Odisha's Aquapulse on the world stage finalist at international seafood awards
A three-year-old Bhubaneswar startup places in the Aquaculture category of the Global Seafood Alliance's Responsible Seafood Innovation Awards 2026, held in Bangkok
BHUBANESWAR: Aquapulse, an aqua-tech startup from
Odisha, has been named a global finalist in the Aquaculture category of the Responsible Seafood Innovation Awards 2026, held in Bangkok, Thailand.
The awards, run by the Global Seafood Alliance (GSA), were presented on the evening of 22 September at the Shangri-La Hotel in Bangkok. Six finalists were selected from entries across the global seafood supply chain -three in the aquaculture category and three in the wild-capture fisheries category. Each finalist was given five minutes to present before the assembled delegates.
This year's summit was the 25th edition and the first to be held in Thailand since 2012. Organised with The Center for Responsible Seafood, it ran over four days, from 21 to 24 September.
Founded in 2023 and headquartered in Bhubaneswar, Aquapulse aggregates smallholder shrimp farmers across Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal and manages the export of their harvest.
The entry submitted for the award described four in-house technology platforms that follow a single harvest from the pond to the vessel. Ahead of harvest, a computer-vision system reads field photographs of the pond and returns. two separate scores one for pond health, the other for harvest clearance. Where the required thresholds are not met, the harvest is held back.
Under the same system, farmers whose produce clears the export-readiness check are paid above the prevailing local market rate on the day of harvest. In effect, the value of the data a farmer generates returns directly to that farmer.
"In this business the cost of traceability usually sits with the farmer and the benefit sits with the buyer. We have tried to close that loop the other way round. The data travels with the product, and the farmer who built it is paid for it."
-Abhilash Dwivedy, Co-Founder & Chief Growth Officer, who presented on stage jointly with Co-Founder & Chief Executive Officer Abhishek Dwivedy.
The company's Indian patent application has been published and is currently under examination. It also holds a registered design and is recognised under the DPIIT startup framework.
India is the world's second-largest shrimp exporter after Ecuador. The sector is under pressure from changes to United States tariffs and from softening prices both recurring themes at the summit. This year's edition drew international buying organisations including Albertsons, Red Lobster, Waitrose and Walmart.
