Participated · Seed · Jan 2026

Maia Farms is a Vancouver-based food-tech company that engineers mushroom and mycelium ingredients through liquid-state fermentation, extrusion processing, and a proprietary "fungal intelligence" platform. Its products target food manufacturers that want sustainable, nutrient-dense alternatives to conventional animal or plant proteins. The startup already collaborates with more than 70 global service companies and maintains an impact partnership with The Greater Vancouver Food Bank. With a focus on scaling, Maia plans to accelerate commercial production, broaden its ingredient portfolio, and deepen partnerships across the food industry. The firm will also expand its fermentation and extrusion capacity to meet anticipated demand. Including non-dilutive capital, the company has secured more than $6.5 million in funding to date, underscoring strong early investor and grant support for its technology and mission.

Participated · Seed · Oct 2024

Ergo Bioscience is a plant cell biotechnology company that grows engineered carrot cell lines in bioreactors to express complex animal proteins, an approach it positions as an alternative to microbial precision fermentation for proteins that yeast and bacteria produce poorly. Its EUKARYA platform combines gene editing, multi-omics and AI-guided cell line design, and its initial portfolio covers bovine myoglobin — the heme protein behind beef's colour, flavour and aroma — alongside alpha-S1 and kappa caseins for animal-free dairy, with immunoglobulins and a broader line of plant metabolites for food, personal care and health in development. The company is pre-revenue and awaiting regulatory clearance in the United States, its principal target market, and in 2022 partnered with Italy's Aethera Biotech to scale its bioprocesses on a plant cell culturing platform with capacity above 120 tonnes per year. Following an October 2024 investment from the Global Agri-Food Advancement Partnership, Ergo is opening offices and cell line R&D capabilities in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, housed in GAAP's incubator labs, as its route into North America. Founded in 2019 by Alejandro Barbarini, Eduardo Peña and María Laura García, the company is headquartered in Sunchales, Santa Fe, with research split between the CITES incubator there and the National University of La Plata, a holding company in Delaware, and a team of around twelve as of 2023. Financially, Ergo raised a seed financing from CITES alongside public co-financing through Argentina's FONDCE, followed by investments from Pascual Innoventures in September 2023 and GAAP in October 2024; the articles do not disclose the amounts of the latter two rounds or a total raised to date.

Led · Equity · Sep 2024

Nulife GreenTech is a Saskatoon, Saskatchewan startup that diverts waste from landfills to create bioproducts using a patented HydroThermal Liquefaction (HTL) technology. Its HTL process transforms agricultural residues, food manufacturing waste and sewage sludge into sustainable biocrude oil. The company describes the technology as modular and scalable, and particularly suited to processing food and dairy waste. Nulife raised $300K from Ag-West Bio and intends to use the funds to expand its commercial pilot to meet supply demand. It is targeting a full commercial plant for late 2024/2025 and is moving toward commercialization through pilot expansion. NULIFE has also been selected by Frontier as part of its 2024 prepurchase cycle, linking it to organizations founded by Stripe, Alphabet, Shopify, Meta, and McKinsey.

Led · Equity · May 2017

Smart Earth Seeds is a vertically-integrated plant-breeding company in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, focused on developing high-omega meal and oil products from its proprietary camelina genetics platform. Its camelina products are positioned as a sustainable source of ALA with a favorable Omega3:Omega6 ratio and are rich in vitamin E and natural antioxidants. The company has generated over $1 million in sales, including significant revenue from the aquafeed industry, and has received Canadian Food Inspection Agency approvals for camelina meal in poultry feeds and camelina oil for salmon and trout. Established markets include poultry, aquaculture, companion pets, equine, cattle and dairy, and several cosmetics customers using camelina oil. Smart Earth plans to release new varieties offering non-GMO herbicide resistance, larger seed size, and improved Omega3:Omega6 ratios, and is executing a 2017 production and marketing plan. Its plant-breeding activities aim to maximize yield and profitability for farmers and diversify revenue streams across feed and high-margin consumer applications.