What is the name of your solution?
Better Bioplastic Technology
Provide a one-line summary of your solution.
Improving the ocean’s health by replacing petroleum-based plastics with Viable Gear's seaweed-based Better Bioplastic Technology
In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?
Portland, ME, USAIn what country is your solution team headquartered?
What type of organization is your solution team?
For-profit, including B-Corp or similar models
Film your elevator pitch.
What specific problem are you solving?
Our rapidly changing oceans are negatively impacted by a number of human imposed stressors. Prime among them is petroleum-based plastic pollution, much of which comes from gear used in the fishing and aquaculture industries. Otherwise known as ‘ghost gear’, lost, discarded, and abandoned fishing and aquaculture gear is considered to be “the most harmful form of marine plastic debris”, existing indefinitely in the marine environment once lost, causing damage to marine species, and breaking down into toxic micro and nano-plastics that find their way into our food systems (GGGI & Ocean Conservancy, n.d.).
According to Eriksen et al., at least 5.25 trillion plastic particles are estimated to be floating around in the ocean (Eriksen at el., 2014). And, each year, more than eleven million metric tons of plastic add to that accumulation (Ocean Conservancy, n.d.). Ghost gear that comes from the fishing and aquaculture industries makes up between 75 and 86% of the macro-plastics in ocean gyres like the North Pacific Garbage Patch (Lebreton, L. et al., 2022). These figures will continue to increase, noting that it can take hundreds to thousands of years for petroleum-based plastics to fully degrade (KIMO International, 2010).
Ghost gear in macro-plastic form contributes to injury and death of marine species via entanglement. When subject to UV light and the ocean environment, these macroplastics further break down into micro and nano plastics that can be ingested by marine species and organisms. These micro and nano plastics also present a public health problem because humans ingest them when they consume fish and shellfish. Ingesting plastics can be carcinogenic and cause other long term health effects (Lee et al. 2023). Plastics contain toxic endocrine disruptor chemicals (EDCs), and when humans ingest them, the EDCs can disrupt hormones in ways that can lead to numerous adverse human health outcomes including alterations in sperm quality and fertility, abnormalities in sex organs, endometriosis, early puberty, altered nervous system function, immune function, certain cancers, respiratory problems, metabolic issues, diabetes, obesity, cardiovascular problems, growth, neurological and learning disabilities, and more,” (Endocrine Society, 2022). The scale and severity of this problem is especially relevant for the 3+ billion people who rely on seafood as their primary source of protein (World Wildlife Federation, 2023).
What is your solution?
Viable Gear strives to reduce the fishing and aquaculture industry’s contribution to the ocean plastic problem by manufacturing a marine compostable, 99.5% seaweed-based biopolymer to replace petroleum-based plastics, which can be used to make marine gear. While its innovative material - Better Bioplastic Technology - has a plethora of potential applications, Viable Gear's pilot product is a biotwine for the seaweed cultivation industry - commonly referred to as ‘seed string’ - that will replace traditional nylon twine essential in seaweed aquaculture today.
Seaweed nurseries are responsible for propagating seaweed spores by seeding them onto seed string in controlled conditions. Nurseries typically buy nylon tufting twine #9, Kuralon (a polyvinyl alcohol fiber), or some other cotton/nylon blend to use as seed string. From there, nurseries spin this string around a spool - typically a PVC pipe - and place that spool into a tank that simulates the ocean environment; within this setting, spores are released to attach onto the seeding string, where they are cultured until they reach a size that is suitable for out-planting in the marine environment (2 to 10 mm).
These “seed spools” are then sold to seaweed farmers (end users) who unfurl the spools around thicker “longlines” that are suspended underwater at their aquaculture lease site. As the kelp grows, its holdfasts grow around the longline which results in a secure attachment of the seaweed and ultimately renders the seed string obsolete. (A holdfast is a root-like structure at the base of the seaweed on the seedling line that fastens to the longlines.) However, since the lifespan of the nylon string is much longer than the approximately 6 - 9 month kelp farming season, during harvest the seed string must be stripped and hacked off the larger rope. This is a labor-intensive task and it produces bits of plastic that can be lost to sea.
