The Ontario Centres of Excellence invests in projects and people to accelerate industry R&D to impact the Ontario economy through the commercialization of leading edge research.  OCE invests in - Industry-Academic collaborative research - Commercialization of academic research through licensing and spin off companies - Early stage seed financing of start-ups - Skills development for high quality personnel  The Ontario Centres of Excellence is a not-for-profit corporation founded in 1987. Core funding is provided by the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation

Ontario Centres of Excellence

Tera Capital Corporation is a venture capital firm specializing in early stage, mid stage, later stage, and growth capital investments. The firm seeks to invest in technology, telecommunications, biotechnology, natural resources, clean energy, financials, and health sectors. It prefers to acquire a board seat in its portfolio companies. The firm also manages hedge funds. Tera Capital Corporation was founded in 1996 and is based in Toronto, Canada.

Tera Capital Corporation

Ontario.ca is the official website of the Ontario government. The website includes links to government sites and agencies as well as tourism and economic information. Its featured information is listed under topics such as arts and culture, business and economy, driving and roads, education and training, environment and energy, government, health and wellness, home and community, jobs and employment, law and safety, rural and north, taxes and benefits, and travel and recreation.

Ontario

Urbana is an investment holding company combining publicly traded assets with private equity investments and assets. Globally, Urbana invests in the exchange sector, from cash markets to derivatives and private, mutually owned exchanges.

Urbana

Middleland Capital is a private investment firm focused on global early-stage technology opportunities. Leveraging a unique breadth of geographic and industry experience, the firm seeks partnerships with exceptional management teams to commercialize innovative technologies, accelerate growth, and build long-term value around the world.

Middleland Capital

BDC Capital Cleantech Practice helps clients meet the often capital-intensive needs of scaling and accelerating growth. It offers equity and flexible financing to cleantech firms with a commercially validated IP-protected technology demonstrating a positive environmental impact. Also, it provides market traction with significant potential for revenue growth and commercial contracts and the ambition to scale beyond $100 million in annual revenue.

BDC Capital Cleantech Practice

Emmertech is a venture capital fund focused on agtech and agribusiness innovation.

Emmertech

Export Development Canada (EDC) is a Crown corporation dedicated to assisting Canadian businesses of all sizes in achieving global success. It provides them with the tools they need to grow their business with confidence, including trade knowledge, financial solutions, equity, insurance, and connections.

Export Development Canada

Cibus Fund is an investment firm that specializes in private equity funds advised by ADM Capital. Cibus Fund was founded in 2017 and headquartered in London, England.

Cibus Fund

BDC offers financing, consulting services, subordinate financing and venture capital. They focus on small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). BDC's services are available across Canada in both official languages through a network of more than 100 offices. Its head office is in Montreal.

Business Development Bank of Canada

Founded in 2000 as a private health insurance intermediary, iSelect's momentum over recent years has resulted in the addition of both life and motor insurance categories to its growing portfolio.  At iSelect  get that most people find insurance, utilities and personal finance boring. But iSelect understand that it’s really important to always get these things right.  As Australia’s life admin store, we’ll help you take care of the boring but important stuff. iSelect are proud of the service we provide to millions of Australians who seek our expert advice each year on some of life’s most important purchase decisions.  iSelect is much more than just another online comparison website. Comparing online is just the first step in our personalised comparison and expert advisory service. That’s why most of our customers choose to speak over the phone with one of our 500 highly-trained expert advisers at iSelect HQ.  Our dedicated departments cover all of life’s essentials, from choosing the right health or life insurance policy through to refinancing your home loan. iSelect can sort out your energy and broadband connections, and even take care of your car insurance.  iSelect compare and sell some of Australia’s biggest brands and are always adding more. With plenty of partners and thousands of policies, plans and products, we’ll give you the confidence to make the right call on some of the things that matter most. So you can spend time doing, well… anything else.  iSelect are proud to be 100% independently-owned, and unlike other comparison services, we are not owned by an insurance company and we do not own any of the companies or brands whose products we sell.  As well as our flagship iSelect brand, the iSelect Group also owns personal finance comparison website InfoChoice and energy comparison website Energy Watch.

iSelect

Lex Capital is a private equity firm that invests in high growth, resource opportunities in the Canadian energy sector.

Lex Capital

Co-operators provides auto insurance, home insurance, life insurance, commercial insurance, farm insurance, and group insurance, as well as investment products and property development. They provide travel-related insurance products, hospital and medical coverage, accidental death and dismemberment, vehicle replacement, and hospital and medical coverage insurance.

Co-operators

Vive Crop Protection

Vive Crop Protection makes effective and sustainable pesticides for organic and non-organic production. The company creates new ways to use proven crop protection products using their targeted Allosperse Delivery System, which improves the targeting and performance of pesticide active ingredients. This helps farmers do more with less, all while increasing crop quality and yields. Vive Crop Protection was founded in 2006 and is headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada.

