Catchwise: Finding Fish in Norway
🌎 Issue #39
It’s Tuesday, and today we’re covering Catchwise, a Norwegian tech company tackling the wild fishery space. It was founded by Tomas Roaldsnes, Ludvig Løddesøl, Jonas Dammen, Asmund Brekke, and Kristian Hole. The startup announced a €1.25 million pre-seed round led by Dreamcraft Ventures, with participation from Sondo, Ocean Impact, and several angel investors.
The Product
Catchwise is a digital platform that helps fisheries identify the best locations for their operations by combining data from the past, present, and even the future.
Its magic lies in access to multiple automatic identification system (AIS) sources. AIS data—normally used by ships to avoid collisions—provides info on vessel locations, courses, and speeds.
But why does vessel data matter for fishing? Because knowing where other boats are—and more importantly, how they’re moving (their speed, or even if they’re just sitting still)—can reveal potential fishing hotspots. Catchwise pulls in real-time AIS data and combines it with historical records, so users can not only see what’s happening now but also how fishing patterns have changed over time.
Fisheries can dig into data going all the way back to 2011, analyzing everything from bottom temperatures and ocean currents to moon phases—and then link those conditions directly to fishing hauls from specific periods.
By correlating environmental data with vessel movements, fisheries get a deeper understanding of what makes certain spots productive, why those areas perform well, and how optimal locations shift over time. You can even filter the data by species, so you’re only looking at what matters to your specific catch.
Say you’ve found your perfect spot and nailed the ideal conditions. The next question is—when will those conditions actually line up?
That’s where Catchwise’s weather forecasting tool steps in, with projections for wind, currents, and waves. Combine that with bottom temperatures and animal plankton data, and fisheries can pinpoint the best timing for trips—down to which species to target—since different fish respond differently to changing environmental factors.
The Business Model
Catchwise brings value through three main mechanisms:
Data integration. It combines historical catch records, real-time vessel data, and oceanographic forecasts into one interface—giving fisheries a complete, data-rich picture of where and when to fish.
Two-sided efficiency. By cutting down search time, Catchwise boosts both:
operational efficiency—fleets spend more time fishing and less time cruising around, so vessels and crews are used more productively.
capital efficiency—in theory, fewer vessels are needed to catch the same amount of fish, which lowers fixed costs like depreciation and salaries.
Improved sustainability. Less time searching = less fuel burned. Fuel savings could reach up to 50%.
Catchwise uses a yearly SaaS pricing model, customized to each fishing company’s needs. The price can vary based on the number of users, vessel size or quota, required features, and specific operations. The company emphasizes flexibility and works closely with clients to tailor the best setup.
The Local Angle
The market leader
We all know Norway is big in the fish game—but it’s not just big, it’s the biggest. Norway accounts for 10.9% of global fish exports, totaling $12.9 billion in 2023. The seafood industry contributes around 3% to GDP. In 5.6% of municipalities, fishing employs over 10% of the private-sector workforce.
But the number of fishermen has been shrinking steadily since the late 1980s—it’s now just above 10,000. Meanwhile, aquaculture jobs have grown to 41,600, up from 22,700 in 2009.
There are a bunch of reasons behind this shift—government support for aquaculture, new tech developments—but I want to zoom in on two that Catchwise directly addresses.
Margin pressures
Fishing is a brutally low-margin business, with profits averaging just 0.9% of revenue. And that’s due to two things:
On the revenue side, fishing is uniquely unpredictable. Even if you meticulously prepare, invest in top-tier equipment, and execute flawlessly, you can still return empty-handed if nature doesn’t cooperate. Unlike other businesses, from retail to software, where results largely reflect your own decisions and effort, fishing hinges heavily on external factors that lie entirely beyond your control. Even farming provides early indicators of how successful a harvest might be, but with fishing, certainty only arrives at the moment you try to catch something.
On the cost side…there are a lot of costs. A deckhand—the most entry-level position aboard a ship—earns over $40,000 per year. Fuel is another significant expense: estimates indicate that fuel accounts for 21% of operational costs for the EU fishing fleet. Even in Norway, where fuel is likely cheaper given abundant local supply, it remains a substantial drain on profit margins.
Catchwise slides in nicely as a solution—helping create more stable revenue while slashing unnecessary operating costs.
Declining fish stocks
Stock levels are another major concern. Key species like cod and wild salmon have dropped significantly. The Northeast Arctic cod quota for 2025 was cut by 25%, down to its lowest level since 1991. Meanwhile, wild salmon have hit historic lows, prompting the closure of 33 rivers in the 2024 season.
Across Europe, just 28% of assessed fish stocks are sustainably fished and in good biological condition. Even in better-managed areas like the North-East Atlantic and Baltic Seas, it’s still only 41%.
The Roadblocks
A limited and shrinking market
The fishing market is shrinking—fewer fishermen, fewer boats. There are now under 5,000 active fishing vessels in Norway. Sure, there’s potential to expand beyond the country, but it’s not like there’s a hidden, untapped fishing market in Europe. Norway is the market.
More users, fewer benefits?
If every fisherman in Norway starts using Catchwise… do they all flock to the same seven hotspots? How quickly do those areas get overfished or stop working entirely? It seems like a great early-adopter tool, but one that could see diminishing returns as adoption scales.
Short-term expenses vs long-term value
With profit margins under 1%, even a relatively small annual subscription could feel steep. Throw in a learning curve (even if the software is pretty straightforward), and you might run into some resistance convincing people to jump onboard.
The Upside
Data agregator
Just like Leta, which we covered last week, Catchwise could become a valuable data aggregator—not just for fisheries, but for industries like insurance and banking. Imagine you’re a bank considering a loan to a fishing crew: the more data you have on their operations and how they compare to peers, the better. Commodity prediction markets could also benefit from these insights.
Sustainability focus
Sustainability is becoming central to Europe’s economy. Framing Catchwise as a contributor to Norway’s and the EU’s green goals not only helps with marketing, but could also open doors for government support and public funding.
Going beyond software
The fishing industry isn’t exactly at the cutting edge of tech. So, this is speculative—but I think there’s real potential to digitize a lot more than just location scouting. Catchwise could be the first in a lineup of tools helping fisheries modernize across the board.
The Takeaway
Data is such a good business. If you find a niche with a real problem and solve it with data—while making that data actually useful—you’ve struck gold. Maybe not a giant gold mine, but a gold mine nonetheless.
As for the fishing business? You’re out at sea, in all weather, at all hours. It’s backbreaking work. And after all that…you’re rewarded with a 1% profit margin. Brutal.