There is money to be had for people attempting to commercialize innovative agricultural products, says a former Saskatchewan premier.
“Your timing couldn’t be better if you wanted to really put together an organization that combines science with money,” said Grant Devine, who was premier of the province from 1982 to 1991.
He has been talking to people in charge of billions of dollars in venture capital and pension funds who he said are clamoring for investment opportunities and are interested in agriculture.
One of his conversations was with Leo de Bever, chief executive officer of the Alberta Investment Management Corp. (AIMCo), a company that was managing $75 billion of investments as of Dec. 31, 2013.
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“He does $100 million at a crack and he’s not afraid of agriculture,” said Devine.
De Bever told Devine he was looking for early-stage agricultural firms that had a strong vision for their product.
Investors are demanding performance from their funds and they see agriculture as an exciting opportunity due to global population growth and the expanding demand for protein.
“They’re under tremendous pressure to invest and they’re looking at risk,” Devine told delegates attending Ag-West Bio’s annual meeting.
“One guy said to me, ‘We need to play catch.’”
But the agriculture industry has a history of dropping the ball. Devine said scientists do a terrible job of selling important research discoveries.
“The average capital investor has no idea what you’re talking about,” he said.
“That whole play catch stuff is not done well enough. That’s serious.”
He said there is nobody better than Ag-West Bio at helping scientists tell their stories.
Wilf Keller, president of Ag-West, agreed that poor communication is a shortcoming of agricultural researchers who have spawned ideas that have commercial appeal.
“There is a challenge to connecting that fundamental idea to the final end result,” he said.
“Ag-West needs to play a role in that and make sure that our excellent entrepreneurial companies are not short-changed because we haven’t been able to help them sell their knowledge and technology properly.”
Devine advised the organization to wean itself from its reliance on government funding and hit up funds such as AIMCo, Golden Opportunities Fund and Greystone Managed Investments for money.
“If I was 25 years younger, I would say we could take this organization to another level,” said the man who was premier when Ag-West was formed.
Keller said the idea is under consideration but it would require a plan and new staff. Ag-West has already started contacting venture capital funds to partner on investment opportunities.
“Developing such partnerships is going to be critical to keeping our investment in commercialization going forward,” he said.
