Canadian agtech commercialization organization wins award

The work of a national agtech commercialization organization has been recognized with an award from the government of Ontario.

Bioenterprise Canada was named one of the winners of an Excellence in Research and Innovation award at the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA)’s 2023 Excellence in Agriculture Awards late last fall.

Why it matters: The 2023 Excellence in Agriculture Awards recognizes individuals, businesses, and organizations that drive the Ontario agriculture industry forward.

Bioenterprise, also known as Canada’s Food & Agri-Tech Engine, specializes in helping businesses bring their food and agri-tech innovations to market. Although many organizations in Canada are available to help early-stage entrepreneurs, there are few resources to support companies through the commercialization and market adoption phases of innovation — a phase some might argue is the most critical of all.

Bioenterprise has developed a particular specialization to address that gap and meet the needs of this particular category of agricultural innovators.

Now in its 21st year, Bioenterprise has supported more than 2500 innovative agtech companies, helped launch approximately 2000 technologies, generated $285 million in follow-on investment in Canadian agriculture and agri-food, and yielded a 200:1 return on invested dollars.

“We work with a lot of innovative, entrepreneurial companies from all parts of Canada to help them in a variety of ways to bring new technologies to market,” says Bioenterprise CEO Dave Smardon.

“We’re extremely pleased to receive this award in recognition of our efforts, and we will continue to do whatever we can to fill this critical gap in Canada’s ag innovation landscape and help get these new technologies into the marketplace and adopted by the ag sector.”

A key component of the organization’s services for innovators is access to its national network of mentors and advisers, who last year alone provided over 1,170 mentorship hours to Bioenterprise members.

As a program delivery agent and partner for a range of innovation-funding support programs nationwide, Bioenterprise has invested almost $10 million in over 140 projects and companies across Canada since 2020.

In Ontario, for example, Bioenterprise delivered OMAFRA’s Fertilizer Accelerating Solutions and Technology Challenge over the last two years, which helped alternative fertilizer innovations move from research to a market entry phase.

One of the most notable innovations supported through the challenge was CRF Agritech’s patented coating technology that can be applied to a wide range of fertilizers to protect and control their release into the environment. This both reduces the amount of fertilizer farmers need and makes nutrients available to crops when they need them.

Last fall, CRF opened a new facility in St. Thomas, where one of the company’s new fertilizers called PurYield will be produced.

In Atlantic Canada, Bioenterprise has long been delivering the GreenShoots program in partnership with Invest Nova Scotia and the Nova Scotia Innovation Hub.

Nova Scotia’s RFINE Biomass Solutions Inc. has developed an innovative solution to help coffee shops upcycle their coffee waste, most of which currently ends up in landfill. In Canada alone, an estimated two million kilograms a day or 80 tractor-trailer loads of coffee grind waste is generated every day.

RFINE’s in-store collection and processing system removes water from the spent grinds, which are then handed off to animal feed and human food ingredient manufacturing partners for repurposing.

This year, Bioenterprise will be launching the Grow Ontario Accelerator Hub as well as delivering the Ontario Agri-Food Research Initiative (OAFRI) commercialization stream, both funded by the provincial and federal governments through the Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership.

This new programming will support Ontario-based companies in bringing their agriculture and agri-food focused innovations to market, by providing funding for activities like market validation, product development and field trials.

Bioenterprise has recently taken on a more active role in raising awareness of the key role innovation plays in the agri-food sector through funding received from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through its AgriCommunications program.

Since late 2022, the organization has been sharing stories of businesses and industry leaders who are shaping the future of food and agri-tech across Canada and showcasing many of the country’s unique ag innovations that will support the future sustainability of the sector.