Innovacorp has awarded two Nova Scotia ocean-tech companies $50,000 each through its Blue Solutions Start-Up Challenge.

The Nova Scotia venture capital and innovation agency said in a statement Thursday that Luna Ocean Consulting and Pelagis Data Solutions won the competition after pitching their prototypes and business models to a panel of judges.

Luna and Pelagis both specialize in collecting and analysing data but do so within different ocean sectors.

Luna, founded by Gregory Trowse, tracks water flows for tidal energy projects. Engineers can use this information to optimize the location and power output of tidal turbines. The system could be used, for example, with Cape Sharp Tidal Venture’s in-stream tidal turbines.

The company said its technology can reduce turbine failures and improve energy predictions, which lead to lower operational costs.

Pelagis, founded by Glenn Laughlin in Sydney, provides a resource management and analytics platform for ocean food producers.

“Blue Solutions opened doors to collaborate with many other Atlantic Canadian start-ups, each with a common goal towards supporting growth and innovation in our ocean-based economy overall,” said Laughlin.

“We plan to use the funding from the competition across three initiatives: engage with academia and industry associations, acquire our first customers, and maintain our momentum by leveraging the ocean tech community and collaborating with other start-ups.”

This was the second round of the startup challenge for Luna and Pelagis after winning $10,000 during the first round in October. The first Blue Solutions Challenge received over 47 applicants after its call for submissions in September and offered $200,000 in cash prizes.

Innovacorp and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency accepted applications from all over the world for Blue Solutions, which is an effort to find innovative solutions to problems in the ocean sector.

The competition aims to build on the ocean technology sector across Atlantic Canada and attract new founders to the start-up community in Nova Scotia.

Disclosure: Innovacorp and ACOA are clients of Entrevestor.