Led · Seed · Mar 2022

Founded in 2019 and headquartered in Nova Scotia, Planetary Technologies developed a patented Accelerated Carbon Transition platform that purifies alkaline mining rock and adds alkalinity to the ocean to speed natural CO2 sequestration. The process permanently stores carbon in ocean chemistry for up to tens of thousands of years while locally countering ocean acidification and aiding marine ecosystems. As a by-product the technique generates green hydrogen and extracts metals from mine waste, creating additional value streams. Planetary plans to build and commission pilot plants in Quebec and Nova Scotia beginning later this year, integrated with local ocean research partners for ongoing monitoring and optimization. The company has commercial activity underway, selling 3,000 carbon credits (retirements 2025–2027) and has previously pre-sold credits to Shopify. Planetary positions its technology as scalable to gigaton-scale removal and aims to demonstrate safety and environmental benefits through its pilots.

Participated · Equity · Apr 2021

QRA Corp develops QVscribe, a natural language processing and AI-powered tool that helps product engineers detect errors, verify clarity and compliance, and reduce costly rework in industries like medical devices, automotive, aerospace and energy. The product combines language models, NLP, machine reasoning and rules-based approaches to automatically check requirement specifications and alert designers to potential issues as they occur. QRA reports its revenue has more than doubled over the last 18 months and cites notable traction including a three-year-old $645,000 contract to provide QVscribe to the Royal Canadian Air Force. The Halifax-based team is currently 15 people and plans to add at least five more hires to support growth. The company plans to use recent financing to expand sales, marketing and support teams in North America and Europe and to deepen its technology stack. QRA positions its software as a way to save millions in rework and reduce product failures and litigation risk by catching requirement defects early. QRA Corp is a Halifax-based developer of enterprise software tools for early-stage validation and verification of engineered systems. Its two main products are QVTrace, which helps designers identify system faults typically encountered in the build stage, and QVScribe, which analyzes requirements documents within Microsoft Word. The company works closely with the world’s largest defense contractor, Lockheed Martin. QRA received $3 million from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency; the funding is a conditionally repayable sum provided under the Atlantic Growth Strategy. The company will use the proceeds to develop commercial software and to hire 13 research-and-development employees. Management says the tools are intended to catch design integration errors early for systems such as autonomous cars and commercial spacecraft. The investment is part of a broader Canadian government initiative that is investing $7.1 million across four Atlantic Canada-based innovative projects.

Participated · Equity · Oct 2020

3DBioFibR develops scalable biopolymer fibers using a patented dry‑spinning platform that can process over six biopolymers. Its fibers report performance metrics two to three times the strength of natural tissue and are produced at over 3,600× the scale of conventional wet spinning and electrospinning, with improved uniformity and cost‑efficiency. The company has signed paid development agreements and partnerships across tissue engineering, medical devices, defense, cosmetics, and apparel, including several multinational corporations. The recently closed financing will fund ISO 13485 certification, construction of a clean room, and manufacturing scale‑up to meet rising global demand for medical‑grade and performance biomaterials. 3DBioFibR positions itself as a supplier for regulated clinical and therapeutic applications and plans to expand commercial and clinical partnerships. The company is based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. 3D BioFibR develops patented, fully automated collagen-fiber manufacturing technology to produce biofibres that mimic natural materials such as spider silk and collagen. The company is focused on producing recombinant human collagen for the medical research market and launched two products in June: μCollaFibR and CollaFibR, a three-dimensional cell-culture scaffold. To scale production the firm is collaborating with PlantForm Corporation and plans to use PlantForm’s vivoXPRESS plant-based biologics platform rather than mammalian-cell systems. A recent collaborative project funded by Next Generation Manufacturing Canada aims to improve collagen expression scale, increase fiber manufacturing capacity, and validate methods for incorporating recombinant collagen feedstock. 3D BioFibR was founded in 2020 by Sullivan and CSO John Frampton, a biomedical engineering professor at Dalhousie University, and operates with a 12-person team. Financially, the company previously raised $550,000 in 2020 and $700,000 of equity in 2021, and closed an equity and debt round worth $3.52 million in July of this year. 3D BioFibR develops and produces high-value collagen fibers at commercial scale using a proprietary, fully automated dry-spinning process. The company says its process is the only one that produces diameter-controlled collagen fibers at commercial scale and is at least 3,600x faster than competing manufacturing methods. Its collagen fibers are positioned for use in 3D cell culture and tissue engineering, recreating the natural appearance, structure, and function of collagen. 3D BioFibR plans to expand facilities to include a climate-controlled biomanufacturing cleanroom and a new wet lab and cell culture facility to bring its premium collagen fiber products to market. The company is backed by seed financing and receiving government support, including a repayable contribution and NRC IRAP advisory and R&D funding to support development of an automated collagen fiber manufacturing system. Management emphasizes accelerating capacity to meet growing demand from tissue engineers. 3D BioFibR produces naturally sourced, high-value biofibers including collagen (CollaFibR™) and spider silk for use in biomedical engineering, 3D tissue culture, tissue engineering, green textiles, defense, and aerospace. The company uses a proprietary dry-spinning manufacturing process that the team says is faster than current methods and preserves the natural properties of the proteins. Recent messaging emphasizes transition from a lab-based process to an automated production system to deliver consistent, high-quality products at commercial scale. Management plans to scale up and automate manufacturing to be ready for first market sales in the second half of 2022. The company is prioritizing engagement with industry to secure commercial partnerships, with an initial focus on tissue culture and tissue engineering applications. 3D BioFibR was incorporated in July 2020 and is operating from Halifax, Nova Scotia. 3D BioFibR is an advanced biofibre materials company based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It manufactures naturally sourced, high-value biofibres including spider silk, collagen and chitosan. The company targets applications across biomedical engineering, green textiles, defense and aerospace. Leadership includes CEO Kevin Sullivan and Chief Scientific Officer Dr. John Frampton. 3D BioFibR plans to use new capital to develop and commercialize its tissue engineering and biomedical device products and to scale up manufacturing of its biofibre platform. The firm raised external funding to support those development and commercialization efforts.

