Background

The Global Ocean Innovation Challenge is a new collaboration between The Nature Conservancy (TNC), Yayasan Konservasi Alam Nusantara (YKAN), and Newlab. The challenge will incentivize startup organizations to design technologies and solve information gaps to address critical ocean conservation challenges. Together, we will source ideas from the greatest technology minds around the world and align them with real-world conservation needs in the water and on the coasts in close collaboration with Indonesia governments and communities. The challenge will be launched in Asia Pacific, with initial pilots focused on large-scale fisheries and marine protected areas (MPAs). 

Selected startups will co-design and deploy real world pilots with The Nature Conservancy, YKAN, and Newlab, gaining access to non-dilutive stipend funding, subject matter experts, infrastructure assets, relevant datasets and on the ground support.

Pilots will launch in Spring 2026, with the goal of generating measurable impact and scalable models for long-term adoption.

Together, we’ll identify opportunities where critical technologies can advance marine conservation, and source ocean-focused startups to deploy their technology in Indonesia and the Asia Pacific region, more broadly. This Challenge aims to surface and pilot critical technology and inform global conservation strategies.

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Why This Matters

Southeast Asia, home to more than 70% of the world’s coral reef species and a crucial source of food for 120 million people worldwide. It leads the Asia Pacific region in its goal to protect 97.5M ha by 2045 which represents 30% of its marine area. 

Conservation goals are outpacing available tools. As nations commit to protecting 30% of their marine areas, there is a growing opportunity to strengthen implementation and translate ambition into impact. New innovation pathways are needed to strengthen enforcement, expand data coverage, and reduce costs for governments and NGOs. Asia Pacific is a frontline region for climate and ocean change; innovations proven effective here can unlock new models for conservation, enforcement, and community engagement that can be applied worldwide.

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Our Thesis

Through the Global Ocean Innovation Challenge, we aim to accelerate the scale and impact of conservation solutions in strengthening marine ecosystem health by addressing overfishing, improving the availability of actionable data for management, restoring marine habitats, and enhancing coastal resilience. Emerging technologies offer new ways to meet these challenges head-on, especially in contexts where monitoring and enforcement capacity is limited. This program aims to harness startup-led innovation to close the data and response gap to scale impact. 

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Opportunity Spaces

PILOT TRACK ONE: SMALL SCALE VESSEL LOCATION & ACTIVITY MONITORING

When trying to manage an MPA, identifying when small vessels are operating within the MPA boundaries and for what purpose is crucial to generate actionable data when MPA encroachment and illegal activity occurs. While large-scale fishing vessels are required to broadcast their geographic location via AIS and sometimes VMS, roughly 98% of the world's 4.9 million fishing vessels do not publicly broadcast their locations. 

What we’re looking for: 

• Incentives for vessel operators to adopt solutions
• Encroachment alert integration for MPA managers and fishing vessels
• Solutions should be scalable towards larger vessels

PILOT TRACK TWO - ADVANCING BIODIVERSITY MONITORING, OPTIMIZING ENFORCEMENT

The high cost and resource-intensity of conventional enforcement responses (ships and aircraft) to encroachment and illegal activity in MPAs makes effective enforcement difficult, preventing timely responses or evidence collection. This gap undermines the capacity needed to respond rapidly to illegal activity and reduces deterrence capabilities.

What we’re looking for: 

• Incentives for community adoptions
• Ease of integration with existing government systems

PILOT TRACK THREE - DATA ANALYTICS PLATFORM FOR EM SYSTEMS

Electronic monitoring (EM) systems generate vast volumes of video data that are costly and slow to process (manual review can account for up to 60% of program costs and often delays the delivery of actionable insights to fishery managers and supply chains by months). At the same time, EM data flows are institutionally complex, with unclear data ownership, access rights, and distribution pathways, challenges that are particularly acute in multi-jurisdictional fisheries such as the Western and Central Pacific tuna longline fishery. Together, these constraints limit EM systems’ ability to support timely decision-making.

What we’re looking for: 

• Single integrated platform
• Mixed methods data inputs
• Cyber / data security
• Plan for cross-border data collection and compliance with local data regulations
• Insights generated could contribute to supply chain traceability
• Provide valuable insights
  for fishing industry
• Reasonable costs for adoption and maintenance of software solution

Who Should Apply

‍We welcome startup companies at any stage that are:

• Pursuing Asia Pacific as a market with long-term interest in the region
• Piloting company is a startup with a solution at a TRL 6 (TRL 6: Prototype Demonstrated in Relevant Environment) or higher.
• Demonstrates / tests the effectiveness of the technology in solving conservation challenges, 

• Can show promise from a business model perspective and present clear opportunities for scaling without solely relying on philanthropic funding,
• Provides a process that engages local stakeholders and is of interest to corporate investors.
• Provides a solution that is cost appropriate for the target end user to allow for continued addition post-pilot
• Demonstrates commitment and readiness (with strategy) to expand / replicate their impact across targeted regions and sites
• Complies with required social and environmental safeguards for responsible implementation
• Able to integrate and interoperate with existing monitoring and data systems, supported by clear data governance

Newlab Support

• Work with Newlab team to design a pilot to help scale your business in-line with market requirements and engage with The Nature Conservancy global and YKAN
• Access to Newlab and a peer community of 250+ companies, advisors and $5M+ in on-site prototyping resources in New York 
• Total non-dilutive stipend funding pool of $200K from Newlab divided among participating companies
  
  1. Non-dilutive funding stipend to support your pilot and advance your roadmap in-line with demonstrated market needs 
  2. Collaborate with The Nature Conservancy, YKAN, and other local partners to generate learnings of mutual interest and explore follow-on paths for engagement
  3. Access to Newlab’s investor network, peer community and prototyping support

Key Dates:

Open Call Launch: January 5th, 2026

Open call closes: February 6th, 2026

Startup Selection: February 2026

Contracting and Pilot Design: March  and April 2026

Pilots Launch: April 2026

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Click here to apply.

Learn more about the program and pilot tracks here.

Questions? Email GOIC@newlab.com