Chicoa Fish Farm

Founded in 2015 by CEO Gerard McCollum and Damien Legros, Chicoa Fish Farm is an aquaculture business based in Tchipala-Pala, Mozambique, that produces tilapia using cage-based methods at Lake Cahora Bassa. The enterprise targets 5,000 tonnes of annual production to address protein deficits in sub-Saharan Africa, providing affordable protein to consumers across markets in Mozambique, Malawi, South Africa, and Zambia while injecting over $10 million into the local economy. Supported by 40 to 50 employees, the company develops breeding programs, sales channels, processing facilities for frozen products, and training resources for small-scale out-grower farmers. The organization has raised $2.22 million in venture capital funding, highlighted by a $1.5 million Series A round in 2020 backed by investors Goodwell Investments and Aqua-Spark. In July 2024, the business merged with Lake Harvest to form Mvuvi Holdings.

Chicoa Fish Farm is a vertically integrated aquaculture company farming tilapia on Lake Cahora Bassa in Tete province, Mozambique, focused on low‑cost, sustainable protein production and growing an outgrower network to scale regional fish supply.[1][4]

High-Level Overview

• Mission: Produce affordable, nutritious fish at scale while catalyzing a local aquaculture sector and creating community jobs and training.[1][3]
  - Investment philosophy (for an operating company): Chicoa pursues vertical integration—owning breeding, grow‑out and plans for feed and processing—to control input quality, costs and supply chains rather than relying on third parties.[4][3]
  - Key sectors: Aquaculture / seafood production, agri‑value chain services (hatchery, feed supply, training), and export markets in Southern Africa.[1][3][4]
  - Impact on the startup / local ecosystem: Serves as an “anchor farm” that supplies fingerlings, feed and technical assistance to smallholder outgrowers, aiming to expand employment and enable many new small commercial farms in Mozambique and neighboring countries.[1][4][3]

Origin Story

• Founding and site: The project was established to exploit a productive site on Lake Cahora Bassa and address rising regional protein shortages; reports indicate the company was founded around 2015 and developed on a challenging, previously unused site downstream on the Zambezi.[5][3]
  - Founders and team: The farm was developed by a team with aquaculture expertise and later added management such as a new CFO to support scale; the team has partnered with government fisheries and development finance actors to expand training and inputs to smallholders.[2][3]
  - How the idea emerged / early traction: The business grew from recognizing declining capture fisheries and a regional protein gap and deliberately chose an offshore breeding model on Cahora Bassa to reduce capital and energy requirements; early years were difficult (land, licences, infrastructure) but the farm reached steady production, employed 100+ staff, and began exporting to neighboring countries.[2][3]

Core Differentiators

• Vertical integration: Owns breeding, grow‑out operations and plans for on‑site feed and processing facilities to avoid dependence on local suppliers and capture more value.[4][3]
  - Offshore breeding & low energy model: Uses offshore cage breeding rather than onshore concrete ponds, reducing capital needs and making production less dependent on electricity.[2]
  - Low feed‑conversion advantage for tilapia: Emphasizes efficient tilapia production with low feed conversion ratios compared with other livestock, lowering cost per kg of protein.[2]
  - Anchor farm / outgrower model: Acts as a supplier of fingerlings, feed, training and possibly finance to smallholders—projecting hundreds of outgrowers—positioning Chicoa as a sector catalyst.[4]
  - Local impact & employment: Significant local hiring, training programs, and internships aimed at building regional aquaculture capability.[3][1]

Role in the Broader Tech / Agri Landscape

• Trend alignment: Rides the twin trends of rising protein demand in sub‑Saharan Africa and growing interest in sustainable, efficient aquaculture to fill capture‑fishery shortfalls.[2][4]
  - Timing: With African populations rising and inland capture fisheries in decline, scalable farmed fish supply has high demand urgency and policy support, increasing market pull for Chicoa’s model.[2]
  - Market forces in their favor: Proximity to regional markets (Mozambique, Zambia, Malawi), lower production costs from efficient feed conversion, and potential to sell inputs/technical services to many smallholders create diversified revenue paths.[3][4]
  - Influence on ecosystem: By building hatchery, feed and processing capacity and training outgrowers, Chicoa can reduce sector barriers and bootstrap local aquaculture clusters across the region.[4][3]

Quick Take & Future Outlook

• What’s next: Chicoa is scaling toward multi‑thousand‑tonne annual production, building larger hatchery and feed plants and a processing facility, and expanding an outgrower network to extend reach and resilience.[3][4]
  - Trends that will shape them: Regional demand growth for protein, availability of development finance, improvements in rural infrastructure and successful farmer financing/organization will determine speed of expansion.[4][3]
  - Potential influence: If Chicoa successfully integrates feed and processing and brings hundreds of trained outgrowers online, it could become a regional supplier and a practical template for sustainable, low‑carbon tilapia production in Southern Africa.[3][4]

Quick reiteration: Chicoa Fish Farm combines an efficient offshore tilapia production model with vertical integration and an explicit outgrower strategy to address Mozambique’s and Southern Africa’s protein deficit while building local capacity and value‑chain infrastructure.[1][2][4]