Merry Christmas and a Guid New Year!
In these last days of 2022, and as we gather with friends and family, we at KALY have been looking back and reflecting. It was on the 18th of January this year that we decided to set up KALY and embark on a journey to grow seaweed.
In doing so we wanted to bring the benefits of kelp to a wider audience; We wanted to work with the local community to gain their confidence and support; We wanted to ensure tangible economic benefits from seaweed farming and that these were distributed fairly; And we wanted to use kelp farming as a catalyst towards the conservation and restoration of the marine environment surrounding our farms.
Business plans were written, binned and rewritten. The more we looked the clearer it became to us that significant gaps existed in the supply chain. We set out to create a business that would address these gaps from seeding, growing and harvesting kelp, to full primary processing. In the early days, the Scottish Association for Marine Science (SAMS) were our sounding board for ideas and plans.
The task of fundraising took us from June to November against economic headwinds. We were delighted at the confidence and reaction from those who reviewed our plans. Our ambition to bring forward significant capacity to the Scottish seaweed farming industry was recognised and supported by TriCap Angel Investors and Scottish Enterprise. Last month we completed our seed round financing. No more talking about it – time for action!
We are looking forward to 2023 being a very busy year. Already we have started the pre-application process for our R&D farm in Loch Bay and anticipate that we will launch applications for at least four more sites in the first half of 2023 – stay tuned for more information here. Design development is taking place on a Processing Hub to serve these farms along with a number of research projects which we will announce next year.
So many people to thank for helping us to get going – thank you all.
From the team at KALY . . . Merry Christmas and a Guid New Year!