By using Viable Gear’s marine degradable biotwine to replace the nylon twine in this process, the creation of microplastics from nylon/poly line that get in the ocean will not be a problem. When left at sea Viable Gear’s naturally derived seaweed-based bioplastic twine will biodegrade, preventing the potential for harm to marine species through ingestion of the plastic discards, and reducing the accumulation of toxic microplastics in the ocean. It also gives the harvesters more of the plant to sell including the holdfasts that would now be free of plastic fragments.
Seaweeds (marine macroalgae) are autotrophic organisms capable of producing many compounds of interest, and thus are a growing sector in the U.S. aquaculture industry (Grebe et al., 2019). As part of the new blue economy, Viable Gear provides a sustainable solution to plastic pollution caused by certain fishing and aquaculture equipment. It will help optimize advances in science and technology to create value-added (new use for kelp), data-driven economic opportunities (fully vetted seaweed-based twine manufacturing) and solutions to pressing societal needs (preserving ocean and human health).
Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?
Viable Gear produces products to improve the health of the ocean. On an immediate level, then, its target population is its customer base: ocean harvesters that, without Viable Gear’s technology, use petroleum-based plastic gear and equipment to source seafood for commercial sale, thereby perpetuating the global plastics crisis and the detrimental effects that ghost fishing causes to the marine environment. The value that ocean harvesters receive from choosing Viable Gear’s alternative solution over conventional plastic-based gear is the ability to make a living while simultaneously supporting the longevity of the ocean, which in effect secures the source of their livelihood: the fish in the sea.
This leads to an important secondary target stakeholder group for Viable Gear: marine animals. Ghost fishing is considered “the most harmful form of marine plastic debris” (GGGI & Ocean Conservancy, n.d.) for marine animals and marine ecosystems. Its nearly indestructible construction means it exists in the ocean for indefinite periods of time (Napper & Thompson, 2020), continuing to operate as a killing device long after its intended use as one, unselectively catching “wildlife, entangling marine mammals, seabirds, sea turtles, and sharks, subjecting them to a slow and painful death through exhaustion and suffocation” (Nicolas, 2020). On the contrary, when Viable Gear’s marine compostable alternative is inevitably lost, discarded, or abandoned in the ocean, the idea is that it will completely break down by microbes within a controlled timeframe and essentially disappear. Instead of existing in the marine environment for indefinite periods of time as discarded fishing gear made from plastic does, replacing the plastic in fishing and aquaculture gear with a marine compostable alternative would significantly reduce the negative and harmful impacts of ghost fishing to marine life.
But on a global scale, Viable Gear’s target population is humankind, particularly humans that rely on seafood as their main source of protein, and those that are disproportionately affected by toxic pollution from living near plastic production plants. Ingesting plastics through the consumption of seafood can cause hormone disruption in ways that can lead to numerous adverse and long lasting human health outcomes (Endocrine Society, 2022). Out of the water, by providing an alternative to plastic products in the fishing and aquaculture industries, Viable Gear seeks to reduce the production of plastic altogether, something that detrimentally impacts communities that exist in close proximity to plastic production facilities. In fact, the bulk of plastic production in the U.S. is concentrated in “low-income communities and communities of color in the Ohio River Valley, Texas, and Louisiana”; individuals living side-by-side these plastic production and petrochemical plants become disproportionately “sickened by cancer and other diseases that are linked to pollution at disproportionately high rates” (Beyond Plastics, 2024).
How are you and your team well-positioned to deliver this solution?
As a social enterprise, commercializing Viable Gear's innovation requires balancing its objective to create and scale impact with its imperative to achieve financial sustainability. This is a complex feat that requires a team with strong business acumen, and one that places great effort into understanding the problem that the company intends to address, which, in Viable Gear’s case, is plastic pollution.
