What the blue economy means to the investment industry
Oceans are essential to life on earth, and support trillions of dollars of economic activity each year. Investments in ocean health are limited, but the concept is gaining traction.
Private investment has been slow to reach the blue economy, defined by the World Bank as “the sustainable use of ocean resources for economic growth, improved livelihoods, and job creation while preserving the health of ocean ecosystems.”
The tide may be turning, however, amid a global effort to harmonize regulations and assign an economic value to the preservation of ocean health – topics that dominated the agenda at the UN Ocean Conference in France in June 2025 A growing list of countries have ratified the UN’s High Seas Treaty which would be first legally binding agreement focused on protecting marine biodiversity in international waters.
One study puts the current value of ocean-based economic activity at USD2.2 trillion.
That kind of valuation is bound to capture investors’ attention. Putting a price on the ecosystem services provided by nature is also the first step to channeling more financing to conserve it.
It also paves the way to implement clearer regulation around ocean-based activities, which is likely to spur greater investment in the blue economy. “A big barrier to attract institutional capital is that only 1% of the oceans are regulated,” said Rikkert Beerekamp, Chief Investment Officer at impact investment advisor Phenix Capital. “The new UN treaty will bring a legal framework, which is, for a lot of institutional investors, a prerequisite for financing.”
In anticipation of more stringent ocean regulation, some investors may opt to direct their capital to efforts that support ocean health, while excluding those that harm, according to Tony Roth, Chief Investment Officer of Wilmington Trust.
“They might not want to invest in companies that extract oil and natural gas from beneath the seabed,” he said. “Or they might invest in solar energy because they think this will relieve pressure on the ocean by reducing carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.” That’s because absorption of carbon dioxide by the ocean makes it more acidic and impacts marine life.
Roth added that, in the US, there has been a distinct shift in the focus of blue economy investments towards seeking a pecuniary return. “Interest in any type of values-based investing has receded pretty significantly relative to where it was just a couple of years ago.”
From a trickle to a sea?
The total value of investments targeting blue economy opportunities is still quite small, but could be poised for considerable growth.
The most prominent public markets instruments are blue bonds, which appear to be gaining traction among institutional investors. Investors concerned about more stringent ocean regulation could invest in blue bonds to manage the associated risk, because issuers are required to sustainably use ocean resources.
Notably, while the first blue bonds were issued by governments pursuing conservation and restoration projects, more recently, private-sector companies have dominated issuance, with a cumulative total of roughly USD9 billion as of mid-2025.
Meanwhile, venture investors are tapping into a burgeoning cohort of startups developing blue economy solutions.
According to Beerekamp, within Phenix Capital’s database of more than 3,000 impact funds, there are 186 that devote a certain portion of their assets to investments targeting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 14 (see Figure 1), which calls for the conservation and sustainable use of the ocean and marine resources for sustainable development. The number is growing but there are, to date, only a few pure-play ocean impact funds.
These funds invest in a wide range of projects. One of the most popular areas is sustainable aquaculture (fish farming), which helps curtail overfishing and regenerate marine populations. Because traditional fish feed is the largest source of emissions in aquaculture, there is also strong demand for alternative feed. Ocean 14 Capital Fund, for example, recently invested in a Colombian startup that produces insect feed.
Another big focus is technology to clean up the oceans and make use of the collected waste, exemplified by the likes of Bureo, based in the US and Chile, which retrieves discarded fishnets that could endanger marine life and recycles them into raw materials that are sold to clothing and automobile manufacturers.
There has also been a rise of marketplaces that connect fishermen in developing countries with end-consumers – such as Aruna in Indonesia – which help the fishermen receive higher prices for their catch, enhancing their capacity to invest in sustainable practices.
And investors are once again drawn to shipping tech, looking into firms developing a variety of solutions to make maritime transport cleaner and more efficient, from wind-assisted propulsion to artificial intelligence-enabled voyage optimization.
Addressing the climate link
Investing in the blue economy could also help improve climate resilience. For example, emerging ocean science is likely to provide the foundation for a new wave of startups developing cutting-edge emissions reduction technologies.
Roth pointed to ocean iron fertilization (OIF) as a feasible new carbon removal solution. It involves adding small amounts of iron to the ocean surface to trigger blooms of phytoplankton, which remove a substantial amount of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. IOF effectively augments a naturally occurring process, and could be scaled by startups tapping into carbon markets for funding. Increased phytoplankton growth might also benefit fish populations and other marine life in certain areas.
Seaweed could also serve as a significant natural carbon sink. One of the fastest growing areas of aquaculture is seaweed farming, said Beerekamp. “Seaweed is really extraordinary, because it sequesters carbon dioxide and also absorbs nitrogen and phosphorous, so it not only reduces greenhouse gases, but also improves biodiversity by reducing algal blooms.”
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