At A Molecular Level
Advanced Agriscience is a synthetic biology company dedicated to creating enhanced biological crop inputs for climate resilience, with an initial focus on frost protection. Frosts are the most significant climate-related hazard for crops, causing annual losses of $2 billion in North America alone, potentially reaching up to $5 billion by 2050. Traditional frost protection technologies are unreliable, costly, and outdated. Advanced Agriscience is addressing these problems by developing biological solutions with new mechanisms of action to offer a superior, more efficient, and cost-effective alternative to existing methods.
The company’s key products work by directly inhibiting frost formation and injury at the molecular level, unlike traditional methods that inefficiently warm plants. These non-toxic products may be used as seed coatings for broad acre crops, allowing earlier planting, or as a shelf-stable wettable powder that can be mixed with water and sprayed. This approach not only reduces costs, but also eliminates operating emissions, water consumption, and labour requirements of the incumbents, allowing growers to passively protect their crops and improve productivity.
A Category King
Advanced Agriscience has spent the past year developing and validating their first-of-its-kind product. They’ve made groundbreaking research advancements and were selected for the prestigious Bioenterprise and THRIVE Academy accelerators, where they earned the National Runner-Up and People’s Choice Awards. The Maple Ridge startup has won awards, earned global media coverage, and recognition from research collaborators, positioning them to create and commercialize a new product category.
Looking ahead, their immediate focus is on securing regulatory approvals and preparing for pilot field trials to demonstrate the efficacy of their technology in real-world conditions for growers.
Ready for Capital
When asked why his startup entered this year’s competition, CEO and Founder Dr. Collin Juurakko noted that in Canada, publicly funded competitions like New Ventures BC are among the few accessible sources of funding available for high-risk, high-reward startups based on novel research in the hard sciences.
“These competitions provide essential capital to early-stage companies that aren’t yet generating revenue and are too early for equity funding. This rare support is crucial for high-potential, science-based companies that face government regulatory fee barriers and require capital intensive facilities, equipment, and consumables to succeed,” added Dr. Juurakko.
Winning the NVBC competition could be a turning point for Advanced Agriscience. Not only would it provide necessary capital to secure government approvals for trials, it’ll give the agtech startup the opportunity to gain support in the founder’s home province and access the local ecosystem.
About the Founder
Dr. Collin Juurakko, Founder & CEO
Fun Fact: Collin was in a movie.
Company Cheatsheet:
City: Maple Ridge
Founded: September 26, 2023
Sector: Agtech
