FlyWire

FlyWire Cameras is a data services company that delivers electronic monitoring and catch verification for commercial fishing vessels. Its turn-key "digital observer" service combines onboard camera hardware, patented technology and proprietary automation to produce precise, verified catch data, positioned as an alternative to compliance-only electronic monitoring and to traditional human observer programs, whose costs it aims to reduce [0][3][7]. The offering spans personalized onboarding, standardized crew training, technical support, secure data transfer, automated analysis and reporting of results, and the company states producers can begin contributing cooperative research data in as little as 60 days [0][3].

The company frames monitoring as a value-added business tool rather than a regulatory requirement: its software, which uses artificial intelligence algorithms, compiles customized analytical reports telling clients how and where to fish, how to handle catch and how to meet regulatory obligations, and can provide haul-by-haul verification against specifications such as protected-species thresholds and bycatch limits. It can also generate reports evidencing compliance with buyer-specific sourcing preferences [7]. FlyWire delivers hardware, technical services and data insights to fishermen while streamlining fishery managers' access to stock-assessment information [4].

FlyWire emphasizes that fishing businesses own their data, which FlyWire analyzes, stores and shares with regulators as needed, and keeps client data confidential to address industry concerns about disclosing fishing grounds or gear practices [6][7]. It supports the use of that data in cooperative research to improve fishery management [0][3].

Founding story

Co-founders Jacob Isaac-Lowry, an engineer, and Sarah Alessi, a marine biologist who previously worked at NOAA and specialized in species frequently caught as bycatch, met at the University of Michigan in 2002 and launched FlyWire in 2014 while both were working in Hawai'i. The company was founded in Lexington, Kentucky around intellectual property on camera miniaturization [6][7].

Business model

B2B: fishing companies are the customers, purchasing monitoring hardware, technical services and data analysis on annual contracts that FlyWire works to renew; as a private-sector third-party provider it handles the workflow from point of catch to data delivery and shares data with regulators on the client's behalf [0][3][6].

Subscription-style annual catch monitoring contracts with commercial fishing producers, including hardware, technical services and data insights [0][3][4].

Traction

Just over USD 1 million in revenue to date as of June 2019, with a team of six; work completed with vessels in the United States, a fleet of 200 gillnet boats in Mexico and a small number of vessels in South America [7]. As of January 2023, pilot projects were running on the U.S. West and East coasts [6].

Latest developments

A January 2023 founder interview described FlyWire as a Keyhorse Capital-backed digital monitoring platform working with fishers and seafood suppliers on at-sea verification of sustainable fishing, with near-term goals of converting West and East coast pilot projects into fleet-wide deployments [6].