Viable Gear is a woman-owned and led small business. Katie Weiler, Founder & President of Viable Gear, has over a decade of experience in management consulting, working with executive teams to build and implement a lasting strategy to drive change, build leaders, and grow companies. Weiler also has a background in strategic marketing. Before launching Viable Gear, Weiler was - and continues to be - an advocate for public health awareness with plastics and reducing plastics in day to day living, providing consulting services to individuals and companies interested in reducing their waste and plastic footprint. She is a leading voice in Maine in the fight against plastic pollution, serves on several boards, like Leadership Portland, Saltwater Classroom, and Hurricane Island School for Science and Leadership and is a founding member of Reuse Portland. Weiler is an active participant in the local community of blue economy innovators in Portland. Among other skills previously mentioned, Weiler’s innate abilities to connect and collaborate with others are key to Viable Gear’s commercialization phase and building a sales pipeline when products go to market.
As a former philanthropic consultant, Emma MacFarlane, Viable Gear’s Vice President of Operations, has experience in launching and scaling multi million-dollar non-profit projects, in managing team capacity to efficiently optimize business output, and in people and operations management. Bringing biodegradable fishing gear to the market as a strategy to combat plastic pollution caused by ghost fishing was the subject of Emma’s graduate dissertation while studying Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the London School of Economics, a project she completed just before joining Viable Gear. Passionate about the ocean’s health in an academic and professional sense, Emma is also a recreational ocean-goer; she resides in seaside Ventura, California where she is building community in the ocean, blue economy, and seaweed spaces.
The industries in which Viable Gear exists - bioplastics and seaweed cultivation - are growing but nascent. To create momentum and progress as we and others work toward similar goals, Viable Gear recognizes the power of partnerships. It is and will continue to partner with organizations and academic institutions to work with a diverse range of partners with different expertise and backgrounds to come together to create the best product that we can. Part of our goal is to help as many people as possible have access to a better, more sustainable material that will improve the health of our oceans and our food system.
Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?
Strengthen coastal and marine ecosystems and communities through the broader blue economy, including fisheries, clean energy, and monitoring, reporting, and verification.Which of the UN Sustainable Development Goals does your solution address?
What is your solution’s stage of development?
PrototypeWhy are you applying to Solve?
To address a problem like the plastic pollution crisis which is global in scope, and to work with others to harness momentum for this movement, Viable Gear needs to build a global network to match, noting that it cannot solve this problem on its own. Joining this program would enable Viable Gear to connect with MIT’s impressive, vetted, and wide-reaching network of change-makers across the world through its program offering and conference events.
Secondly, should it be selected for this award, Viable Gear would look to the program to help it develop the blueprint and connections for an appropriate Social Impact Bond structure to scale its business. Given the general nascency of both the bioplastics and seaweed cultivation market in the United States, Viable Gear’s production costs will be high to start, yet it must price its products competitively in the market to gain traction. It is considering pursuing an impact bond to leverage the capital required to reach economies of scale, and thus scale the company’s production and impact. An outcomes-based impact bond, in which an outcome funder (typically a government entity) authorizes a social service provider (Viable Gear) to achieve an outcome (reducing plastic pollution in the ocean); funding for the service delivery is provided by an an investor (TBD), who gets a return from the outcome funder if the outcome is met by the service provider.
Viable Gear is also pursuing quicker-to-market products with lower risk than products that go directly into the ocean and must withstand the elements of the sea. Connecting and working with diverse networks through this program can help Viable Gear identify these early to market product opportunities, a strategy that would generate revenue to support our continued R&D for marine gear and equipment product line.
Finally, Viable Gear is looking for technical legal guidance with respect to its trademarking and patenting strategies.
In which of the following areas do you most need partners or support?
Who is the Team Lead for your solution?
Katie Weiler
What makes your solution innovative?
