the Ocean Risk and Resilience Action Alliance (ORRAA) has introduced the Octopus Platform, a new platform to match regenerative and sustainable Blue Economy projects to investors and market intelligence. The new platform was chosen for Salesforce Accelerator’s AI for Climate program.
ORRAA is a multi-sector alliance focused on developing finance and insurance products to regenerate marine life and build the resilience of coastal communities that are vulnerable to climate change. The Octopus Platform one of six instruments that are part of ORRAA’s Sea Change Impact and Financing Facility (SCIFF). SCIFF aims to develop an open ocean financing architecture to drive at least $1 billion of private investment into coastal and ocean ecosystems, with a focus on the Global South, by 2030. This will provide a springboard from which to mobilize at least $2.5 billion of broader finance capital.
French multinational insurance company AXA has said that it will invest in the development of the Octopus Platform over the next three years as part of its efforts to reduce the risk exposure of Small and Medium Sized Businesses working in this space.
“For AXA, as ORRAA’s lead global insurance partner, investing in innovation that reduces coastal and ocean risk and builds the resilience of businesses in this sector, is in our collective interest,” said Ulrike Decoene, Group Chief Communication, Brand and Sustainability Officer, AXA.
Ecosystemic VC 2050 and Waves of Change have joined the co-design of the Octopus Platform. Vibrant Data Lab is also providing a market dynamics tool to drive more capital towards a regenerative and sustainable Blue Economy. With the Stockholm Resilience Center, University of British Columbia and Paris-Dauphine University, prominent ocean researchers are also inputting into the scientific framework embedded into the platform.
“The Octopus Platform’s first match is bringing 2050 and ORRAA together,” said Marie Ekeland, Founder and CEO of 2050. “We look forward to bringing our financial expertise to the Platform as we have already been developing solutions to meet this challenge. As part of this we are embedding science and knowledge tools as well as an Ocean Finance Tracker, and mapping ocean finance flows to identify market gaps and highlighting pioneering innovations and business models, and investment opportunities to support a resilient ocean economy.”
