13 Ontario agri-tech companies receive grants

Guelph, Ont. – Bioenterprise Corporation has announced grants to 13 agri-tech companies in Ontario.

Bioenterprise is a national, non-profit business accelerator that offers commercialization services to support businesses in the agricultural technology sector.

The Innovation Grants the company awarded are made possible through the Agri-Technology Commercialization Centre’s (ATCC) Accelerating Innovative Research (AIR) Program.

The AIR program – which is supported by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs – helps innovators from Ontario’s universities and colleges as well as industry organizations. The idea is to “fill knowledge, technical, business or entrepreneurial gaps in order to accelerate adoption of new technologies by the agriculture and agri-food industris.”

In a statement Bioenterprise says “the grants aim to advance commercialization of innovations, enhance competitiveness, and strengthen the leadership position of Ontario in the agriculture and agri-food sectors.”

The 13 agri-tech companies are going to be sharing a total of $510,000. Each company will receive between $30,000 and $50,000 in funding.

The list of companies are:

·      Oat & Mill Ltd., Smith Falls, Ont.: Ice cream made from oats

·       The Chufa Company, Toronto, Ont.: Tigernut-milk ice cream

·       University of Western Ontario, London, Ont.

·       Local Line Inc., Kitchener, Ont.: Bringing local food to more Ontarians

·       Crazy D’s Soda Lab, Toronto, Ont.: Prebiotic, hand-crafted, low-sugar sodas

·       Conestoga College, Kitchener, Ont.

·       Beef Improvement Organization (BIO), Elora, Ont.

·       Mirexus Biotechnologies Inc., Guelph, Ont.: extracting glycogen from corn

·       Club Coffee LP, Toronto, Ont.: Coffee roaster; created the bio-based PurPod100

·       Nature’s Wave Inc., Milverton, Ont.: liquid vitamin and mineral supplements for horses and livestock

·       Transport Genie Ltd., Guelph, Ont.

·       Vive Crop Protection Inc., Toronto, Ont.: Using trusted crop protection products in news ways; more productive and sustainable

·       Escarpment Laboratories Inc., Guelph, Ont.: Yeast research; isolating yeast from beer and Ontario’s wilderness; creating new cultures of yeast

The funding, says the statement, is going “toward pre-approved projects with a five-month timeline that advance commercialization of technology and greatly increase the probability of attracting follow-up funding for further technology development and industry adoption.”

Bioenterprise Corporation is funded through the Growing Forward 2, a federal-provincial-territorial initiative.