Led · Equity · Feb 2025

Quadshift acquires vertically focused, mission-critical B2B software businesses and builds strong independent platform companies by integrating talent and specialized operating resources. The firm emphasizes talent acquisition from strategic buys and provides strategic guidance, best practices, and hands-on resources across finance, back office, marketing, sales, IT, and product development. Quadshift uses AI to drive a leading-edge approach to sourcing and executing deals, simplifying and expediting the process for founders. It offers founders the option to exit completely or retain significant upside as shareholders in a larger, rapidly growing software company. The company plans to accelerate conversion of its acquisition pipeline and pursue long-term growth through continued acquisitions and organic initiatives. Quadshift was launched in 2017 and positions itself as a preferred buyer for top vertical market software companies.

Participated · Equity · Feb 2019

Hortau specializes in wireless and web-based crop irrigation management systems for high-value crops including tree crops, vines, vegetables and berries. Its patented technology combines real-time soil tension sensor data with a simple-to-use mobile and web platform to enable growers to anticipate crop water needs and schedule irrigation. Managing irrigation based on soil tension is designed to ensure optimal plant-available water, maximize photosynthesis and transpiration, and improve yields and quality while reducing water use, energy consumption, pesticide usage and fertilizer leaching. Hortau reports its real-time field monitoring stations have been contracted on about 270,000 acres in the U.S. and Canada since 2002. The company has headquarters in San Luis Obispo, California, and in Quebec, Canada. A $7.7 million senior secured debt commitment from Lewis & Clark AgriFood is intended to advance Hortau’s work helping producers achieve higher-quality crops and more efficient input use. Hortau, founded in 2002 and based in Levis, Québec, provides precision irrigation management services to help growers detect crop stress and optimize growth. The company’s technology aims to reduce water use, energy consumption and nutrient loss for commercial agriculture. Hortau was founded by Dr. Jean Caron and Jocelyn Boudreau, both specialists in soil physics. The company recently launched a new application that unifies mobile and web views, streamlines real-time irrigation management data, and offers a dashboard and map overview for fields, soil tension, weather and other field data. Hortau closed a $20M equity funding round to support its operations. The company intends to use the proceeds to accelerate product development, growth and continued international expansion. Hortau builds wireless, web-based irrigation management systems that monitor crops in real time and detect plant stress to optimize crop growth while reducing water and energy use. The company’s patented hardware and software deliver mobile software and reporting tools for growers and are designed to eliminate environmental impacts of crop production. Hortau plans to use the new funding to increase field support and add new features to its hardware and software, adding more versatility to the platform. Its technology is positioned as particularly relevant amid drought conditions in California and other U.S. regions. Founded in 2002 by Dr. Jean Caron and Jocelyn Boudreau, Hortau operates U.S. operations from San Luis Obispo, Calif., and maintains offices, representatives and technicians throughout North America. Hortau develops patented, wireless soil monitoring and irrigation management products that provide real-time crop management and are scientifically proven to improve yields, reduce environmental impact and energy costs, and maximize fertilizer and water efficiency. The company operates a SaaS/Ag platform and currently has 5,000 monitoring stations and 25,000 sensors installed across more than 600 farms in the US and Canada, collecting over 100,000 data points per hour. Hortau offers precision irrigation services to growers and plans rapid expansion to service a greater number of customers and increase sustainability and productivity. Management said the recent financing will help fuel the business and focus on providing best-in-class precision irrigation services amid critical water-resource challenges. The company is positioning its technology to help growers cut water consumption and improve resource efficiency. Hortau offers a wireless, web-based irrigation management system combined with desktop and mobile software that lets growers monitor crops in real time. Its solution detects plant stress to help optimize crop growth while reducing water and energy use and limiting environmental impacts. The company serves growers of strawberries, almonds, grapes, cranberries and other crops. Hortau was founded in 2002 by Dr. Jean Caron and CEO Jocelyn Boudreau; the founders have backgrounds in soil physics and agricultural engineering. The company is based in San Luis Obispo, California, and also maintains headquarters in Quebec, Canada. It plans to use new funding to grow its technical support and sales teams to expand throughout North America.

Participated · Series B · Sep 2017

Phytelligence commercializes a patented MULTIPHY micropropagation process that grows apples, cherries, peaches, pears, grapes, hops, berries and nuts up to five times faster in a non-soil, nutrient-dense medium. The company sells genetically-verified, virus-free trees and rootstock, offers tissue culture and genetic testing for field trees, and continues breeding new fruit varieties. It spun out of Washington State University from founder and CSO Professor Amit Dhingra and has expanded to roughly 70 employees with greenhouse space in Washington and a tissue-culture lab in Oregon. CEO Ken Hunt (joined 2016) says the company is improving its process with robotics and exploring grafting in tissue-culture to further accelerate propagation. Financially, Phytelligence is in the middle of a Series B and has raised $11.95M toward a planned $16M close, and has raised $12.6M total to date. The new capital will be used to expand propagation capacity and take on more greenhouse space.

Participated · Series A · Mar 2017

FarmLead operates an online marketplace — described as an “eBay for grains” — where growers and buyers create free accounts to post sell or buy offers, browse and sort listings, and negotiate transactions. The platform generates revenue through transactional fees and includes features such as a forward contracting service and an escrow payment option to lock in buyers and manage projected yields. Its toolset aims to help farmers manage finances by securing buyers earlier and give buyers access to a broader portfolio of vendors and crops. FarmLead has focused on the North American market but its founders discuss transforming the international grain trade as demand grows globally. The company plans to use new funding to hire (notably in a Chicago office), invest in marketing, and continue product development. Founders Brennan Turner and Alain Goubau lead the company from Ottawa.

Led · Equity · Mar 2014

Enterra Feed produces nutrition-rich animal feed ingredients by farming and processing black soldier fly larvae, supplying aquaculture, pet food and poultry feed makers. The company uses pre-consumer food waste as feedstock, creating a circular, landfill-diverting process. Its larvae production and processing yield high-value replacements for inputs like fishmeal and soybean meal. Sales have tripled annually and continue to show high growth across pet food, poultry and aquaculture customers. Enterra is expanding capacity with planned facilities in Alberta (2019), British Columbia (2020) and the Midwestern U.S. (2021). The new plants are intended to substantially increase the company’s production capacity to meet growing demand. Enterra Feed is a Vancouver-based developer of technology that upcycles and recaptures nutrients from pre-consumer food waste using a natural insect-based process. The company converts primarily fruits and vegetables from traceable sources into concentrated nutrient-rich products—natural protein, oils and fertilizer—for agricultural use. It collects waste from food producers, grocery stores, distributors and other traceable sources and already processes material from customers including Overwaitea Food Group, T&T Supermarket Inc., Star Produce Ltd. and numerous Lower Mainland processing facilities. Enterra has introduced commercial sales of Enterra Natural Fertilizer (4-2-2) for greenhouses, horticulture, golf courses and home gardens. The company plans to use new funding to complete its first commercial-scale pilot facility in Langley, BC, which will be operational in Q2 2014. At full capacity the facility will process up to 54,000 tonnes of pre-consumer food waste annually, helping local producers and retailers comply with Metro Vancouver’s organics disposal ban effective 2015. Enterra intends to expand to other agricultural and food production areas throughout Canada and the U.S.