Amy Novogratz fought back from a brain tumor that could have killed her to build the world’s largest sustainable aquaculture investment fundan oyster-hatchery owner, the creator of a chip made from dehydrated salmon skins, a grocery buyer, a restaurateur and a reporter for a dinner party in her Manhattan loft.
This past June, Aqua-Spark’s holdings in 19 portfolio companies were valued at $180 million. In 2019, it posted a net internal rate of return of 21.75%—impressive, especially given that that’s net of the 1% annual fee and 20% of gains that go to a for-profit management company 60% owned by Novogratz and Velings. Despite the pandemic, Novogratz expects an IRR this year in excess of 20%.
With its in-it-for-the-long-haul approach, Aqua-Spark has yet to sell a single holding. It expects companies in its portfolio to pay all employees a living wage and to prioritize transparency for scientific results. Several of its investments are in farms, which must minimize antibiotics and chemical use and limit polluting discharge.
Their relationship blossomed over the next seven months, but then Novogratz started having worrisome seizures. By October, she had received her brain tumor diagnosis. After the surgery, Velings proposed at her hospital bedside. She accepted but said she needed time to get her life back—she had to learn to walk again. Within a few months, Novogratz was back working at TED. “It was way too early,’’ she admits now. “I didn’t know how to stop pushing. It was my identity.
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