Harvest, a venture builder in the Prairies, has embarked on a partnership with Western Canadian Innovation Offices to advance innovation and entrepreneurship across the region.
Chris Simair, founder of Harvest and co-founder of startup success SkipTheDishes, said WCIO and its network of academic institutions across Western Canada, gives Harvest the ability to capitalize on research and development opportunities while building a platform to commercialize ideas into companies.
“These companies will have the potential to shape a more diversified Canadian economy,” he said.
“For example, companies like Beyond Meat, that are fuelled at its core by innovation, are being founded in Silicon Valley when the primary, world-leading research is actually being developed at home here in the Prairies.”
Harvest is a not-for-profit co-builder of companies, taking founders with disruptive ideas and equipping them with world-class talent, funding, and support to co-build their company into a successful, fast-growing business.
Harvest will be selecting a region to anchor its partnership with WCIO and the hub will act as a catalyst for academic commercialization opportunities across the Harvest network, providing opportunities for startups to grow within a world-class ecosystem of entrepreneurs, business professionals, and investors.
“We believe Harvest, with its management expertise and unique model will be able to increase the success rate of new technology based startups across Western Canada and are looking forward to growing connections within our network to create economic impact across the Prairies,” said Darren Fast, Director, Partnerships & Innovation at the University of Manitoba and lead for WCIO.
Harvest recently announced its move into Calgary’s M2 Building for its pilot operations and plans to set up offices across the Prairies. The venture builder is considering Western Canadian cities to call its headquarters, including Calgary, Winnipeg and Saskatoon. Harvest’s first portfolio company, Neo Financial, is also slated to launch this year.
Mario Toneguzzi is a business reporter in Calgary.
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