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COUNTRY LIFE IN BC • DECEMBER 2019 STRATEGIC partners nfrom pg 19


Market and other grocers. “Once you get some sales,


that really gives potential investors a lot of room,” he said, noting that having institutional backing has given it the standing needed to both grow its business and attract new investors. “Getting that strategic partner, to us, has really put gasoline on our fire.”


The next step for


CubicFarms will be a listing on the TSX this winter, a step up from its current listing on the TSX-Venture exchange.


Different route But if sales were critical to


CubicFarms chief design and installation officer John de Jonge and CEO Dave Dinesen. SUBMITTED PHOTO


the growth of Semios and CubicFarms, Novobind took a different route. It didn’t want to sell anything, says founder and CEO Hamlet Abnousi. Rather, it focused on developing technology and reaping licensing fees from its discoveries, which target pathogens responsible for more than $29 billion in


losses to chicken, shrimp and companion animals each year. “We don’t want to actually get out there and sell stuff; we want to create technology and hand it over to people who can do that,” he says. This focused the company


on looking for talent that could match what it offered in research expertise. “Strategically, we picked


good areas to be in, then we looked back and said for us to be able to get there in one, two, three rounds of investment, who do we have to bring along?” says Abnousi. “We can’t afford a giant management team, so how do we bring an investor in who has reach, technical strategy, [subject] matter expertise that can enable what we want to do?” Novobind has turned away


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five times the investment it received, says Abnousi, but he believes people are just as valuable. This past summer, Novobind received investment from Lallemand, a world leader in animal nutrition with which it will be partnering on research and development. “Validation can come in the


form of external partners it can come in terms of internal competence,” says Urban, who anticipates further expansion for the company. The investments in the


three companies dwarf the cash available to start-ups in BC, however. Kevin Harvey, portfolio manager with the investment capital branch of the BC Ministry of Jobs, Trade and Technology, painted a modest picture of the capital flowing to fledgling agriculture technology companies in BC. Programs such as the


province’s Small Business Venture Capital program have $38.5 million available, and Harvey says that’s managed to leverage $120 million into the BC venture capital ecosystem. A mere $3 million is available for agritech initiatives, however. Companies funded through


the program in the past include plant-based food processor Daiya Foods Inc., but there are plenty more looking for financing inside and outside the province. Several attended the Vantec networking session, including BarrelWise Technologies, which won the province’s Agritech Innovation Challenge this summer with a technology to improve management of barrel-aged wines; Plant Veda, which describes itself as “a plant-based mylk company on a mission to reduce climate change by shifting humans to plant-based diet;” and Susgrainable Health Foods, which upcycles spent mash from brewing operations into baked goods, flour and other ingredients.


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