Mike Velings
Founder, Managing Partner @ Aqua Spark
Utrecht, The Netherlands
Mike Velings is a Series B investor at Aqua Spark in Utrecht focused on Biotechnology and Energy. A lifelong entrepreneur, Mike has spent decades jumpstarting a range of successful businesses. Among other ventures, he co-founded Connexie, which has helped catalyze a professional employment industry across the Netherlands. In addition, as a very active investor, he has helped build tens of different companies in a vast array of sectors, fromsoftware to fintech to organic farming. He believes in the potential for business to create durable solutions to complex world problems. In 2011 he started dreaming up a way to transform the aquaculture industry through the right type of investment and in 2014 Mike officially launched Aqua-Spark, the first fund dedicated to sustainable aquaculture. With Aqua-Spark Mike sits on the Boards of Calysta, Proteon, Protix, Sogn Aqua, Chicoa, Indian Ocean Trepang and Cryoocyte, where his focus is growth, strategy, and furthering sustainability.
- Total investments:
- 12
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 42%
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries Mike Velings invests in
Stages Mike Velings invests in
Countries Mike Velings invests in
Contacts
| Type | Contact | Validation |
|---|---|---|
| Work email | ||
| Personal email | ||
| Work phone | ||
| Personal phone | ||
| Socials |
Investment Focus
Industry
- Biotechnology 4 (33%)
- Energy 2 (17%)
- Aquaculture 2 (17%)
- Waste Management 2 (17%)
- SaaS 1 (8%)
Stage
- Series B 3 (25%)
- Venture - Series Unknown 3 (25%)
- Series A 2 (17%)
- Series D 1 (8%)
- Private Equity 1 (8%)
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
Sea6 Energy
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Sea6 Energy is a platform that utilizes the unlimited potential of the oceans in a sustainable and ethical way. It visualizes a future where the abundant oceans will be the biomass farms of the future, to provide solutions in energy, agriculture, and food.Sea6 Energy has a team of professionals from diverse fields like industrial automation,plant pathology, ocean engineering, bioprocess engineering, marine biology, and aerospace engineering, with the goal of building a whole new economy based on marine biomass.It develops technologies to convert biomass into biofuel, plant growth stimulants, plant defence products, animal feed ingredients, and other bio-renewable products to replace chemicals and plastics, effectively creating a Bio-refinery out of marine biomass, churning out a whole variety of products leaving nothing to waste.Sea6 Energy was founded on 2010 and is headquartered in Bangalore, India. | $9.5M / Series B / Aug 17, 2022 | |
Protix
|
Protix Biosystems is a biometrics company that offers a range of products which enable its customers to optimize their feed solutions. It was founded in 2009 and is based in Dongen, the Netherlands. | $57.1M / Private Equity / Feb 08, 2022 | |
XpertSea
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XpertSea is a Canadian technology company that's transforming how the global aquaculture industry farms seafood to help feed the world. Combining smart aquaculture equipment with a farm management platform, our collaborative solution uncovers actionable insights driven by artificial intelligence. These insights enable farmers and industryexperts to optimize feed efficiency, reduce environmental waste, take preventive actions against diseases and use data to bring transparency and knowledge to the entire supply chain. With customers in over 50 countries, we’re using Canadian ingenuity to make aquaculture profitable and sustainable. | $20M / Series B / Aug 10, 2021 | |
Proteon Pharmaceuticals
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PROTEON uses precision biology for microbiome protection to improve animal and human health, increasing environmental sustainability and eliminating the unnecessary use of antibiotics. We have developed a platform to develop and deliver bacteriophages for animal health solutions. Our pipeline includes solutions to prophylactically improveperformance and food safety in poultry, as well as important prevent economically important bacterial diseases in aquaculture and dairy. | $24.6M / Venture - Series Unknown / Aug 10, 2021 | |
Calysta
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Calysta Energy (www.calystaenergy.com), Menlo Park, CA., is developing a new biological gas-to-liquids™ (BioGTL™) and biological gas-to-chemicals (BioGTC™) technology using methane – an energy-rich component of natural gas – as a new sustainable biological feedstock for high value industrial chemicals and transportation fuels with cost andperformance advantages over current processes. The company is a spinout of DNA2.0, the largest US-based provider of synthetic genes for industrial and academic use. | $39M / Series D / Mar 09, 2021 | |
Swedish Algae Factory
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Swedish Algae Factory extracts with silicon algae as a raw material a nanoporous material from these algae, which when applied to solar panels gives increased efficiency. The first tests in laboratory environments indicate a significant increase in efficiency. | $5.4M / Venture - Series Unknown / Mar 17, 2020 | |
