Accelerate your innovation strategy & protect your business from disruption!
A digital open innovation platform for corporates
Check out our corporate and ecosystem partners!
CALGARY, AB, CAN, JUNE 3, 2022 – Going home with a combined $500,000 in follow-on investment, SpaceAg and Verdi have been crowned the winners of THRIVE Demo Day 2022.
20 global startups representing THRIVE’s eighth global accelerator cohort and inaugural Canada Accelerator cohort took to the stage Wednesday to pitch during THRIVE’s Demo Day at the Inventures Conference in Calgary, Alberta.
Demo Day is the hallmark event of THRIVE’s award-winning accelerator programs. The 20 global start-ups, selected from an applicant pool of almost 900 companies pitched their innovative solutions and technologies before an audience of investors, corporate partners, and local and national media.
“We are delighted to host this year’s Demo Day at Inventures and showcase our incredible startups and their game changing technologies” said John Hartnett, Founder and CEO, SVG Ventures|THRIVE. These companies are set to make a significant impact on our food system and will each play a key role in advancing the future of agriculture and food through innovation”
Impressive pitches, extensive domain expertise, and scalable market growth created a uniquely difficult winning decision for the Demo Day judges. John Hartnett, SVG Ventures Founder and CEO, Laura Kilcrease CEO, Alberta Innovates, and Rebecca Clarke Vice President and Treasurer, FCC presented the awards during day one of the three day conference. A total of three awards were presented.
The Sustainability Award went to Canadian startup Verdi who are building the first commercial platform to deliver personalized nutrition directly to plants. They help growers significantly improve crop value while protecting crops from environmental stress.
Peru based SpaceAg were the recipients of the Innovation Award. Their software platform empowers people in agriculture through digitization and data collection, providing information that improves their quality of work and life.
Sweden based Lupinta was the winner of the People’s Choice Award. They are an R&D driven Food Tech Startup, using lupin beans as the core ingredients to develop healthy, tasty, and environmentally friendly meat alternatives.
SVG’s long-standing media partner, Forbes also joined the conference with remarks delivered by Sherry Phillips, Chief Marketing Officer.
“Forbes has been a proud partner and supporter of THRIVE and their cohort companies for 8 years, and every year the companies continue to raise the bar with innovative and sustainable solutions,” said Sherry Phillips, Chief Marketing Officer, Forbes, “The innovations we are seeing in THRIVE VIII and THRIVE Canada today will act as disruptive solutions for the future.”
The demo day judging panel comprised of executives from THRIVE’s Corporate partners. Rebecca Clarke, Vice President & Treasurer, Farm Credit Canada, Koji Hasegawa, GM Silicon Valley Innovation Center, Kubota Corporation, Greg Young, Partner, Spruce Capital Partners and Mika Eberl, Agrostart Lead for North America at BASF.
This year’s Demo Day was hosted during the Inventures Conference in Calgary Alberta. The global conference hosted by Alberta Innovates attracts over 2,000 attendees and boasts 150+ speakers.
Companies that pitched at Demo Day included:
THRIVE VIII
THRIVE Canada
-30-
About SVG Ventures|THRIVE
SVG Ventures|THRIVE is the leading global Agrifood investment and innovation platform headquartered in Silicon Valley, and comprised of top agriculture, food & technology corporations, universities, and investors. With a community of over 5,000 startups from 100 countries, the THRIVE platform invests, accelerates, and creates unparalleled access for entrepreneurs to scale globally to solve the biggest challenges facing the food and agriculture industries. SVG’s existing global partners include Media Partner Forbes and leading government, agriculture, and technology corporations such as Corteva, Driscoll’s, FCC, CED, Alberta Government, Gallo, Bayer, Kubota, Land O’Lakes, ICL, UFA, CSIRO, BayWa, Old’s College, Shell, BASF, Trimble, Taylor Farms, Valmont, Yamaha Motor Ventures, Wilbur-Ellis & Victoria Government. Crunchbase recognizes SVG Ventures as the most active AgTech investor with a portfolio count of over 50 investments in the sector. Learn more at www.thriveagrifood.com.
Media Contact
Alycia Smith
Marketing & Events Manager, SVG Ventures | THRIVE
Alycia.smith@svgventures.com
Sign up with your email address to receive news and updates from THRIVE.