Viable Gear’s Better Bioplastic Technology has the potential to disrupt the marine gear industry, replacing plastics with sustainable, compostable, seaweed-based bioplastic products derived from the ocean and returned to the ocean. From its biotwine, Viable Gear’s future product development opportunities include a variety of ropes, lines, nets, mesh, and other pieces of equipment currently made of plastic, making them safer for our oceans. Its material technology is also ripe for applications in agricultural equipment. As such, future product opportunities are vast, as are ensuing market opportunities, with use cases spanning gear across the maritime and land-based farming sectors. Viable Gear’s next product offering, for instance, will be a bait bag for the crab and lobster industries, followed by zip ties, a product that can be used by harvesters in the water and on land. Replacing even a small portion of the nearly 400 million metric tons of plastic produced (in 2021; World Bank, 2023) with Viable Gear’s Better Bioplastic Technology has the propensity to catalyze large-scale impacts, providing industries with a bioplastic alternative that is truly better for the earth, the ocean, and human health.
Viable Gear’s solution also supports the scaling of the seaweed cultivation industry, an industry that, outside of Asia which currently produces 98% of farmed seaweed by volume, is nascent but growing, and is known for its many environmental, economic, and social benefits: economically, seaweed cultivation fosters socioeconomic growth in “coastal communities where many traditional jobs - such as fishing - are in decline”; environmentally, “seaweed cultivation can fix carbon, improve water quality by absorbing excess nutrients such as nitrogen, provide a habitat for a variety of beneficial organisms, help to prevent coastal erosion, and provide a suite of other ecosystem services”; and finally, unlike resource-intensive processes like fossil-fuel based plastic production and the development of other bioplastics that use land-based biomass inputs like corn that require substantial amounts of land and fresh water to grow, “the use of farmed seaweed can have indirect benefits by mitigating or displacing more resource-intensive components”, as seaweed requires very few inputs to grow (World Bank, 2023).
From a competitive advantage perspective, Viable Gear’s differentiator with respect to other seaweed-based bioplastics companies - such as Sway, Keel Labs, Loliware, Notpla, and Kelpi - is that, at this point, Viable Gear appears to be the only company developing products for marine use; the others are focused on the textile and packaging markets. There are also other companies that are working on a biodegradable rope, such as B4Plastics, BioGears, Plantee, SEABIOPLAS, INDiGO, and others, yet none except Viable Gear are publicly developing biodegradable rope from seaweed.
Describe in simple terms how and why you expect your solution to have an impact on the problem.
Problem: Viable Gear’s Theory of Change starts with the problem it addresses: plastic pollution generated by ghost fishing. This type of pollution in particular threatens the viability of the ocean as a source of life for marine species, continuing to injure and kill marine animals - most of which were never meant to be
sourced from the sea for commercial profit in the first place - long after its intended use. This equipment - like all plastic pollution - exists indefinitely in the ocean environment once lost, abandoned, or discarded due to its plastic construction, breaking down into micro- and nano- plastics that can be ingested by marine animals; in the event that humans then consume those marine animals that have ingested plastics, humans can be negatively affected by the toxic chemicals that plastics often contain, posing a public health problem. Further, plastics are known to affect the acidity of the ocean when they break down, leaching chemical compounds into the water that cause a lowering of its pH (Institut de Ciences del Mar, 2022). In turn, this threatens the ocean as a source of livelihood for the people that depend on the sea and its bounty to make a living.
Activities: Viable Gear seeks to address the challenges caused by ghost fishing-induced plastic pollution primarily through the development of its Better Bioplastic Technology. Additionally, it plans to build out a sustainable online marketplace as a one-stop-shop for ocean and land-based harvesters, featuring other innovative companies that sell better products and plastic alternatives for the blue planet. Viable Gear will also develop a ‘seal’ that helps valorize an individual’s purchase of its technology, as confirmed through extensive customer discovery. Lastly, ongoing R&D and impact monitoring are critical for maintaining a sustained competitive advantage, particularly given the fledgling state of the bioplastics industry and its products; ongoing fundraising to support Viable Gear’s growth is critical to its success and ability to create positive impact in the world.
Outputs: These include 1) a patentable seaweed-based material as an alternative to petroleum-based plastic; 2) products existent in the market; 3) a functional marketplace for sustainable equipment; 4) a robust R&D and impact monitoring program.
