Impact Lead Bernice Tang Speaks at Canada-In-Asia Conference 2025 in Singapore

From left to right: Bernice Tang of Potato Impact Partners and Bill Collins of Cascadia Seaweed at the Canada-In-Asia Conference. © Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada

Our Impact Lead, Bernice Tang, attended the third annual Canada-In-Asia Conference, which took place in Singapore on February 19-21, to speak on Connecting Ocean and Blue Economy Innovators in Asia and Canada. Joining a panel of leaders of innovation institutions, Bernice explored how ocean investors such as Potato Impact Partners can support and catalyze increased collaborations in blue economy innovation between Asia and Canada. She was also joined by Bill Collins, CEO of our portfolio company Cascadia Seaweed, for a discussion on emerging opportunities to leverage AI in the ocean space for increasing economic opportunity and mitigating risk to ocean ecosystems. 

Hosted by the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada and Universities Canada, CIAC2025 brought together over 700 innovators, thought leaders, and policy-makers to further collaborative partnerships between Canada and Asia. 2025's conference addressed cross-cutting themes and ideas for business innovation, including global challenges such as implementing sustainable investment in ocean tech, agri-food, and energy.

Among the key points we covered:

• Crises are a prime birthing ground and catalyst for innovation. Given the urgent challenges facing our world today, Potato Impact Partners seek out to support early-stage companies that create innovative solutions to existing problems, the most urgent, for us, being food insecurity and the devastating effects of climate change.

  
  

• Seaweed-based biostimulants, for example, complement regenerative farming practices by boosting crop yields and resilience, as well as restoring soil health. This enables reduced reliance on industrial inputs that pollute and degrade our land and oceans.

  
  

• Climate change is also impacting the oceans. Waters are getting more acidic and heating up; water levels are fast rising – threatening fish and other marine populations, ocean biodiversity and health, as well as coastal communities’ livelihood and survival.

  
  

• The seaweed sector plays a vital role in the transition towards a more sustainable and resilient global economy; specifically, high-innovation seaweed companies that disrupt the markets in terms of products, technologies, processes, and business models.

  
  

• Because of their innovative nature, however, the startups we support also tend to be relatively high-risk businesses that, despite their great potential, often struggle to get funding from mainstream funders.

  
  

• As impact investors, we support innovation with patient, long-term capital and commitment. It is this long-term approach that allows for the development of more complex and potentially transformative innovation.

  
  

• More innovative, alternative financing mechanisms have also begun to come into play, e.g., revenue-based financing, blended finance, impact-linked finance.

  
  

• We also maximise our network of strategic partners to leverage shared resources, expertise, and funding to further scale innovation and overcome hurdles. Key enablers include knowledge sharing, access to R&D experts, grants/technical assistance, navigating regulatory hurdles – all to enable the ocean ecosystem.

Bernice Tang with Connecting Ocean and Blue Economy Innovators in Asia and Canada participants, listed below in order from left to right. © Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada

The other participants on Connecting Ocean and Blue Economy Innovators in Asia and Canada included:

• Kendra MacDonald, CEO of Canada’s Ocean Supercluster

• Takashi Gojobori, Institute Director of Marine Open Innovation Institute

• Atsushi Sunami, President & CEO of Sasakawa Peace Foundation

• Amalia Widyasanti of Shepherd of the ASEAN Blue Economy Coordinating Task Force, Republic of Indonesia

• Yi Han Ng, Director (Innovation, Technology and Talent Development) and Chief Transformation Officer of Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore

Bernice Tang with Advancing the Blue Economy Through AI participants, listed below in order from left to right. © Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada

The other participants on Advancing the Blue Economy Through AI included: 

• Bill Collins, Director and Founding Partner of Cascadia Seaweed

• Clinton Libbey, Co-Founder and Managing Director of Kumi Analytics Pte Ltd

• Prasad Nair, Director of Business Development - Geointelligence at MDA Space

• Rajmanohar (Raj), Founder and CEO of Aquaconnect

It was a pleasure to join leaders of Canadian and Asia-based blue economy institutions in sharing experiences and strategies to catalyze Canada-Asia collaboration in ocean innovation.

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.