy and the blue ocean.
Your network is your net-worth so it is important we keep connected to what we know to see sustainable growth
Could you tell us about your work with Dassault Systèmes and how they are supporting Ocean Hub Africa’s mission?
Dassault Systemes provides a platform on the Cloud to our entrepreneurs, allowing them to design and virtually test prototypes before building them and putting them in the ocean. This saves money and means we know the product works before implementing them. Without this testing beforehand, the prototype could break.
https://www.ourstosave.com/p/7-questions-with-alexis-grosskopf