Outcomes: On a local scale, Viable Gear’s innovation provides ocean harvesters a feasible and attractive option to purchase gear that is healthier for the ocean than what they have traditionally used reducing the rate of plastic pollution derived from fishing and aquaculture activities. On a global scale, replacing petroleum-based plastic gear with a naturally-derived, non-toxic, regenerative resource like seaweed improves the health of the ocean, an endeavor that promises to generate a wide swath of social, environmental, and economic ripple effects - or ecosystem services: increases fish stocks, de-acidifies marine water, provides employment for coastal communities, etc.
Impacts: Through its solution, Viable Gear hopes to cultivate a cleaner and healthier ocean, one that is safer and more sustainable for marine life to thrive, and as a viable source of food to feed humanity.
What are your impact goals for your solution and how are you measuring your progress towards them?
Viable Gear is joining the global movement to sever our reliance on the petroleum-based plastic economy, a necessary step to protecting the natural environment, including the ocean, on which we all depend. The bioplastics market is booming, a direct reflection of this collective societal shift, and Viable Gear is at the forefront of this industry, leading the way into uncharted but promising waters. The world needs bio-based material solutions that work in order for this movement to ramp up – Viable Gear strives to do just that.
Viable Gear’s solution will lower plastic pollution in the ocean by way of ghost fishing generated by the fishing and aquaculture industries. In doing so, the mortality rate of marine animals by ghost fishing should decrease, as should the amount of toxic microplastics released into the marine environment; in turn, this improves the health of the marine organisms that would otherwise ingest those toxic microplastics; it should also decrease the amount of microplastics that find their way into our food system through ingestion of seafood. Further, supporting seaweed cultivation should decrease ocean acidification, a process caused by carbon dioxide uptake and plastic degradation.
To that end, Viable Gear’s impact goals include the following:
Social: The provision of a greater number of solutions and incentives for individuals and industries to cultivate a higher standard for marine stewardship
Financial: A profitable financing model that sustains the activities of the social enterprise, enabling it to scale its impact.
Environmental: A cleaner and healthier ocean that is safer and more sustainable for marine life to thrive, and as a viable source of food to feed humans.
Some of the measurements Viable Gear needs to track include:
Decrease in rate of plastic pollution in the ocean from ghost gear;
Decrease in amount of toxic microplastics ingested by marine species, and by humans;
A growing number of incentives and solutions in the market (in addition to VG’s) for individuals and companies to cultivate a higher standard for marine stewardship
However, given the magnitude of the plastic pollution problem that Viable Gear addresses, measurement is definitely a challenge - tracking the rate of plastic pollution by ghost fishing requires an incredible amount of resources, time, and money that needs to be facilitated at the state or federal level, outside the realm of Viable Gear’s authority or capacities.
To mitigate this, Viable Gear is focusing on tracking measurements at a smaller scale, but ones that are still emblematic of wider change and impact. Viable Gear is in the process of applying, for instance, to the UN Global Compact Climate Accelerator, where it will receive guidance for setting science-based emissions reduction targets, something that affects ocean acidification.
Additionally, available funding pending, Viable Gear might consider commissioning a researcher to conduct a time-oriented study of the microplastic accumulation present in a certain shellfish in a specified region to get a sense of the progress Viable Gear and others pursuing the same objectives are making.
Describe the core technology that powers your solution.
Viable Gear’s material technology is addressing the problem of plastic pollution by developing a suitable substitute for petroleum-based plastics in aquaculture and fishing gear used in the marine environment that is non-toxic to marine species and our blue food system. Scientists indicate perhaps the best option for managing non-biodegradable plastic waste is to replace the use of uneconomical non-biodegradable materials with biodegradable polymers as they are environmentally friendly (Samir, 2022). Because of the environmental pollution resulting from the use of non-biodegradable materials, research into biodegradable replacement materials has expanded; however, few projects are based on using seaweed as the primary feedstock. Viable Gear is focused on using seaweed as research shows bioplastics can be compounded from seaweed inputs: “Seaweed is a versatile organism able to produce diverse types of polymers... Several studies confirmed that these biopolymers are non-toxic, biodegradable, renewable, biocompatible, and eco-friendly” (Otari, 2021).
Which of the following categories best describes your solution?
