AgriFood

For founders building solutions applicable throughout the entire Ag value chain—from producer to plate.

  • All Ventures
  • CDL-Rockies

SYLVARUM

Sylvarum has developed a proprietary electrostimulation technology to optimize seed germination. The system promotes faster and more uniform sprouting, while effectively eliminating pathogens and ensuring healthier crop growth. This innovative approach shortens growth cycles, strengthens crop resilience to environmental stresses, and reduces reliance on agrochemicals for seed companies, enhancing profitability and sustainability.

sylvarum.co

CDL Mentor Endorsement
"Sylvarum has all the elements I look for in a start-up: a proprietary technology that has the potential to create significant value in large markets (and I suspect the more Sylvarum learn about their platform the more uses they will identify). The team is strong and motivated, led by a CEO who brings the passion, intelligence and grit necessary to convert these assets into a successful business." – Andrew Baum, Principal, Clodewbelle LLC

Cropify

Cropify has developed a proprietary hardware unit with an integrated machine learning software to standardize and automatize the grading of pulses and grain commodities. With proprietary data sets to train their models, Cropify’s technology eliminates the human bias involved in the current grading process, while also reducing testing time by up to 70%.

cropify.io

CDL Mentor Endorsement
"Cropify has recognized that the grading of grain is a repetitive task primarily based on human vision and judgement. It also underpins a multi-billion dollar industry. Cropify has developed the technology to use imaging and software to not only replace the tedium of grading but also make it more accurate and consistent. This model of change has played out many times across almost every industry and for grain, the time is now. The Company has an opportunity to become the gold standard in grain grading which will allow them to scale rapidly across both crops and geographies. Anna and Andrew are an excellent management team. They are coachable, responsive and, most importantly, they got things done and moved the business forward between every CDL session. The recurring nature of revenue and the ablity to scale rapidly with relatively limited capital investment make Cropify and an attracive investment opportunity that deserves for time and attention from the CDL community." – Tom Urban, Founder, Agribusiness Advisors

Cquesta, Inc.

Cquesta is developing traits that increase root biomass and depth by 10-100% in oilseed and grain crops. For seed companies’ customers, Cquesta offers more resilient crops and plans to utilize long term carbon data. This carbon market will diversify seed companies’ revenue through the sale of farmers’ carbon credits, without changing agronomic practices.

cquesta.com

CDL Mentor Endorsement
"With their exclusive access to the Salk platform, Cquesta is addressing one of the last unexplored areas of crop improvement, root structure and function, which has the potential to dramatically improve crop resilience and performance. These benefits will prove to be of high interest to both seed companies and those focused on mitigating the impacts of climate change on food production. With a CEO that has been there before, Cquesta represents a 'swing for the fences' opportunity that is increasingly difficult to find in ag technology today." – Andrew Baum, Principal, Clodewbelle LLC

AuX Labs

AuX Labs has developed an in-house proprietary target gene editing system that enables the engineering of yeast to produce nature-identical proteins instead of alcohol, starting with casein. Using fermentation to produce industry-leading protein titers at >20g/L, AuX Labs’; casein can be formulated into animal-free cheese by dairy manufacturers, with the same sensory and functional attributes as animal-versions. By reducing greenhouse gas emissions by up to 95%, AuX Labs is striving to reach price parity at $10/ USDkg by mid-2025 to produce dairy proteins at a low cost and environmentally sustainable manner.

auxlabs.ca

CDL Mentor Endorsement
"Ted is a once is a blue moon founder - he is focused and calm, with a keen ability to anticipate challenges and develop solutions. He exceeded each milestone objective and made meaningful progress during the CDL journey. The highlight was completion and validation of their 1000L pilot facility and numerous customer development agreements! It was a pleasure working with AuX Labs." – Dara Djafarian, CEO & Board Member, Melio Peptide Systems Inc.

Revo Bio Chem Ltd.

Revo Bio Chem develops genetically modified yeast strains to transform ethanol plants and breweries into multi-purpose bio-refineries capable of producing high-value bio-compounds alongside ethanol or beer. Revo Bio Chem has modified four yeast strains that produce four plant-based cannabinoid compounds. The scalable extraction process appends to existing under-utilized infrastructure, enabling efficient production of bio-based chemicals, without disrupting ethanol or beer operations.

revobiochem.com

CDL Mentor Endorsement
"Fermentation, while ancient and natural, is, (I learned from my scientific colleagues), often a more efficient way of making many molecules than the normal chemically reductive routes. The key problems are creating the custom yeast to make the molecule, and buying its way into capacity to then ferment and make the molecule. Precision fermentation capacity is over-subscribed and expensive. But, commodity fermentation as can exist in various brewing and distillation industries, is not over-subscribed. The trick is to either buy the under-utilized capacity, still large $$$, or find a way to insert oneself into the existing structure of the business to either replace or add to the existing product mix. My journey at Revo Bio Chem was focused on creating both of these capabilities. Revo Bio Chemistry has a library of yeasts that can act as 'catalyst' in the 'bottom' of the distillation process of existing ethanol plants, allowing for side-production of new products leaving the ethanol alone. It can then sell by volume, as one revenue source, but other possibilities to participate in the product margins of the often highly valued new products. Great team that really took in the lessons from the room." – Douglas Beach, Chair of the Board, Eavor Technologies Inc

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