Announcing Our Investment in Coast 4C

Tessa Charupatanapongse and Bernice Tang of Potato Impact Partners with Coast 4C (C4C) team members, including co-founders Nick Hill and Amado Blanco, and C4C partner farmer Nang Asteria, during their visit to C4C’s operations in the Danajon Bank area, the Philippines.

We are pleased to announce our recent investment in Coast 4C, a Philippine-based company building the world’s largest supply of quality, responsibly-sourced regenerative seaweed and 2024 Earthshot Prize finalist. Through the funding, we joined existing Coast 4C investors Conservation International Ventures, Rumah Group & Foundation, Rising Tide Investment, and Hatch Blue, seeking to drive social, environmental and economic benefits in Southeast Asia.

With its diverse applications in yield-boosting biostimulants, methane-reducing animal feed, and marine habitat restoration, tropical red seaweed is on track to become a high-value, high-impact solution for food security and ocean health. However, Southeast Asian coastal seaweed farms that produce tropical red seaweeds struggle to maintain sustainable levels of productivity and meet growing demand, with their pain points being a lack of quality seedlings and inefficiencies in the seaweed supply chain. Coast 4C’s solution? Transitioning coastal communities from traditional to regenerative farming.

Coast 4C is dedicated to building economically and environmentally regenerative farmer communities and improving their livelihoods. Through their GROW program, Coast 4C provides smallholder seaweed farmers with technological support to help them transition from traditional to regenerative farming practices, which has led to a 4x yield increase and 25% improvement in their seaweed crop quality. They also equip coastal communities with growth strategies they need to sell quality seaweed at competitive price points, thus serving the financial needs of both farmers and buyers. 

“We are impressed by Coast 4C’s unique experience and model in Southeast Asia of partnering smallholder communities to farm regenerative seaweed in integrated Marine Protected Areas, while deploying supply chain and monitoring technologies to access higher-value markets at scale,” said Bernice Tang, Impact Lead at Potato Impact Partners. “This way, coastal communities can prosper and gain resilience, and the ocean is protected–fitting our focus on sustainable systems and patient capital that prioritize long-term impact over short-term gains.”

Coast 4C’s unique model allows them to directly support farmers on the ground while scaling their business and achieving long-term impact.

Coast 4C’s focus on strengthening the seaweed supply chain is vital, and their approach—integrating regenerative farming, enhanced livelihoods for local communities, and a reduction in environmental impact—aligns well with Potato Impact Partners’s investment thesis. The investment will directly support the growth of Coast 4C’s initiatives in the Philippines, enabling them to scale their business model while maximizing their positive impact on Southeast Asian coastal communities. 

“We're delighted to welcome Potato Impact Partners as an investor and partner as we continue to transform the tropical seaweed industry to solve one of the ocean's biggest opportunities and challenges,” said Nicholas Hill, CEO and Co-Founder of Coast 4C. “It is critical that we build the right team and partners who are mission aligned and can bring expertise to help propel us forwards, and Potato Impact Partners are a fantastic addition alongside our existing investors. We look forward to building a regenerative seaweed industry together.”

Coast 4C supports coastal farmers’ livelihoods in the Philippines.

With impact at the core of their mission, co-founders Nicholas Hill and Amado Blanco, as well as Geraldine Johns-Putra, Kevin Li, and the rest of the extensive Philippines operations team at Coast 4C, are on an endeavor to create meaningful change in coastal communities throughout the Philippines. We are proud to support their mission, and look forward to backing their work towards scaling regenerative seaweed farming and boosting coastal resilience in Southeast Asia.

Potato Impact Partners (PIP) is an impact investor spurring positive contributions to food security, climate action, and the resilience of coastal communities through investments in sustainable seaweed innovation.