Aquaculture AI business Tidal will use its new investment to "establish an even stronger base in Norway and expand to new geographies Chile and Australia," it said in a statement to Undercurrent News.

As previously reported, Tidal is now backed by Perry Creek Capital, Futurum Ventures, and the new Norway-based Ichthus Venture Capital (IVC), launched by SalMar's largest shareholder Kverva.

Tidal has spent the past six years developing and scaling novel underwater perception technology to help revolutionize the aquaculture space, it said. In July, it launched as an independent company from "X, the moonshot factory" (formerly Google X), Alphabet’s innovation engine.

Tidal has partnered for years with salmon farming businesses such as Mowi, combining "deep-rooted knowledge of fish farming with Tidal’s expertise in AI, underwater robotics, and data science."

"The result is Tidal’s patented and commercially available underwater camera system and software platform, installed across more than 250 pens globally."

The system allows farmers to track real-time growth and estimate harvest results, monitor and act early on fish welfare trends, act decisively in response to sea lice pressure, and feed fish with the industry’s first fully integrated AI-powered autonomous
feeding capability, it claims.

"We see huge potential in the value that Tidal can offer farmers. Based on our deep industry knowledge and understanding, we are confident in Tidal’s capabilities and ability to succeed and provide solutions for key challenges and de-bottleneck growth opportunities within the aquaculture industry,” said Mats Malvig, managing director with IVC.