A new technology
How do you know that this technology works?
Viable Gear proved through its R&D that a marine degradable twine derived from seaweed for use in marine gear is feasible and realistic.
The credibility of its technology is also supported by the existence and emergence of other work that uses seaweed to produce products like fabrics and bioplastics to replace traditional materials. Keel Labs, for instance, is currently creating a “bio yarn from kelp, seaweed, or algae” (Preuss 2018); SeaCell is an eco-friendly fabric made from seaweed developed by Nanonic Inc. (Ross, 2017); Vitadylan is making fabric by weaving seaweed with zinc and other materials (Couture 2021); and Pangaia (2021) is currently using a cotton, lyocell and seaweed blend in their fabric. Further, various studies have been focused on seaweed-derived polysaccharide-based composites because of their renewability and sustainability for food packaging (Khalil 2017). For example, Sway is a California-based company making what they term “regenerative packaging,” using seaweed as a petroleum-alternative in bioplastics. Their goal is to “to bring seaweed replacements for plastics to market” (Marsh, 2021).
Relevant research in support of Viable Gear's concept includes: M. Masudul Hassan et al. (2008), which indicated the suitability of seaweed as a filler in polypropylene composite material; The National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT), which has developed a bioplastic film using seaweed and PEG-3000 (India Science Wire, 2021); and The Marine Bioproducts Cooperative Research Centre (MB-CRC), led by Flinders University in Australia, which is using marine bio-masses such as seaweed and microalgae to make bioplastics.
Shravya et al. (2021) posit that plants (e.g., corn, starch, rice, sweet potato, sugarcane), bacteria (Bacillus megaterium, Klebsiella aerogenes, Pseudomonas aeroginosa), and algal (microalgae like Spirulina spp. and red, brown, and green seaweeds) can be used as an alternative source for plastic, because they all exhibit biodegradability and edibility. Given all the options, the researchers state that seaweed is the preferable choice for use in synthesizing bioplastics because they are rich in polysaccharides. Many existing industries use polysaccharides (e.g., food technology, microbiology, biotechnology, and medicine) but they are not yet widely used in the plastic industry.
Please select the technologies currently used in your solution:
If your solution has a website or an app, provide the links here:
https://www.viablegearco.com
In which countries do you currently operate?
Which, if any, additional countries will you be operating in within the next year?
How many people work on your solution team?
Viable Gear operates leanly with two full-time employees and three contractors. The two full-time employees (Weiler and MacFarlane) comprise Viable Gear’s management team. Its three contractors represent the company’s technical team, providing expertise in seaweed cultivation, seaweed engineering, and biopolymer engineering.
How long have you been working on your solution?
Weiler founded Viable Gear in 2021 and has been developing its material solution since then.
Tell us about how you ensure that your team is diverse, minimizes barriers to opportunity for staff, and provides a welcoming and inclusive environment for all team members.
Viable Gear is a women led and operated company that has a mission to uplift women in business and science as we look to grow. Viable Gear is committed to supporting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) throughout its operations. As an early stage company, the focus of these efforts currently has been on fostering an inclusive work culture where team members feel valued and respected. We promote open communication, 360 feedback reviews, and operate with a no-question-is-stupid policy. As we embark on building out a hiring program, Viable Gear plans to embed DEI values throughout the process, actively seeking diverse candidates by, for instance, leveraging partnerships with organizations that focus on underrepresented groups to widen our candidate pool, and mitigating unconscious bias by conducting blind resume reviews. Looking ahead, Viable Gear understands the importance of continuous learning and improvement in this space, and will engage in routine trainings to that effect, and will build DEI metrics into our strategic goals.
What is your business model?
Viable Gear’s biotwine has a range of use cases across various industries; the following discussion specifically addresses the social business model for its pilot product, seed string for seaweed aquaculture.
Viable Gear’s primary customers are seaweed nurseries; individuals and/or companies that are tasked with “seeding” meiospores or gametophyte stocks onto spools wrapped in string, and then culturing the resulting juvenile sporophytes in aquaria until they reach a size that is suitable for out-planting in the ocean.
