SWEN Blue Ocean at Harvard Business School: When Impact Investing Fuels Strategic Debate
For the second consecutive year, SWEN Blue Ocean has been featured at Harvard Business School, illustrating the growing academic and investor interest in ocean‑focused impact investing.
As in 2025, our strategy served as the basis for in‑depth discussions on how capital can accelerate the transition toward a sustainable ocean economy while addressing complex financial and strategic trade‑offs.
Last week, this continued collaboration took shape through a new teaching session built around the case “SWEN Blue Ocean: Impact Investing Goes to Sea”, led by Professor Shawn Cole.
- the key questions an institutional investor (LP) would raise when evaluating an impact fund,
- how a player like SWEN can respond to them,
- and the ethical, financial, and strategic dilemmas raised by certain ocean‑related innovations.
- Should investment be limited to technologies with exclusively positive impact?
- Or should investors also support so‑called “dual‑use” innovations with strong transformative potential, provided they can help steer their trajectory toward a net‑positive impact?
These reflections perfectly illustrate our conviction: impact cannot simply be declared — it is built over time, alongside committed entrepreneurs.
The discussions also highlighted the key role played by insurance investors, historically strongly represented in SWEN Blue Ocean, underscoring a powerful alignment between sustainability challenges, climate risk management, and long‑term investment strategies.
Finally, the session was enriched by the inspiring journey of Ela Gökçiğdem, an entrepreneur and educator dedicated to ocean sustainability, whose work perfectly embodies the link between innovation, public policy, education, and investment.
Thank you to Harvard Business School, Shawn Cole, Ela Gökçiğdem, and the students for the quality of the discussions, as well as to our investor partners for their continued trust.
Access the HBS case here : SWEN Blue Ocean: Impact Investing Goes to Sea – Case – Faculty & Research – Harvard Business School
