Built once.
Paying its own way from first harvest.

CORE Zones need capital to set up. From the first harvest, each ranch is designed to pay its own way. We are raising private capital for the hatchery, processing and market access that serve every site, alongside public co-investment that brings partner communities to their first harvest.

Investment Inquiries How It Is Financed

The Investment Thesis

A high-value seafood. No feed costs. Yields that improve as the ecosystem recovers.

Dried H. scabra, sold as bêche-de-mer, has long-standing demand in Chinese, Japanese and Southeast Asian markets, and wild populations have been overfished across the Indo-Pacific. Hatchery-raised sandfish, ranched in community-protected areas and traceable to their origin, are scarce.

No feed costs

Sandfish eat the organic matter that settles naturally on the seagrass beds they live on. Costs are mostly juveniles, labour, patrol, processing and logistics.

Yields improve as the ecosystem recovers

Sandfish grow well where the whole ecosystem is healthy, so ecological recovery and commercial return move together.

Demand ahead of supply

Wild populations are depleted across the Indo-Pacific, and supply that buyers can trace to a hatchery and a community-protected site is scarce.

Revenue Architecture

Product revenue from first harvest. Ecosystem service revenue as the market matures.

Revenue Leg One

Bêche-de-Mer

Hatchery-raised, community-ranched H. scabra, processed to export grade and traceable to its site of origin, sold to buyers in Chinese, Japanese and Southeast Asian markets.

Returns are shared with the community from every harvest.

Revenue Leg Two

Ecosystem Service Payments

Biodiversity and nature finance may in time reward community-governed areas that show real conservation outcomes. We intend to support government recognition of CORE Zones as OECMs.

The model does not depend on this second leg.

Network Value

Every new site makes every other site more valuable.

Investors are backing a platform, not a single operation: one hatchery, one processing chain and one route to market serving a growing number of community-protected sites.

Commercial

More sites → steadier supply → stronger buyer relationships → better returns for every partner community

Scientific

More sites → more monitoring data → better stocking and management everywhere

Operational

More sites → one hatchery and one processing chain serving many communities

How It Is Financed

Two kinds of capital. One platform. One network.

Public money pays the community's way into the model. Private capital builds the platform that serves every community. Public funds go only to the community's side, for public benefit, under contract.

Private Capital · Asili Company

Builds our capacity to provide the inputs and services every CORE Zone relies on.

The hatchery on Kiweni Island, Pemba

Technical extension and business management

Processing, traceability and market access

Public & Philanthropic Co-investment · Partner Cooperatives

Equips each cooperative we partner with and carries it to its first harvest. From then on, the community's share of the returns covers its own costs.

Training in ranching, monitoring and governance

Infrastructure and equipment the cooperative owns

Wages while the first sandfish grow

Partners and Collaborators

Working with leading ocean conservation and development organisations.

We welcome conversations with impact investors, blended finance facilities, conservation foundations and mission-aligned philanthropic capital.

Shamiani Sea Cucumber Cooperative Kiweni Cooperative

Investment Inquiries

Speak directly with our team.

Unit economics, plans and due diligence materials are shared in conversation. Investment inquiries go to Timothy; for product and buyers, or for operations and site visits on Pemba, write to Alexandra or Daud.