Ace Aquatec
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Ace Aquatec is specialises in acoustic marine mammal deterrents and humane electrical fish stunning equipment. Our markets are aquaculture, off-shore construction / demolition and fishermen.The US3 is the latest model of acoustic deterrent for the fish farming industry offering data logging, high and low frequency transducers, and sonartriggering. The MMD is offered to the long line fishermen, to offshore platforms engaged in pile driving and government organisations engaged in post oil spillage response. The sophisticated electronics drives marine wildlife to a zone of safety. | $6.4M / Series A / Nov 13, 2019 | |
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Calysta
|
Calysta Energy (www.calystaenergy.com), Menlo Park, CA., is developing a new biological gas-to-liquids™ (BioGTL™) and biological gas-to-chemicals (BioGTC™) technology using methane – an energy-rich component of natural gas – as a new sustainable biological feedstock for high value industrial chemicals and transportation fuels with cost andperformance advantages over current processes. The company is a spinout of DNA2.0, the largest US-based provider of synthetic genes for industrial and academic use. | $79M / Series D / Jun 26, 2019 | |
BioFishency
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BioFishency is developing a cost-effective, all-in-one water treatment system for land-based aquaculture. The system operates with all different aquaculture methods: extensive (land ponds), intensive (constructed ponds), and recirculated. It enables fish farms to double or triple production while continuing to use installed infrastructure.BioFishency overcomes the two key aquaculture challenges: limited water availability and buildup of toxic ammonia (excreted by the fish). It enhances the water conditions to increase the ability of the fish to survive, grow, and reproduce. With BioFishency’s system, farmers increase fish production with minimal investment, significantly increasing profitability and sustainability. | $2.4M / Venture - Series Unknown / Mar 27, 2019 | |
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XpertSea
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XpertSea is a Canadian technology company that's transforming how the global aquaculture industry farms seafood to help feed the world. Combining smart aquaculture equipment with a farm management platform, our collaborative solution uncovers actionable insights driven by artificial intelligence. These insights enable farmers and industryexperts to optimize feed efficiency, reduce environmental waste, take preventive actions against diseases and use data to bring transparency and knowledge to the entire supply chain. With customers in over 50 countries, we’re using Canadian ingenuity to make aquaculture profitable and sustainable. | $7.2M / Series A / Apr 17, 2018 | |
| See all 12 investments → | |||
Co-Investors
About Aqua Spark
Aqua-Spark is an investment fund with a focus on sustainable aquaculture businesses around the world. The small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs) they invest in are working toward the production of safe, accessible aquatic life, such as fish, shellfish and plants, in ways that do not harm their oceans. Their investors value the fact that each investmentaims to create triple impact—specifically, each investment is chosen for its potential to generate significant financial returns while also activating positive environmental and social outcomes.Aqua-Spark believes that committing to a long-term vision is the way to realize effective and lasting impact results. When it comes to investments, they do not seek quick exits; instead, they look for entrepreneurs who strive to build and scale toward the future, who see their business as major economic opportunities that can also help solve looming environmental and food security challenges over the long-term. As an essential of each investee, Aqua-Spark seeks sustainability.
Aqua Spark Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
Amy Novogratz
Founder, Managing Partner
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Chen Zhu
Investment Manager
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Mike Velings
Founder, Managing Partner
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FAQ
What does Mike Velings invest in?
Mike Velings invests primarily in Biotechnology, Energy and Aquaculture startups, most often at Series B and Venture - Series Unknown stage. Most of the 12 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in India. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.
How do I contact Mike Velings?
Public channels for Mike Velings include LinkedIn. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.
When did Mike Velings last invest?
The most recent investment recorded for Mike Velings closed in Aug 2022. Shizune tracks 12 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.
Is Shizune's investor data accurate?
Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.
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