“The ocean is an extraordinary resource that we aren’t currently using – we’re exploiting it, but we’re not managing it correctly.” That’s the assessment of Harry Wright, the founder of Bright Tide, a UK company that helps startups to grow through targeted accelerator programmes. It also works with private sector partners to help them understand and tackle biodiversity loss. 

Bright Tide selected the Sea Ranger Service to take part in its first blue economy accelerator programme in 2022. Selected entrepreneurs receive eight weeks of online training and support to get them ready to take on investment. Corporate partners who support the programme with capital, expertise and other resources include global law firm Hogan Lovells, UK property management company The Crown Estate, and consulting business EY.

Wright sees Bright Tide as bridging the gap between the private sector and the innovators who can solve some of the world’s gravest problems. He believes it's “a tricky world” for changemakers and that engaging the private sector is important. “There is only so much grant funding you can apply for or philanthropy available and it’s not a scalable proposition.”

Pursuing profit

Funding is a major problem for social enterprises and it’s a reason many can’t scale quickly enough, or fail altogether. The World Economic Forum estimates that, while the world's 10m social enterprises create 200m jobs and US$2tn in annual revenue, the funding gap is a “significant” $1.1tn. Most social enterprises need patient capital because it can take longer to generate profits; as a result, higher levels of investment from the likes of venture capitalists can be hard to attract, and many rely on one small grant after another. 

The Sea Ranger Service has bucked the trend by building a profitable business since its inception in 2016. Initially, most of the money came from impact investors; it also received a €500,000 innovation grant from the Dutch Postcode Lottery in 2020 and in 2023 secured financing from the Triodos Sustainable Finance Foundation, NESEC Ship Finance and PDENH, a Dutch sustainable impact fund. Van Der Werf reckons backers are drawn to the unique business proposition of working in deprived coastal communities. “Many investment funds realised that no one really does something in this space and there’s a real need for these types of ocean solutions,” he says.

The need is critical, by some estimates. The ocean covers more than 70% of the planet and sequesters half the carbon dioxide on Earth. Nearly 40% of the global population lives within 100km of the coast, many of whom rely on it for their livelihoods. And yet, according to the OECD, sustainable development goal 14 – life below water – is among the least financed of all the SDGs, with an estimated additional US$149bn a year needed for conservation goals.

Since 2018, the Sea Ranger Service has serviced 17 government contracts for conservation work, 15 of which had never before been contracted to an external party, according to van der Werf. “These contracts are big and there aren’t really many startups doing it because the capital investment needed to have a ship at sea is high,” he says. The sailing vessel allows the enterprise to take on offshore work, bringing in enough revenue to run the social programmes. 

One of these contracts is to do marine mammal observations in the Celtic Sea for The Crown Estate, a UK landowner that manages some of the seabed and coastline around England, Wales and Northern Ireland. This type of work is usually only done by a handful of larger maritime companies – and van der Werf says they're the only social enterprise currently contracted to do it there. This type of work has been so successful, in fact, that the enterprise is building a second sailing ship, to be completed later this year.

To scale further the business is expanding, through a social franchising programme that would replicate the Sea Ranger Service business model in other countries. It’s actively looking for entrepreneurs in France and the UK, building on the bootcamps that have already been run there, with Spain the next target. The business model lends itself to franchising, van der Werf explains, because it would take years of development to start from scratch but they’re offering successful applicants an out-of-the-box solution. 

What is social franchising?

Social franchising is a method of expansion for social enterprises. It works in a similar way to commercial franchising and enables the organisation to scale and expand the reach of operations, and provide the same services in new markets and locations, working with a local social franchisee partner. Social franchising allows both parties flexibility within their role in the franchise model, while also ensuring the goals, brand and resources from the parent company are fully realised by the franchisees.
_{Source: Franchise Company}

Importantly, the founder adds, they are financially sustainable. Turnover in 2023 was €1.1m, and for 2024 is expected to be €2.5m. Fast-forward 10 or 15 years, and he foresees “all sorts of capacity building, we are building infrastructure, we are restoring and managing oceans at scale without any philanthropic funds”.

Wright from Bright Tide believes social finance has to be leveraged more effectively to support the blue economy. “Organisations like UnLtd and Better Society Capital do a commendable job in backing entrepreneurs tackling social issues such as homelessness and economic inequality,” he observes. “However, there is an increasing need for social finance to also support entrepreneurs working on climate and biodiversity initiatives.” Those he meets through Bright Tide need flexible financing with favourable interest rates, supplemented by grants and revenue participation agreements. These types of terms are not easily secured through conventional providers.

For Sea Ranger Service, one of the bigger challenges while developing an initial business strategy was in fact pushing back on some of his pro bono advisers, who thought the business needed more focus. They asked van der Werf to choose: did he want to train young people, did he want a government contract, to build ships, or to restore nature? “I detested that,” he says. “I thought the strength is that this comes together.” He says a turning point was when he got the navy, an important stakeholder, on board – a development that caused others to take note.

Apart from the offshore work, one current project at Sea Ranger Service is planting seagrass – some species of which can sequester 30 times more carbon per hectare than a forest – in 13 locations in the Eastern Scheldt estuary in the south of The Netherlands. Another project in the Wadden Sea, headed up by the science lead who also guides Sea Rangers, has more than tripled seagrass restoration, from 350 hectares a few years ago to over 1,200 today. “That’s the largest successful intertidal seagrass restoration in the world,” reports van der Werf.

And it’s young people who are doing the work, with no extensive training required. Selected Sea Rangers go through a nine-day bootcamp run by navy officers and other professionals. As soon as they finish they are paid a living wage for a contract to work full time for between six months and a year. Some work on restoration projects, while others are trained as drone pilots and others go out to sea.

Overall, Sea Ranger Service has employed 172 young people, and half of them have gone on to get jobs in the maritime industry. It’s also addressing the traditional gender imbalance in this industry. While women represent only 1.2% of seafarers globally, a striking 72% of the 1,000 applicants to the Sea Ranger Service so far have been women – which van der Werf says is a testament to making this line of work more attractive and safer than is usually the case. 

Twenty-year-old Ted Artingstall is from Devon in the UK. He’s never had a job before but is spending some of his summer before finishing his university degree working as one of eight Sea Rangers on its ship in the Celtic Sea. He agrees that unemployment is a problem for young people in his area. “We are a seafaring nation, lots of young people should be eager to get stuck into sailing like this, but there aren’t many opportunities,” he tells Pioneers Post from aboard the ship.   

Artingstall is currently monitoring marine wildlife and says he feels very lucky to be learning things that can't be taught in a classroom. He says he will never forget the first time they went out to sea and he felt the power of raising the mainsail in his hands. He’s now hoping to forge a career in an ocean-related field. 

Van der Werf is most proud of training the next generation of maritime professionals and making the sea an exciting prospect once more. “Many young people feel they are left behind and that they don’t play a part. Disenfranchising, I think, is a real danger. We need active, productive, happy citizens who feel they have a role to play in the world.”