By NEIL HARTNELL

Tribune Business Editor

nhartnell@tribunemedia.net

A Bahamas-headquartered coral restoration pioneer yesterday said it plans to “showcase” its new eco-tourism experience by year-end after receiving a “huge boost” from $8m-plus in new financing.

Sam Teicher, who co-founded Coral Vita with Gaitor Halpern, told Tribune Business that completion of the Series A funding round, which typically represents a company’s first financing after it receives its original or “seed capital”, represents “the first-ever time in the world” that an entity focused on coral restoration has achieved this.

Affirming that it will always be focused on The Bahamas, and reef restoration work in this nation, he revealed that Coral Vita had already initiated its international expansion prior to completing the latest financing and now has a presence in Dubai, Saudi Arabia and the Dutch Caribbean.

Disclosing that Coral Vita’s work is already bearing fruit for Grand Bahama coral reefs and ecosystems, Mr Teicher told this newspaper that one reef - the Rainbow Reef - now has twice as many fish compared to pre-restoration efforts. He added that the company’s work has enhanced coral survival rates to anywhere from 30 percent up to 70 percent, and even 90 percent.

The $8m-plus Series A financing was led by Builders Vision, founded by Lukas Walton, grandson of Wal-Mart’s creator, Sam Walton, helps to address environmental sustainability challenges in areas such as the ocean, energy and food and agriculture. Builders Vision also partially underwrote the Bahamian government’s recent $300m debt-for-nature refinancing with a $79m “collateralised guarantee”.

Other investors included entities such as Katapult Ocean, iAlumbra, Aureolis Ventures, Colorado Coral and Rising Tide, and Mr Teicher said of the funding round’s completion: “It’s a huge boost for Coral Vita. It’s the first time in the world that a Series A investment round was raised for a coral restoration company. It’s not only exciting for Coral Vita, but the entire” sector.

As for how the proceeds will be used, he added: “We’re going to do more community-based conservation and continue the work in The Bahamas. We’re planning, hopefully by the end of this year, to showcase our new eco-tourism and education experience on Grand Bahama. Also this expansion to new countries in the Caribbean and the rest of the world.”

Mr Teicher said he also wanted to encourage more “nature positive brands to support restoration from anywhere in the world for reefs in The Bahamas”, recalling the $100,000 received from Broken Planet ti assist the effort. “We want to do more of that type of work,” he added.

Coral Vita, which last year received a $1.03m funding injection via the Inter-American Development Bank’s (IDB) Multilateral Investment Fund, plans to use a portion of the $8m proceeds to expand its operational footprint and build new large-scale coral farms.

The financing will also be used to support research and development in coral farming technology and restoration methodology, and help hire more employees in areas such as brand development, community outreach, engineering and operations.

The Grand Bahama-based reef restorer will also seek to strengthen partnerships with “nature-positive corporations”, local governments, tourism operators and conservation organisations, as well as seek to grow revenue streams from restoration projects and eco-tourism experiences.

Mr Teicher said the lead role played by Builders Vision and Mr Walton, as the lead investor, creates “another synergy between us and The Bahamas” given their involvement in the Government’s $300m debt-for-nature refinancing that was completed last year.

“We have several different restoration projects ongoing currently in Grand Bahama,” he told Tribune Business. “We hope to work with BREEF, the Perry Institute of Marine Science. We had previously gotten funding for restoration projects from the Ministry of Agriculture and Marine Resources.

“One of our restoration projects, Rainbow Reef in Grand Bahama, has twice as many fish compared to surveys before we did the restoration work. The survivability of the corals, it’s a very challenging time with the heat wave. We’re seeing coral survivability anywhere from 30 percent to 70 percent and 90 percent after we’ve done the restoration.

“This spike in ocean temperatures, in one place 100 percent of the natural corals on the reef had been destroyed or disappeared. We planted new corals nearby, and 30 percent of what we planted survived. I want it to be more. In other places it’s 75 percent or even higher, 90 percent survivability.”

Mr Teicher said Coral Vita has hired more staff recently, and “more than half the staff and growing is Bahamian”. Paid internships are only available for Bahamians, and some 16 full-time staff are based in this nation, which will be home to the company’s eco-tourism experience.

He added that Coral Vita’s restoration work is “essential now, and is only going to become more important” given that reefs are vital ecosystems supporting the Bahamian tourism and fishing industries. “The Bahamas won’t exist without them,” Mr Teicher warned.

Coral Vita already possesses a welcome centre and education facilities, with visitors able to “almost walk right up to the ocean” and watch live coral being grown in tanks. A conch hatchery and mangrove nursery are also key components of the project, which numbers Blue Action Lab and Waterkeepers Bahamas among its partners.

The importance of The Bahamas’ coral reefs to the ecosystems it underpins, and the sustainability of this nation’s tourism, maritime and ocean (fisheries) industries, was detailed in this nation’s submissions last year to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) which is being asked to provide an advisory opinion on the obligations that different states have to fight climate change.

“As the home to 5 percent of the world’s coral reefs and the world’s third-longest barrier reef, The Bahamas has experienced severe bleaching and mass coral mortality. For example, in July 2023, scientists recorded ocean temperatures in Bahamian territorial waters as high as 33 degrees centigrade,” The Bahamas told the ICJ.

“These exceptionally high water temperatures lasted for several months, and caused a devastating mass bleaching event.... Coral reefs are important to The Bahamas’ biodiversity and act as a vital part of the country’s natural defence system against storm surges and erosion.

“Anthropogenic ocean warming alters the biodiversity and ecosystemic functioning of coral reefs, causing severe ecosystem loss due to coral bleaching. The destruction of coral reef ecosystem has significant environmental as well as economic implications for The Bahamas,” this country added.

“The array of coral reefs in Bahamian waters are a central attraction for diving and other activities, and accordingly draw tourists and support the tourism economy. Coral destruction also impacts fish stock, which is vital for employment and nutritional sustenance.”

It is these impacts that Coral Vita is seeking to mitigate and reverse. It uses ‘micro fragmentation’ to accelerate coral reef growth and, relying solely on species native to The Bahamas to also provide diversity, says it can grow pieces “up to 50 times’ faster” than rival farms using conventional techniques.