Who we are

Why we embarked on this journey

Why would a bunch of Dutch scientists and entrepreneurs care about the Arctic? For sure, the Dutch have shown an interest in the Arctic before, but the exploration of its natural resources throughout our history, like oil drilling, may not have been in the best interest of the Arctic itself…

In The Netherlands, we care a lot about ice, since we love to skate on our lakes and canals during the winter period. Unfortunately, due to global warming, natural ice is becoming increasingly rare and (speed) ice skating is now mostly done in indoor ice stadiums. But when the temperature does drop below the freezing point, a fierce competition starts about who can organize the first ice skating competition on ‘natural’ ice. To accelerate natural ice generation, so called ‘ijsmeesters’ pour layers of water on the ice, which will thicken and strengthen it after these layers freeze.

This principle of ice thickening is a solution that can be applied to parts of the Arctic ice sheet as well to enable the ice to survive the summer months. It has been proposed as a bridging solution to save the Arctic ice from disappearing before, but the feasibility to do this at scale has remained a question mark. We think we are well positioned to remove this question mark as we can leverage the extensive knowledge and experience of the Dutch water management ecosystem, with our world-class technical universities and some of the world’s largest dredging and offshore companies. 

To make a real impact, we will have to thicken an ice area the size of the Benelux, in a smart way. This will require working together with local communities and helping them maintain their environment. It will also require large investments. We believe that the only way to attract these funds is by founding a social, impact-driven enterprise. Investing in us should be just as attractive as investing in any other commercial company. Therefore, we are not a non-profit organization, but an impact driven startup. We strive to create an environmental reward for the planet, while building a business model to attract investors.