The companies are the first cohort to take part in the Agtech Accelerator, which is operated by Conexus Credit Union’s tech incubator, Cultivator. The accelerator received 70 applications, of which 16 were accepted.
“We really want to help them raise as much capital as possible, make as much of an impact on their industry as possible and really drive successful businesses to support the industry,” said Jordan McFarlen, business incubation manager at Cultivator. “The two biggest technical challenges are actually defining the right mushroom to pick and then picking it without damaging it because they’re very delicate,” said Mike Boudreau, the president and CEO of TechBrew.Article contenttap here to see other videos from our teamThrough a partnership with Innovate UK, five early-stage tech companies from the United Kingdom are also participating in the first cohort. One of them was Raft Solutions from Ripon, England.
Some of the companies taking part already have strong connections to Saskatchewan. Ukko Agro specializes in plug and play predictive analytics in agriculture. The company is based in Toronto, but three of its biggest clients are in Saskatchewan. The accelerator is also seen as an opportunity for companies looking to expand into North American markets. That’s the case for Smartbell, which is based out of Cambridge, England. The company has created a smart tag that can be attached to livestock that monitors the animal’s activity and temperature. Given the labour crunch in livestock production, the idea is to help producers focus on animals that need the most attention.
Source: News Formal (newsformal.com)