North Vancouver-based agritech start-up Ecoation Innovative Solutions Inc. is now part of Biobest.
Biobest purchased Ecoation’s business, certain assets and acquired key personnel as part of the deal, which completed July 17. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Ecoation will operate as part of Biobest, which acquired an equity interest in Ecoation four years ago given the alignment of its artificial intelligence (AI)-driven crop scouting technology with Biobest’s biological control business.
“We plan to use the Biobest network and connections to scale Ecoation to a world-scale,” said Ecoation co-founder Saber Miresmailli, who joins Biobest as an executive manager, AI.
A sale agreement was something Ecoation and Biobest had discussed previously. However, the close relationship between the two proved fortuitous after Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) requested a $1 million lump-sum payment this past January on a $3.3 million repayable loan granted in 2021.
The loan was the largest of nearly $3.4 million owing to creditors. Combined with $13.5 million in future equity agreements with shareholders, Ecoation’s total obligations stood at $17.5 million.
The sudden repayment triggered a cashflow crunch and court-supervised restructuring process.
But Biobest was one of the most important beneficiaries of the future equity agreements and stepped in to support Ecoation through the transition.
“They went out of their way to help us,” Miresmailli says.
The sale to Biobest closes a chapter on one of BC’s brightest agritech start-ups.
Founded in 2010, Ecoation received close to $7.3 million in government grants between 2019 and 2024. It was celebrated by the province as an example of homegrown agritech, and in March, co-founder Maryam Antikchi received the King Charles III Coronation Medal for her “outstanding contributions to agricultural innovation, sustainability, and technological advancements that have revolutionized crop management worldwide.”
The sale to Biobest will see that work continue.
“We have a chance to take this technology to the world stage,” Miresmailli says. “We are exactly where we wanted to be.”
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