Vive Crop Protection utilizes its proprietary Allosperse Delivery System, a patented nanoscale polymer technology, to improve the targeting and performance of crop protection products for farmers. This precision chemistry platform encapsulates both synthetic and biological active ingredients, enabling enhanced efficacy, compatibility, and sustainability compared to conventional agriculture inputs.

Vive Crop Protection Closes Funding Round, Accelerating Its Precision Chemistry Platform

Vive Crop Protection secures $34 million CAD Series C to drive AgTech R&D

Vive Crop Protection Recognized by SDTC as 2022 Sustainability Changemaker

Making proven products cutting edge.

Vive Crop Protection Earns Spot on Ranking of Canada’s Top Growing Companies

Vive Crop Protection Secures Series C Extension Funding to Accelerate Agricultural Innovation

Canada’s Global Hypergrowth Project selects Vive Crop Protection

Canadian agtech Vive raises US$26-million as ‘farmaceutical’ nanotechnology wins over growers

Biologically protecting plants from pests

Biopesticides

Vive Crop Protection Secures Series C Extension Funding

Vive Crop Protection utilizes its proprietary Allosperse Delivery System, a patented nanoscale polymer technology, to improve the targeting and performance of crop protection products for farmers. This precision chemistry platform encapsulates both synthetic and biological active ingredients, enabling enhanced efficacy, compatibility, and sustainability compared to conventional agriculture inputs.
Vive's solutions focus on broad-acre row crops like corn, sugarbeets, potatoes, cotton, and peanuts. The company had seven EPA-registered products used on over 2 million acres of US farmland. Notable achievements include launching the first three-way fungicide combining Allosperse with biological and synthetic chemistries, and products estimated to have saved farmers 34 million gallons of water, 189,000 gallons of fuel, and 15,000 hours of labor in 2022 alone.
Vive has experienced rapid growth in recent years, more than doubling its revenue from 2020 to 2022 with the successful commercialization of new product offerings like AZterknot fungicide. In October 2023, the company ranked 139th on the Globe and Mail's list of Canada's Top Growing Companies, with a three-year revenue growth of 342%.
In May 2024, Vive secured additional Series C financing to drive further R&D and geographic expansion. The company aims to achieve a product launch cadence of five new solutions annually while scaling manufacturing capabilities. Vive was also acquired by a major agriculture company in 2024, folding its innovative Precision Chemistry platform into the acquirer's global product portfolio.

Groundwork BioAg is an Israeli bioagriculture company that produces mycorrhizal inoculants for mainstream agriculture. Its flagship product line, Rootella, consists of highly concentrated mycorrhizal fungi that establish a symbiotic relationship with plant roots, extending their reach into the soil. This symbiosis enables plants to access otherwise unavailable nutrients, especially phosphorus, leading to significant crop yield improvements. Additionally, Rootella enhances plant resilience to various stresses like drought and salinity while reducing fertilizer dependency.
Groundwork BioAg's Mycorrhizal BioPlatform, driven by innovative high-volume production techniques, has been successfully commercialized across major agricultural regions globally. These include the US, Brazil, China, India, Canada, Ukraine, Europe, Asia, and Africa, catering to crops like corn, soybeans, grains, fruits, and vegetables. A standout offering is Tormos, a granular mycorrhizal inoculant tailored for Indian farming practices, developed through a collaboration with ADAMA.
In 2022, Groundwork BioAg raised USD 18 million in Series B funding led by Climate Innovation Capital, underscoring the demand for yield-enhancing biologicals that sequester carbon and promote regenerative agriculture. The company's technology enables conventional and regenerative farmers to achieve higher profitability while permanently sequestering carbon in their fields. Groundwork BioAg has also launched the Rootella Carbon program in 2023, aiming to sequester one gigaton of CO2 within a decade through its mycorrhizal inoculants.
Key customers and partnerships
In 2023, Groundwork BioAg expanded its North American team by appointing Andrew Duff as General Manager to accelerate the adoption of Rootella mycorrhizal inoculants among mainstream growers in the US.
In June 2022, Groundwork BioAg partnered with ADAMA, a leading global crop protection company, to offer the Tormos mycorrhizal inoculant in India. This collaboration leverages ADAMA's extensive farmer network and Groundwork BioAg's Mycorrhizal BioPlatform to provide cost-effective solutions to Indian growers.

Groundwork BioAG

Solasta Bio is a Glasgow-based agritech company specializing in the development of peptide-based bioinsecticides for crop protection. Founded in 2020 as a spin-out from the University of Glasgow, the company has created the world's first technology platform for producing neuropeptide-based Insect Control Agents (ICAs) derived from nature rather than synthetic chemistry.
These ICAs are designed to disrupt targeted physiological processes in insect pests, effectively controlling them while leaving beneficial pollinators like bees and other non-target species unharmed. Solasta Bio's solutions offer unique insect specificity, proven efficacy on par with traditional chemical insecticides, and an environmentally friendly, biodegradable approach that does not accumulate residues in nature.
Solasta Bio's platform enables the company to target a wide spectrum of pests, including those resistant to synthetic chemistries. The company aims to bring its first ICA products to market by 2027/2028, approximately half the time traditionally required for synthetic pest control products. Its technology is patent-protected, and an additional patent application is pending.
In February 2024, Solasta Bio announced the successful completion of over 20 field trials across Europe, the UK, and the US, demonstrating the efficacy and safety of its ICAs across various crops and pests, including aphids, Spotted Wing Drosophila, caterpillars, and leafhoppers.