Participated · Equity · Jul 2019

Securicy simplifies information security and privacy management for B2B software companies selling into large enterprises and highly regulated industries. Its platform provides structure, guidance, automation, and expertise to help customers scale security programs as they grow. The product embeds best practices aligned with requirements from nearly a dozen frameworks and regulations to enable rapid proof of compliance and validation or certification. The company positions security as a competitive advantage for high-growth SaaS companies. In December 2021 Securicy raised an additional $4.1M in seed funding, a capital infusion the company says will support that mission. Securicy is based in Sydney, Canada. Securicy provides end-to-end cybersecurity tools and resources focused on information security and privacy compliance for startups and small-to-medium businesses. Its product suite includes a policy creation tool plus Securicy Plus and Securicy Premium tiers that enable grouping, policy assignment, implementation projects, sharing, tracking and reporting. The company says its platform has helped customers navigate security requirements for large corporations such as Target, Netflix, Lyft, Salesforce and National Bank. Securicy began beta onboarding after completing the 2018 TechStars Boston program and raised a $500,000 USD pre-seed from TechStars. Founded in 2016 and based in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, the company has been adopted by a number of North American SaaS companies. Securicy was also named one of the Top 25 up-and-coming ICT companies in Canada.

Participated · Equity · Jun 2019

Densitas, based in Halifax, NS, develops advanced breast imaging analytics technologies powered by machine learning to deliver on‑demand actionable insights for breast health management. The company was one of eight Canadian healthtech firms to receive venture investments in MedTeq’s initial co-investment activity. Those investments are intended to help mature technologies, accelerate innovation, and de-risk companies as they commercialize. Densitas’s participation in the round links it to investors focused on scaling early-stage healthtech across Canada. The article does not disclose Densitas’s individual raise size or operating metrics, but notes the group of eight companies collectively raised $11 million. MedTeq and its co-investors aim to address procurement barriers that have hindered commercialization of digital health products, which could affect Densitas’s go-to-market pathway. Densitas is an ISO-certified software medical device company that develops digital mammography products using imaging analytics technologies. Its core product, DM-Density, is an adjunctive tool radiologists use when reviewing mammograms to determine breast density. The company was founded in 2011 by CEO Mohamed Abdolell and is based in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. Densitas secured $250k in funding from Innovacorp as part of a larger, undisclosed round with participation from private investors. The company intends to use the funds to continue to bring its products to market. The financing is positioned to support commercialization and market entry of its imaging analytics offerings.