Eight Years In: Celebrating Aquabyte's Next Chapter

Aquabyte's story started for us in 2017.

Bryton Shang, the company's founder, came to us with a simple premise: the aquaculture industry was flying blind. Farmers were managing millions of fish with guesswork and periodic manual sampling. What if you could use AI and underwater cameras to monitor fish health, welfare, and biomass in real time?

We were intrigued, because we saw a lot of potential in multiple arenas: an underserved industry that needed manual processes replaced + an intrepid founder that understood the potential of computer vision and AI. Most of all, Bryton had the founder qualities we love: intellectual honesty, an obsessive focus on the customer problem, and the humility to know he'd need to learn an entire industry from scratch.

So Aquabyte incubated in Costanoa’s SF offices. Bryton and his early team tested hypotheses, iterated on hardware, and learned the sometimes brutal operational realities of bringing a software + hardware product into an extreme underwater environment.

Playing The Long Game

Today, Aquabyte announced a majority investment from Vitruvian Partners, marking a significant milestone in the company's growth.

Under the leadership of CEO, Steve Tucker, and an exceptional executive team, Aquabyte has become the market’s leading provider of AI-assisted aquafarming across Norway, Chile, Iceland, and beyond. The company's AI-based monitoring systems are now embedded in the daily operations of some of the world's largest aquaculture operations.

What's remarkable isn't just that Aquabyte solved these problems—it's that they did it by earning trust from an industry in which trust is not easily given.

Why Aquabyte Matters

Aquaculture is one of the most important and least talked about industries in global food production. As wild fish stocks face pressure and the world needs more protein, farmed fish will play an increasingly critical role in feeding a growing population.

But scaling aquaculture sustainably requires solving hard biological and operational problems. Aquabyte's technology helps producers improve fish health, reduce waste, and make more informed decisions—all while meeting tightening environmental and welfare regulations.

In other words, this isn't just a good business. It's the infrastructure for how we'll produce food in the future.

With Gratitude

To Bryton: it's been wonderful being a part of this journey with you from the beginning. Your vision turned an overlooked problem into a category-defining company.

To Steve and the entire Aquabyte team: you've built something real that really matters. We're excited to watch what comes next.

And to my fellow board members and investors: Greg Papadopoulos (NEA), Jan Uddenfeldt, Joanne Kwon (SBVA), Marc Faucher (Arcturn), Arne Tonning (AllianceVC), and Greg Sands (Costanoa)–it's been a pleasure partnering with you over the years.

Here's to Aquabyte’s next chapter!