Solasta Bio

Enko Chem, Inc. is a crop health company focused on developing sustainable crop solutions to address global food security challenges. The company utilizes its proprietary ENKOMPASS technology platform, which combines DNA-encoded library screening, machine learning, and structure-based design, to discover novel crop protection chemistries. This approach enables Enko to rapidly identify new, better-performing, and more targeted molecules across various categories of crop protection products.
Enko's current pipeline is led by a range of herbicides designed to break cycles of weed and pest resistance while reducing environmental impact compared to existing solutions. The company aims to provide effective crop protection solutions that help growers adapt to and mitigate challenges exacerbated by climate change, such as pesticide-resistant weeds, fungus, and pests.
Since its inception in 2017, Enko has generated hundreds of leading molecules through its technology platform. In January 2023, the company announced an USD 80 million Series C funding round, bringing its total capital raised to USD 150 million. The additional funds will be utilized to advance Enko's product pipeline and support the company's efforts to bring new crop protection solutions to market.

Enko Chem

BioPhero is a Denmark-based company that has developed a pioneering and highly efficient yeast fermentation process for manufacturing pheromones at significantly lower costs and with fewer production steps compared to traditional chemical synthesis methods. Pheromones are compounds used in integrated pest management programs for controlling insect populations by disrupting the mating process, thereby reducing egg-laying and decreasing the next generation of the target insect species. BioPhero's patented fermentation technology allows for the sustainable and cost-effective production of pheromones, expanding their potential application from specialty crops like fruits and vegetables to large-scale row crops such as corn, soybeans, and rice.
Through its innovative bioprocessing platform, BioPhero aims to make pheromones widely available and contribute to sustainable agriculture by offering an environmentally friendly alternative to conventional insecticides. The company's pheromone products are highly specific to target pests, promoting biodiversity and posing no threat to pollinators or beneficial insects. FMC Corporation, a leading agricultural sciences company, acquired BioPhero in July 2022 for approximately USD 200 million, integrating its pheromone platform into FMC's biologicals business. FMC projects revenue from pheromones and pheromone-based insect control products to reach approximately USD 1 billion with above company-average EBITDA margin by 2030.

BioPhero

Redag Crop Protection is a biotechnology research and development company focused on developing novel crop protection products. The company's core technology is the Redox Switch platform, which allows for the creation of new compounds by modifying the oxidation state of existing best-in-class products. This approach provides Redag Crop Protection with a pipeline of candidates across multiple high-value applications in the crop protection industry.
The Redox Switch platform offers several advantages. It enables the company to secure intellectual property rights around existing products by creating structurally similar but chemically distinct compounds. These new compounds share similarities with well-characterized parent compounds, reducing the risk profile, development time, testing redundancy, and overall cost of bringing products to market. Additionally, the structural similarity to existing product classes means that Redag Crop Protection can leverage current manufacturing assets, further reducing market entry costs.

Redag Crop Protection

Companies that use microscopic living organisms (such as viruses, bacteria or nematodes) or toxins produced by these organisms to act as pest control. This also includes companies developing technology platforms to use microorganism chemistry to develop different kinds of microbial pesticides.

Companies that develop pesticide substances produced by plants as a result of genetic manipulation. These companies use technology such as genetic engineering to derive natural substances that plants can produce to kill pests that feed on them.

Companies that use machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies to develop plant-based replacements to synthetic chemical. These companies develop biochemicals that use naturally occurring substances such as pheromones, and insect attractants to trap and control pests in plants.  This also includes companies that offer plant intelligence for creating biochemicals.

Companies that use naturally occurring plant materials such as Azadirachtin, nicotinoids, natural pyrethrins, rotenoids,  and neem products in full or dilute form for pest and insect controls.

Companies that use natural enemies or predators like lady beetle, true bug, lacewings or parasitoids to protect the plants from pests.

Companies that use natural resources such as diatomaceous earth, mineral oil, water, minerals such as sulfur, potassium, or even organic acids for controlling various types of pests.

Companies that use biologically-derived substances such as microorganisms, seaweed extracts, and other organic matter that are applied to the plants or the soil to improve nutrient uptake, enhance tolerance of plant stress, and in turn improve crop growth and yield.

Provides natural alternatives to chemical pesticides

Processes often use AI and machine learning-based tech platforms to formulate biopesticides

Vive Crop Protection

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