Starting with any relevant education, walk me through the twists and turns of your career to date? How did one opportunity lead to the next + what was the key takeaway/ experience in each role + how did this lead you to where you are now)
I am an academic who following my degree, PhD and several fellowships settled down to a lectureship in the University of the West of Scotland (UWS) which after several years led to a professorship. During this time, I was very fortunate to have had lunch with a fish farmer (Stuart Cannon in Kames fish farm) and was shocked to hear that aquaculture (fish farming) was still reliant on lethal histopathology to assess the health of their animals (i.e. they had to kill the fish to assess how health it was!!!). Although I had no aquaculture experience, we discussed the idea of using the biochemical techniques used in environmental toxicology and applying them to assess fish health in aquaculture, which led to a grant application that was awarded by the Sustainable Aquaculture Innovation Centre (SAIC) in Scotland.
I was extremely fortunate to recruit an excellent scientist and vet (Dr Josip Barisic) as the post doc for this project and together we developed this idea of using blood-based biomarkers to assess fish health in aquaculture. Following several research projects where we investigated, developed, and validated our approach, we spun out WellFish Tech from UWS in 2021. When we undertook the initial research, it was not with the intention of commercialisation or setting up a company, but as the work developed it became apparent that the aquaculture industry was looking for a tool like this, so it seemed like a logical progression to establish the company. I suppose the key learning was to listen to people and ask them what their needs are, and to be open to apply your science to a different field as I had no background in aquaculture.
What was the pivotal moment that put you on your current founder path?
Definitely having lunch with Stuart Cannon, MD of Kames Fish Farming, in 2016 and realising that the science that I have been working on to that date could be applied into a new approach of measuring fish health in aquaculture. Stuart was very supportive of this approach and has been involved in several of our research projects funded by the Sustainable aquaculture Innovation Centre (SAIC) in Scotland. Pivotal to the success of this novel approach was the post doc who was responsible for the scientific development of blood-based fish health assessment Dr Josip Barisic, who is now our R&D manager. As the research progressed, I participated in the Scottish Enterprise High Growth Spinout Programme in 2020, which was hugely helpful in making the move from academic research to developing a commercial proposition. It was then with the support of UWS that we realised that we had the potential to develop this research idea into a company.
I participated in the Scottish Enterprise High Growth Spinout Programme in 2020, which was hugely helpful in making the move from academic research to developing a commercial proposition.
Can you provide a quick summary of the technology/ area of innovation and its potential application?
Quite simply, we have applied or repurposed human/veterinary blood-based clinical chemistry methods to assess the health of fish (primarily salmon and trout) in aquaculture. Sounds simple enough, but the issue was that when we started there were no established background levels for the various endpoints we were investigating. So, we needed to establish these to enable clinical interpretation. Previously fish health was based on histopathology, a lethal method, used on low sample numbers that can be relatively slow, labour intensive and costly. Using non-lethal blood sampling we can facilitate more frequent, larger sample numbers to enable continuous and more representative fish health monitoring. This generates significant amounts of data and enables the early identification of a health challenge and helps the farmers to make production decisions better suited to the fish. More recently we are applying AI and machine learning to our database to provide additional insights to help the farmer increase productivity while improving fish welfare.
What stage are you at?
WellFish Tech was spun out of UWS in September 2021 and was revenue generating by November that year. We closed our initial seed round in February 2022 which carried us through to our Series A round which closed in August 2023. We are currently growing the team (18 people), have recently expanded into Norway and Canada and are on a high growth trajectory.
Discuss the biggest challenges of getting to this point? With the benefit of hindsight, what would you have done differently if anything?
I think with hindsight we should have focused on our digitisation earlier than we have. But it’s a catch 22 as you need the data before you exploit it… We are on this path now but would benefit if we had started down the path 6-9 months ago.
How have you approached funding?
Although as an academic I am very familiar with the process of writing grant proposals for research grant funding, approaching investors (particular for seed funding) required quite a different approach. I was fortunate that while working with UWS towards spinout we involved DC consulting to help with our investment raise whose advice was invaluable. While raising funding we were always open and honest with potential investors and never oversold our proposition.
Have there been any pivot points in the company’s lifetime? What triggered these? Has the value proposition changed?
Although we have not had any pivots away from our initial offering the company and our products has grown and developed since our initial spinout. Like anything in life, the company develops in a series of stages ranging from your initial set up/spinout (chaos), to building your customer base and generating data to developing your offering (semi-chaos), to growing the team (organised chaos) to where we are now which is using these ingredients (team, data, and customers) to further develop our product offering (post-chaos). So, our proposition has not changed or pivoted, but evolved and become more sophisticated as the company has grown.
What has been the greatest source of help/ guidance along the way?
...the greatest source of help and guidance throughout this journey has been our partners, collaborators, and customers in the aquaculture industry...
Without question the greatest source of help and guidance throughout this journey has been our partners, collaborators, and customers in the aquaculture industry, particularly in Scotland. Knowing very little about the industry when we started this journey in 2016, we have focused on their needs to guide the development of the company. We have also been extremely fortunate to have developed an excellent team within WellFish each of whom make a huge contribution and are fundamental to our success.
Best advice you’d pass on to other founders?
Three things: 1. Spend your money appropriately, particularly when acquiring professional services. We worked with DC consulting (Dundee) and MBM (Edinburgh) for our accountancy and legal services. Although neither of these were the cheapest option, they have both provided excellent advice (particularly at spinout) and helped us build our board. 2. Build a strong board; we have been fortunate to have a strong board who provide excellent advice and guidance, particularly when the company is in its early stages. 3. Don’t be afraid to admit what you don’t know and to ask for advice. Providing advice is one of the duties of your board, so use them. As it was my first time setting up a company there is a huge amount I didn’t know, so seek help where needed.
What do you think are broadly the biggest needs and opportunities in the Animal Health and Petcare markets?
My experience in animal health is restricted to aquaculture, an area that many of your readers may not be familiar with. Salmon aquaculture is a fascinating industry, primarily because you are rearing livestock in an environment that can be extremely hostile and changes twice a day with the tide. I think one of the key challenges for the industry is to increase biomass under the production licences that are currently available to sustain the growth forecasted for the industry. This will involve maximising production yield, an area we have actively contributing towards.
...digitisation and the extended use of AI in the assessment of fish heath will have a significant impact on aquaculture in the future.
What’s going to have the single biggest impact on change in your area of the market?
As with most industries I think digitisation and the extended use of AI in the assessment of fish heath will have a significant impact on aquaculture in the future. Given the huge volumes of data that exist in aquaculture the key is to identify and exploit the relevant data to provide the most valuable insights. WellFish Tech are well on the path down this road and have identified huge potential in this area.
What do the next two years have in store for you?
Grow, grow, grow! Although we are continuously improving our fish health offering and the production-based insights that we provide to our customers, our key objective for the next 2 years is to grow the company. We are well established in Scotland and have recently established the company in Canada and Norway, with growth in the Norwegian market being our number one priority. We are also continuously developing our database and shall be increasing our presence in other non-salmon aquaculture markets. All of this will be facilitated by our continued digitisation and platform development designed to meet the needs of our customers. It will be a busy few years ahead, but super exciting.
