February 5th, 2024
Last week, the Canadian Food Innovation Network (CFIN) announced that eight foodtech projects would be receiving a combined $1,932,000 through its FoodTech Next Program.
To be eligible for funding from the FoodTech Next Program, companies need to have had less than $1M in annual sales in their previous fiscal year. The goal of the program is to “accelerate the commercialization of Canadian innovation by generating first demonstration opportunities.” The program is supported by the Government of Canada, who invested $30 million in it in 2019.
Three of the projects that were awarded funding are based in British Columbia, two were from each of Ontario and Quebec, and one was from Nova Scotia. One of the Ontario-based projects is seeking to develop a robot that will transform urban food deliveries. The Nova Scotia-based project has created an appliance that converts spent coffee grounds into a food-grade state that can be used for human foods and animal feed. All of the projects will be using the funding they receive to pilot their technologies in real-world conditions, in the hopes that they can move towards commercialization.
Author: Noah Lew, 2023/2024 Articling Student-At-Law