What happened: Additional access to capital announced for Lucent BioSciences and SemiosBio Technologies
Why it matters: West Coast agtech firms have been raising substantial investment since the start of the year
Two Vancouver-based agriculture technology (agtech) firms are raking in some extra money as they plot out their growth.
Lucent BioSciences Inc. announced Tuesday (March 3) a $2.9 million capital raise backed by the Protein Industries Canada Supercluster, AGT Food and Ingredients Inc. and a group of undisclosed investors.
Lucent BioSciences has developed a process that converts the hulls of peas and lentil seeds into an environmentally friendly fertilizer known as Soileos.
Funding will help the company test Soileos at 20 farms across the country this spring.
Meanwhile, fresh off revealing a US$75 million capital raise last month, SemiosBio Technologies Inc. will now be tapping into $25 million in growth capital backed by CIBC Innovation Banking.
Semios specializes in using sensors and data to ensure healthy crops for farmers.
About 1 million of its sensors are used to monitor the health of trees that produce fruit or nuts, while its devices can detect and identify agricultural pests and trigger the release of pheromones to confuse them and thwart their mating.
The growth capital from CIBC comes in the form of $25 million in debt facilities.
The additional dollars for the B.C. agtech firms come after Vancouver-based Terramera Inc. closed out a Series B round to the tune of US$48.5 million in late January.
Terramera’s flagship chemistry technology, Actigate, can be licensed to producers of both natural and synthetic pesticides to improve the efficiency, uptake and performance of the active ingredients in crop protection products.
