A global Silicon Valley investment and innovation initiative will receive $3 million to establish two programs in Alberta to help grow Western Canada’s agri-food technology sector.
“Having been in Canada for two years now, we’ve been quite impressed with the quality of agri-food tech startups across the country, but more so I would say in Western Canada,” said John Cassidy, managing director for Canada for SVG Ventures’ Thrive business accelerator platform.
However, the country has a problem taking things to the next level, he said.
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“I would say it tackles the startup problem very, very well, but 98.2 percent of companies in this country are 200 employees or less, so that just shows that there is a scale-up gap there.”
As a result, SVG Ventures will establish the Thrive Academy program in Alberta, where it will help pre-seed and commercialize research in Western Canada, he said. It will also launch the Thrive Venture Studio program to form new companies “in response to some of the most pressing issues across the agri-food value chain,” said a statement by Alberta Innovates.
As a provincial corporation, Alberta Innovates will provide $3 million to help establish the two programs, which will together offer a continuum of end-to-end commercialization support for the province’s agri-food companies.
A further $700,000 will be provided to Olds College in Alberta by the federal Prairies Economic Development Canada (PrairiesCan) department to support Thrive Academy in Western Canada.
The announcement was made at a news conference Aug. 10 at the college’s AgSmart agricultural expo. Thrive Academy will provide hands-on training and access to testing at sites such as the Olds College Smart Farm, which works with cutting-edge agricultural technologies.
The program was originally going to be located in Silicon Valley in California, said Cassidy. “But considering the hard work of Alberta Innovates, PrairiesCan, Olds College and the Alberta government, we’re now placing a global academy here in Alberta.”
Economic diversification through such initiatives is a main plank in the provincial government’s economic recovery plan, said Nathan Cooper, MLA for Olds-Didsbury-Three Hills and speaker for the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.
“It’s great news for innovators in the agricultural sector as well as the ag-food sector, but it’s also great news for our region.”
Agriculture supports jobs in rural and urban areas, said George Chahal, Liberal MP for Calgary Skyview. He spoke on behalf of federal PrairiesCan minister Daniel Vandal.
“Around 70,000 Albertans are employed in ag and it plays an important role in our economy, contributing nearly $10 billion in (gross domestic product)…. We know that advanced agricultural technology is helping to grow, transform and advance the global agricultural industry.”
SVG Ventures has built a community totalling more than 5,000 startups in about 100 countries. Besides accelerating the growth of Alberta-based companies, Thrive Academy and Thrive Venture Studio will also provide “a big opportunity to bring companies to Alberta,” said Cassidy.
“So, we’re working with some of the local economic development agencies … when some of the global companies come to Alberta for demo days and programming, we want them geared up to say, ‘well, this is what Alberta has to offer, and would you be interested in setting up your organization here?’”
Thrive announced in January it will be a resident partner in Platform Calgary’s new Platform Innovation Centre, where it launched the Thrive Agrifood Innovation Digital Hub for Canada. Although its main expertise is in digital technologies, Thrive won’t exclude any proposal within the agri-food sector, said Cassidy.
He pointed to an investment for the first time last year in a value-added agri-food company outside of Western Canada.
“I think you’re going to see more of that from us in the years to come.”
During the three years covered by the provincial funding, Thrive Academy will alternate between sites across Alberta, it said. The provincial government provided $200,000 in 2020 to help build a partnership between Thrive and Olds College.
Thrive also signed a memorandum of understanding this year with Lethbridge College.
“We’re looking at a partnership with the University of Alberta as well, and a few others, so there’s a good few in the pipeline,” said Cassidy.
Agri-food entrepreneurs in Alberta face several obstacles turning their ideas into businesses, said Patrick Machacek, vice-president of development and strategy at Olds College. It includes training “because you’ll often have an entrepreneur who has a great idea, but they need a lot of other skill sets to have a very viable and successful business,” he said.
“And that’s where the Thrive Academy comes in. It gives those startup folks the skill sets so they can start working within the ecosystem to understand how to really build their business plans and get themselves ready for additional investment.”
The program is expected to begin in September.