Thorough customer discovery has revealed the main challenges that nurseries face in cultivating seaweed:
The fact that using synthetic polymers in seaweed cultivation is the industry’s ‘dirty secret’, as it runs counter to the very ethos of seaweed farming as an inherently regenerative practice.
Readily available natural alternatives like cotton, and jute were observed to either reduce growth of kelp meiospores, or kill them completely (Kerrison et al., 2019).
Regardless of twine type, the task of spinning seed string onto a spool is laborious for nursery operators.
Customer discovery efforts also illuminated some of the key incentives that drive individuals to work at seaweed nurseries:
Supporting the growth of aquaculture, an industry that creates positive benefits for the blue planet.
Contributing to the burgeoning industry that is seaweed farming.
Considering these specific pain points and incentives, Viable Gear’s value proposition for its primary customers is a product that provides them the ability to achieve greater sustainability and efficiency in the process of cultivating seaweed, enabling them to better ‘walk the talk’, and positioning them as leaders in sustainable seaweed farming. It drives value for its customers in the following ways:
Supportive of ocean health: Being 100% naturally derived and designed to have a time-bound lifespan in the marine environment, Viable Gear’s products will reduce the prevalence of toxic microplastics in the ocean, supporting a healthier ecosystem. On the contrary, plastic-based seed string further damages the ocean when accidentally left at sea. Other natural twines such as cotton and jute require significant amounts of resources like fresh water to be produced; seaweed requires minimal inputs, making it a more sustainable base material.
Price competitive: Viable Gear’s goal is to develop products that will be price competitive with products currently on the market, so that zero financial burden is placed on the customer, leaving the customer the freedom to choose Viable Gear’s alternative based on non-monetary metrics.
Enhanced efficiency: Providing the product in a pre-spooled format cuts out a time-consuming step in the nurseries' process, increasing the efficiency of nursery operations.
Technical performance: The technical performance of Viable Gear’s seed string is designed to rival those of synthetic and other natural polymers, enabling maximum spore growth (currently in R&D to confirm this).
‘Walk the talk’: Compostable seed string allows nurseries to achieve greater sustainability in their delivery of farmed seaweed, enabling them to ‘walk the talk’ of sustainability.
Do you primarily provide products or services directly to individuals, to other organizations, or to the government?
Organizations (B2B)What is your plan for becoming financially sustainable, and what evidence can you provide that this plan has been successful so far?
Viable Gear is a pre-revenue company. To date, Viable Gear has sourced $370,000 in operating capital through a combination of non-dilutive sources, including philanthropic grant funding, state-based and federal grant funding. This non-dilutive capital has enabled Viable Gear to engage in extensive R&D and to grow its operational capacity and headcount as it prepares to enter the next phase of commercialization. It plans to start earning revenue with the introduction of its pilot product to the market, targeted for late 2025/early 2026.
Customer discovery confirmed that, despite the sustainability advantages, given industry economics, Viable Gear's price point must still be comparable to existing products in the market in order to be adopted. To accomplish this, Viable Gear will solicit non-dilutive funds from grant opportunities, capital from angel investors, and venture capital investment to initially subsidize the cost of producing its biotwine, which is anticipated to be high until economies of scale can be realized. Currently, bioplastics cost 20 to 100% more, reflecting that “the production processes are not yet technologically advanced enough to reach economies of scale and reduce the polymerization cost of biopolymers” (World Bank, 2023). Viable Gear plans to investigate using innovative financing models such as a Social Impact Bond or government subsidies to reach production scale in the meantime.
Viable Gear recognizes that its technology is ripe for a wide range of use cases. It sees value in capitalizing on those opportunities in the future, particularly the ones that present a quick go-to-market pathway, to support its core mission of replacing petroleum-based fishing and aquaculture gear with its seaweed-based alternative. For instance, Viable Gear recognizes an opportunity to replace agricultural twine used in terrestrial farming (a product that could also find its way into the ocean due to inefficient recycling flows) (World Economic Forum, 2016).
Solution Team
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EM
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Katie Weiler Founder & CEO, Viable Gear
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