Since InBC’s investment, the companies in our portfolio have been busy growing their businesses. From expanding to new markets to further developing their technologies, these companies are helping to strengthen British Columbia (B.C.) as a global innovation leader while driving economic growth and creating jobs in the province.
As of December 31, 2024, InBC’s portfolio is supporting 29 B.C. companies that are employing over 1,500 British Columbians.
Catch up on what some of them have been up to in the last few months.
Salmon Arm-based 4AG Robotics has been getting its mushroom harvesting robots onto farms, expanding from one farm to now picking mushrooms on three continents. It has also made significant strides in its technology, unveiling robots that can now reliably work 24 hours a day and pack mushrooms into small punnets ready for the grocery store. To support both the increase in sales and its production capacity, the company has doubled its team to 70 employees.
4AG Robotics just won the “Best Startup Award – Investor’s Choice” at The International Forum of Agricultural Robotics. In late 2024, Foresight Canada also named the company as one of “Canada’s Most Investable Cleantech Ventures”, with a third-party auditor determining that its robots save a standard farm 8.4 million Kgs of CO2 emissions annually.
Arca Climate Technologies has been taking its innovations global, with a mission to drive industrial-scale climate action. In the past year it has advanced the world’s first carbon dioxide removal (CDR) demonstration project at an active mine site in Western Australia, advanced the development of its patented mineral activation technology to accelerate carbon capture and storage in mine waste, and formed partnerships with multiple mining companies to explore the suitability of their operations for CDR. Currently, the company is a finalist in the globally prestigious XPRIZE Carbon Removal Competition, with the grand prize winners to be announced on Earth Day 2025.
In 2024, Foresight Canada named Arca as the “BC Cleantech Startup of the Year” and one of “Canada’s Most Investable Cleantech Ventures”.
ChopValue has been taking its local approach to manufacturing to new markets, expanding its microfactory network to nine countries while committing to producing and sourcing locally in each region. With partnerships such as A&W Restaurants in Canada and wagamama in the United Kingdom, the company is showcasing how businesses can thrive while embracing sustainability. To date, ChopValue has recycled over 204 million chopsticks and saved over 10 million kgCO2e emissions.
Since InBC’s investment and the opening of its new manufacturing facility in Vancouver, Clarius Mobile Health has been rapidly expanding its presence in global markets including acquiring new distributors across Europe and the Asia Pacific region, enabling Clarius scanners to be sold in countries ranging from Germany to Japan and Australia. It has also been developing its technology, launching new products such as the Clarius OB AI for prenatal care and T-Mode™ AI for ultrasound education.
As of January 2025, Clarius’ ultrasound technology has touched over five million lives worldwide.
Netskrt Systems has been expanding its customer base, now providing edge caching solutions to 450 internet service providers (ISPs) worldwide and growing, including smaller ISPs serving rural and remote communities. Contributing to the company’s growth is its venture into the live streaming sports industry; Netskrt now delivers live streams of NHL games in Canada and NFL games in the United States and will be helping content providers stream NBA games later this year. To support its massive scale, the company has increased its team to more than 70 employees, the majority of whom are based in B.C.
Sanctuary AI has been developing its technology and strengthening its position as a leader in humanoid robotics intellectual property. Recently, Morgan Stanley ranked the company third in published U.S. patent filings (a report, the company points out, that only detected 51 of its approximately 140 published U.S. patent filings). This comes shortly after Tech + IP Advisory ranked it fourth globally for patent holdings for general purpose robots and dexterous manipulation. In December, Sanctuary AI launched its new robotic hand technology with 21 degrees of freedom and the ability to perform in-hand manipulation, enabling its robots to carry out high-value work tasks requiring fine manipulation.
Rossland-based ThoughtExchange has been bringing its survey and engagement technology to more education districts and is now reaching seven million students across eight provinces, one territory and 38 U.S. states. Last year, the company launched a Small District Success Plan, tailoring its services to give K-12 education districts with fewer than 5,000 students access to the same quality engagement methods and data analysis as larger districts. It also continued to pioneer its AI innovation, which can analyze millions of survey responses almost instantly. Now this year, the company has appointed George Psiharis, former COO of Clio and AlayaCare, as Chief Executive Officer to lead its next phase of growth.
In 2024, ThoughtExchange was named in The Globe and Mail’s list of “Canada’s Top Growing Companies”.
These are just a few of the B.C. companies in our portfolio driving innovation and creating meaningful impact locally and globally. See more of them in our portfolio.
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