The sustainable blue economy has doubled over the past 30 years to $2.6 trillion, supporting over 100 million jobs and projected to outpace overall global economic growth. While historically seen as risky or outside the scope for traditional investors, many are increasingly recognizing the sector’s significant growth potential.
At Climate Week NYC 2025, Builders Vision convened a panel of entrepreneurs and investors to explore how institutional investors are engaging with the emerging market opportunities in the blue economy.
Led by Peter Bryant, Program Director, Oceans at Builders Vision, the panel featured: Ido Sella, Co-founder and CEO of ECOncrete; Insiya Jafferjee, Co-founder and CEO of Shellworks; Samy Muaddi, Head of Emerging Markets Fixed Income at T. Rowe Price; and Sarah Edwards, Senior Investment Director, Sustainable and Impact Investing at Cambridge Associates.
Central to the conversation were the innovations and investment tools that are sparking momentum in the blue economy.
“We're willing to take risks and be first in the market to demonstrate that there are market solutions out there for healthy oceans,” said Peter Bryant, Program Director, Oceans at Builders Vision.
The discussion began with entrepreneurs Ido and Insiya, who highlighted the solutions they’ve developed to reduce environmental impact in coastal and marine ecosystems. Insiya is tackling the effects of plastic waste, while Ido is addressing the environmental cost of coastal construction. What started as big ideas have grown into businesses that are both profitable and actively strengthen our oceans.
The conversation underscored the importance of early, patient capital in helping companies like Insiya’s and Ido’s bring their solutions to scale, showing how strategic early investment is crucial to turning innovative ideas into action. Building on the success of these innovative companies, the dialogue shifted to the role of institutional investors in a maturing blue economy. The panelists explored what opportunities attract the attention of traditional investors and the factors that will ultimately drive them to commit capital.
“We see more non-impact-focused institutional investors entering the market. As a result, there's much more validation across private markets in scaling climate-tech solutions and infrastructure,” said Sarah Edwards, Senior Investment Director, Sustainable and Impact Investing at Cambridge Associates.
There is already strong interest from traditional investors, with institutional capital beginning to flow toward the growing oceans investment space. While still nascent, the blue economy has demonstrated commercial potential. Investors are gaining confidence as they see positive market signals, including strong performance from oceans-focused funds, backing from established investors and clear pathways to integrate the sector into institutional portfolios.
This suggests the blue economy could move beyond the early-stage, high-risk phase into a space where strategic, patient capital delivers both financial returns and measurable environmental impact.
“Together with our partners, what we're hoping to do is build a market that doesn't exist. We're proving a viable investment model for Blue Bonds that should catalyze investment both for the use of proceeds in those transactions, but also bring other investors into this category,” said Samy Muaddi, Head of Emerging Markets Fixed Income at T. Rowe Price.
One powerful example of this market validation is the recent launch of T. Rowe Price’s blue bond strategy, designed to address the chronic underfunding of marine sustainability and clean water projects in emerging markets. Samy emphasized that their team goes beyond allocating capital – their goal is to build the blue finance ecosystem. By collaborating with bond issuers to structure deals, select projects and track impact, T. Rowe Price is leveraging the scale of the global bond market to turn blue bonds into investable opportunities.
By the end of the panel, it was clear that momentum is building in the blue economy. Mobilizing institutional capital alongside emerging financing solutions is key to unlocking its multi-trillion-dollar potential, demonstrating that investors can achieve returns while supporting ocean sustainability and resilience.