Led · Equity · Oct 2025

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 · May 2025

Verdi raised CAD$6.5M in seed funding to expand its irrigation automation offerings. The company, led by CEO Arthur Chen and based in Vancouver, provides modern automation tools and patented retrofit devices that automate irrigation and maintenance on existing farm infrastructure. Verdi says its technology helps farmers save labor, reduce inputs and increase yields and is used by the largest food producers. The company plans to use the funds to expand into new regions, advance its AI-powered platform and deepen relationships with major agribusinesses. Management frames these initiatives as driving automation at scale and building infrastructure for a more climate-resilient food system. The seed brings Verdi's total funding to CAD$9.5M. Verdi builds a scalable platform for farm automation and personalized plant healthcare, using intelligent devices that transform existing irrigation equipment into AI-powered systems. Its technology enables automated operations that boost crop and workforce productivity while reducing technology adoption costs. Verdi counts customers among the world’s largest food brands and in 2023 saved its customers over 30 million liters of water. Founded in 2020 by Canadian entrepreneurs Arthur Chen and Roman Kozak, the company is focused on scaling internationally. Verdi plans to enhance its AI capabilities and expand geographic reach through a strategic collaboration with NEC X and integration with NEC’s CropScope initiative. Entry into NEC X’s Elev X! Boost program is intended to provide capital, strategic partnerships and integrations with NEC’s tech ecosystem to accelerate growth.

Led · Equity · Feb 2023

Arbutus Medical develops TrakPak®, a single-use, pre-sterile procedure kit for bedside skeletal traction in trauma center ERs, and distributes surgical drills using its patented DrillCover Technology. The DrillCover creates a sterile enclosure around DEWALT® power tools, converting them into disposable sterile surgical drills and reducing the need for between-case sterilization. The company says its products have regulatory clearances from the U.S. FDA and Health Canada and that its devices have been used in 40 countries, enabling an estimated 85,000 surgeries. Arbutus is ISO13485 certified and aims to expand TrakPak adoption to improve ER efficiency, reduce costs, and broaden access to safe surgical care. The financing announced will fund the launch of the next-generation TrakPak in 2023 and support rapid scale-up. Arbutus Drill Cover, based in Vancouver, BC, develops a sterile cover that turns a hardware-store drill into a surgical tool. The device is intended to enable the use of consumer drills in surgical procedures. Arbutus was one of six Canadian healthtech companies selected for investment by Grand Challenges Canada. Grand Challenges Canada invested $1 million in Arbutus as part of a $5 million package across the six companies. Grand Challenges Canada, funded by the Government of Canada, worked with the companies through its transition-to-scale program to facilitate connections with private partners and public resources to secure additional funding. After each company went through the transition-to-scale program, the total investment reached $10 million.

Participated · Seed · May 2020

Sonic Incytes Medical develops Velacur™, a handheld, point-of-care 3D liver health assessment solution that quantifies liver disease with technology similar to MRI elastography combined with 3D tissue sampling. Velacur is FDA-cleared, non-invasive, delivers results in about five minutes, and was launched in the U.S. market in early 2021. The device is intended to provide consistently accurate, real-time liver diagnostics in a physician’s office as an alternative to biopsy and MRI. Sonic Incytes positions the product as accessible and affordable to enable routine assessment and improved management of chronic liver disease. The company emphasizes reducing fatty liver disease and improving patient care through point-of-care ultrasound diagnostics. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Sonic Incytes spun out of the University of British Columbia. Sonic Incytes Medical develops a portable, handheld point-of-care ultrasound solution for assessing and managing chronic liver disease, with a focus on fatty liver disease. The device uses technology similar to MRI elastography and quantifies liver disease using 3D tissue sampling to provide consistently accurate, real-time results. The company says the entire procedure takes about five minutes and offers a quick, safe, and comfortable alternative to biopsy and MRI. Sonic Incytes plans to enter the market at the end of 2020. Financially, it completed a seed financing round of over CDN$3.5 million, including a $1 million investment from Genome BC and over $2.5 million from institutional and angel investors. Founded in 2017 and headquartered in Vancouver, British Columbia, Sonic Incytes aims to commercialize its solution to improve diagnosis, treatment and management of liver disease.

Led · Equity · Sep 2019

Acuva Technologies develops water purification systems using UVC-LED technology developed at the University of British Columbia, combining UV disinfection with LED energy efficiency. Its IntenseBeam technology increases available UV power through optical lensing, and the company sells UVC-LED disinfection modules via its Strike platform. Acuva has formed partnerships with original equipment manufacturers of water, ice, and beverage appliances in the Philippines, China, India, and Europe. The company says demand for its products is growing and plans to use new capital to meet that demand and to fund growth of teams in Canada and overseas. Acuva was founded in 2014 by CEO Manoj Singh and CTO Fariborz Taghipour and is based in Burnaby, BC. The company has received prior financing including a Series A in 2018 and recent financing from Genome BC, and it lists previous investors such as BDC Capital, Interwest Enterprises, and entrepreneurship@UBC Ventures. Acuva Technologies is developing UV-LED technology for water purification that can be inserted into consumer and commercial water, ice, and beverage dispensing appliances. Its modules achieve microbial disinfection rates up to 99.9999 percent without adding chemicals. The technology is positioned as a drop-in alternative to conventional mercury UV lamp systems, helping manufacturers comply with the Minamata Convention. Acuva is partnering with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to bring its modules to market. The company says the technology can reduce reliance on single-use plastic bottles and improve access to safe drinking water. Recently Acuva received $1 million from Genome BC’s Industry Innovation (I²) program to support early-stage commercialization; the I² funding is repayable. Acuva Technologies builds compact, energy-efficient UVC-LED water treatment products that combine UV disinfection with LED efficiency and optical lensing. Its product lines include Arrow and Eco point-of-use drinking water systems for home, mobile and off-grid use, and the Strike platform of customizable UV-LED modules for OEM integration. The company positions its technology as a sustainable alternative to conventional mercury UV lamp systems in line with the Minamata Convention. Advanced applications mentioned in the article include integration into lab water equipment. Acuva received funding to support development and commercialization of its technology and to hire additional local staff to support rapid growth. The company is based in Vancouver, British Columbia. Acuva Technologies is a Vancouver-based clean technology company that provides a microbial water purification system called Arrow using UV-LED technology developed at the University of British Columbia. The company is led by CEO Manoj Singh and CTO Dr. Fariborz Taghipour. Acuva is currently selling products for recreational boats and vehicles and for off-grid home use. It closed an $850K first seed round of funding. Backers included Vancouver-based angel investors, the entrepreneurship@UBC Seed Fund and BDC Capital. The company intends to use the funds to expand operations.