START-UP FOCUS
Unlocking Innovation: Fueling Home-Grown Talent and Start-up Creation
In advancing our vision to cultivate engineering biology across Ontario and Canada, Ontario Genomics is at the forefront of enabling small and medium-sized enterprises. By providing financial investment and in-kind support, we are igniting innovation and unlocking opportunities for growth.
Empowering Talent Growth: A Catalyst for Innovation
Our initiatives facilitate access to investments, forging connections between businesses, investors, funders, and stakeholders, while advocating for policies that pave the way for commercialization of genomics-based technology. This key endeavour promises to yield higher returns on investments in genomics technology research, development, and commercialization, effectively bridging a crucial gap in Ontario’s life sciences ecosystem.
BioCreate: Supporting Entrepreneurial Ingenuity
Ontario Genomics launches BioCreate, a flagship program supporting eight promising start-ups in health, food, agriculture and clean-tech sectors. With a Government of Canada investment of more than $5.6 million through the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), we have established this first-of-its-kind initiative.
This overall $11.6-million investment in BioCreate is a testament to our commitment to unlock the potential of the province’s biotechnology ecosystem.
BioCreate nurtures carefully selected enterprises with funding of $150,000 per company, coupled with 18 months of invaluable mentorship and access to vital infrastructure. This holistic approach propels innovation and fosters sustainable growth, enabling these start-ups to access further investment opportunities.
The Cultivated B: Shaping the Future of Food
Since 2019, Ontario Genomics has embarked on a journey to advance cellular agriculture, a transformative field which uses cell cultures from different organisms (such as bacteria, fungi, plants and mammals) instead of animals for food production. A crucial partnership with The Cultivated B (TCB), a European biotechnology company, adds an exciting chapter to this endeavour.
Together, we are unlocking a revolutionary potential, exemplified by TCB’s impressive 130,000-square-foot production facility and Canadian headquarters in Burlington, Ontario, which will be home to an OG-partnered Innovation Hub. This partnership aligns with our ethos of innovation and opens doors to groundbreaking advancements and scale-up of sustainable, alternative protein production. Cellular agriculture can unlock the full potential of biotechnology by taking it from the laboratory environment to industrial commodities which ultimately revolutionizes our meals and our approach to resource utilization and environmental conservation. This collaboration extends beyond food production, to cosmetics, fabrics, personal care and healthcare.
WasteCanCreate: Transforming the Paradigm
Facing the consequences of a linear consumption pattern of make, use, and discard, a powerful concept emerges: the circular economy. Ontario Genomics is championing a paradigm shift by leveraging biology and engineering to transform waste into valuable resources.
Imagine a world where waste is a catalyst for innovation. This isn’t science fiction; it’s an achievable reality. Our wasteCANcreate upcycling consortium exemplifies this transformation, blending waste, specialized organisms, and innovative solutions to create products with tangible benefits for the environment and the economy.