Karen Churchill
President & CEO, Ag-West Bio
Jay Robinson
Director of Agri-Food Technology at Ag-West Bio
Starting an agri-value or bioscience company comes with unique challenges. Along with the usual issues faced by start-ups, these companies often need highly specialized equipment and staff, have high upfront costs and face a long road to market entry and revenue generation.
There’s help! A new business incubator is opening its doors in Saskatchewan.
The Global Agri-Food Advancement Partnership (GAAP) grew from a collaboration between Ag-West Bio, the Global Institute for Food Security, the Saskatchewan Food Industry Development Centre, Innovation Place, and private sector partners.
GAAP combines the benefits of significant investment capital with long-term incubation in a world-class facility (with laboratories, greenhouses, and office space), and guidance and training from sector-specific experts. GAAP is for:
1) Early-stage technology companies working on promising, disruptive technologies in the early stages of development (post proof of concept) with application in agriculture, food, or food processing.
2) Rapid growth stage companies that have demonstrated large scale commercial applications for their technology. Often, they have been successful in securing a considerable amount of investment and may already be generating revenue. In most instances these companies are located and operating outside of Canada or North America (but not exclusively) and have traction and or success in overseas markets. GAAP allows them to access the North American marketplace with lower entry costs, reduced capital expenditure, tailored concierge services, and an expedited path to market.
GAAP can increase the success rate of start-ups, strengthen the ecosystem, and build a foundation of success, even when venture capital investment may be lacking within the sector. We offer a novel platform designed to address the unique challenges of agri-value companies and technology developers during the start-up/expansion phase.
Benefits include:
Access to GAAP facilities for up to three years. This means companies can allocate their capital towards innovation and commercialization, building tangible value – rather than on renting, operating, and maintaining facilities and infrastructure.
By providing significant investment (up to $500K) GAAP enables the most promising companies to focus on technology progression and market adoption.
GAAP provides commercial volume scale-up opportunities for early-stage and rapid growth stage companies as they encounter the hurdles of mass production, or the daunting task of financing their own build.
GAAP provides mentorship from experts who provide advice on business development, regulatory pathway, product development, fundraising, marketing, logistics, export, and more. Entrepreneurs can also access training on specialized equipment. All this helps companies avoid costly mistakes, expediting the path to market and lowering capital requirements.
GAAP not only provides a landing for companies looking to expand into Canada, but also fantastic programs for Canadian companies looking to expand into overseas markets.
To learn more about GAAP, please contact Jay Robinson, Director of Agri-Food Technology at Ag-West Bio. [email protected] | 306-668-2654. www.agwest.sk.ca.
