EMPOWERING SEA CHANGE MAKERS & GROWING SOUTH FLORIDA’S BLUE ECONOMY
Seaworthy Collective is a 501c3 nonprofit that supports current, aspiring, and underrepresented entrepreneurs driving innovation for ocean and climate impact (AKA BlueTech). Our mission is to make BlueTech accessible and inclusive; bringing all hands on deck via programs to co-create and grow early-stage startups, build regional capacity, and educate our community.
We empower Sea Change Makers – diverse founders leading profitable and planet positive businesses addressing pollution, coastal resilience and adaptation, as well as greenhouse gas reduction and removal. Based in Miami, our local and global community generates scalable solutions for 71% of the planet (our ocean) to regenerate 100% of the planet.
Most solutions addressing climate change are terrestrially biased; focused on leveraging less than 30% of the planet (land) to try to solve a global problem. Even if we planted 1 trillion trees, we would only be able to capture up to 1/3rd of all human CO2 emissions to date. Despite being the planet’s largest absorber of heat and carbon, the oceans have largely been overlooked as an asset against climate change.
The greatest barriers we have to solving climate change and marine degradation aren’t technical. Instead, they are barriers to opportunity, implementation, and collaboration for people, solutions, and regions alike. Seaworthy Collective launched in 2020 to ensure planet-passionate people could access opportunities to overcome the systemic barriers to participation in the blue economy. We accomplish this via three program areas – Startup Programs, Community Programs, and Impact Investing.
Seaworthy’s Community Programs include The Sea Change Makers Series, The Sea Change Maker Fellowship with Miami Dade College, The Startup Showcase, and collaborative events. These programs build community engagement and educate diverse talent in ocean and climate impact innovation (AKA BlueTech), and have educated more than 5,000 people on BlueTech over 70+ events since 2021. The Sea Change Makers Series Panels and The Startup Showcase (our biggest bi-annual event) feature the diverse founders Seaworthy supports, growing their thought leadership and creating diverse role models for our community. Meanwhile, The Sea Change Maker Fellowship directly supports education and workforce development for underserved students, leading to a direct pathway to opportunity to develop their BlueTech ideas in our startup programs.
Seaworthy’s Startup Programs encompass both our flagship Startup Studio and Incubator as well as our community and network platform called The Shoreline. Each enables current and aspiring founders access to Seaworthy’s global network of 2,500 members, 250 mentors and collaborators, and investors with over $1 billion in combined assets, activating our community to co-create and grow early-stage startups. Seaworthy’s startup programs have supported 40 startups and 78 founders over five cohorts, who have raised over $10 million since graduating. Seaworthy is intentional on supporting underrepresented founders, with 70% of program participants identifying as female and/or diverse founders(BIPOC and/or LGBTQIA).
Seaworthy’s Impact Investment Vehicle, RegeneraSea, mobilizes philanthropic capital for investments in the startups and founders we support through our startup programs, driving equitable and exponential ocean and climate impact. Our mission related investments embrace philanthropic capital’s role in being risk-tolerant for the early-stage solutions we support, while also driving access to capital for underrepresented entrepreneurs. Seaworthy Collective serves as a lead investor in BlueTech companies that have been vetted by our startup programs, spurring startups to reach developmental milestones such as a first prototype, pilot, or minimum viable product. Most critically, this de-risks and catalyzes follow-on investments, unlocking the potential of our startup pipeline and accelerating the development of the BlueTech ecosystem.
Less than 0.3% of global philanthropic funding is allocated for ocean impact annually ($1.4-$2.8 billion), and 0.2% of global venture capital. As a result, Sustainable Development Goal(SDG) 14, Life Below Water, is the least funded of all 17 of the United Nations’ SDGs. The exponential challenges we face from a changing ocean and climate necessitate solutions that create more than incremental impact, driving lasting and effective positive change at scale. Seaworthy Collective is turning the tide on “change as usual” in traditional ocean philanthropy; unlocking the scale of innovation and entrepreneurship necessary to collectively reverse climate change and marine degradation.
Seaworthy Collective is an endorsed project of the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, an environmental partner for 1% For The Planet, and a member of the 1000 Ocean Startups Coalition as well as Ocean Visions’ Global Ecosystem for Ocean Solutions. Seaworthy has also been supported and recognized by Salesforce, Environment Next, and the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation and their Prize for Innovative Philanthropy. Seaworthy has received federal grants and recognition from the Department of Energy’s American-Made Energy Program for Innovation Clusters(EPIC) Prize, the Small Business Administration’s Growth Accelerator Fund Competition, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Ocean-based Climate Resilience Accelerators.
