Gulf of Maine Ventures
Building a resilient, modernized 21st-century marine economy by supporting and investing in high-impact companies.
Gulf of Maine Ventures is the business development and impact investment arm of the Gulf of Maine Research Institute. Starting in Portland, ME, we bridge the gap between innovative, blue economy businesses and the capital, technical knowledge, and networks needed to help them grow.
We catalyze solutions to global ocean challenges by creating, scaling, and investing in innovative blue economy companies.
- Create: We incubate ideas into commercial businesses, both from within GMRI and sometimes externally with partners.
- Scale: We draw from our deep industry knowledge, science and business technical advisory, and large network to help start-ups succeed.
- Invest: Our team includes experienced scientists, entrepreneurs, and venture capitalists, and we partner with founders to help their startups reach maximum financial and impact returns.
Our Work
Explore our early work, including new ventures, workforce efforts, and strategic partnerships.
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Our Portfolio
Our team engages in a mix of work that spans traditional economic development, company creation, technical assistance, business strategy development and hands-on mentoring of select …
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Investors
We are partnering with Bold Ocean Ventures Management LLC to finance ocean-related businesses that meet our ocean and climate sustainability goals.
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Our Partnerships
Building strong partnerships within our region around blue economy innovation continues to be a core strategy for us, and we are pleased with our growing …
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Blue Economy Innovation Corridor
We are combining the technical expertise of GMRI with business formation and support services to forge a pathway for Blue Economy entrepreneurs and start ups, …
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True Fin: Premium Gulf of Maine Seafood
True Fin was founded to realize the maximum potential for seafood from the New England region.
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New England Marine Monitoring
New England Marine Monitoring is an electronic monitoring (EM) services company that provides video review, on-vessel technical support, and program design service to New England …
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Scallop Aquaculture Initiative
In January 2021, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute, the University of Maine, and Coastal Enterprises, Inc. convened to form the Scallop Aquaculture Initiative (SAI), …

Gulf of Maine Ventures FAQ
Have questions about this initiative? We provide answers in this FAQ document.
Ventures News
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GMRI gets fed grant to help seafood businesses innovate
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Tech firm born in Maine uses AI to monitor commercial fishing
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True Fin raises $1M in its first investment round
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New: Gulf of Maine Ventures
The Gulf of Maine Research Institute is establishing Gulf of Maine Ventures — a portfolio of mission-based for-profit ventures. The Portland-based marine nonprofit, which remains …
Announcements