By Gerelyn Terzo, Global AgInvesting Media
The Canadian Food Innovation Network (CFIN) has published its maiden “Food-tech in Canada 2025 Ecosystem Report,” highlighting a detailed overview of Canada’s food-tech ecosystem. The report relied on food-tech data intelligence from food-tech platform Forward Fooding and reflects the contributions of over 9,950 global companies and 320 domestic businesses.
CFIN follows the trail of more than C$4.1 billion CAD (US$2.9 billion) in Canadian agri-food-tech investments in the 10 years leading up to 2024, of which C$2.3 billion (US$1.6 billion) was directed toward food-tech projects in particular. Canadian food-tech has experienced an impressive compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.4 percent, led by plant-based proteins, which represent 25 percent of the country’s food-tech companies and boast a combined value of US$1.7 billion as of 2023. Significant investment into this segment has put the country on the global stage as a co-manufacturing hub.
Chief among the challenges that Canada’s food-tech industry faces is a lack of funding from the private sector. Venture capital firms back 40 percent of Canada’s food-tech fundraising rounds, a far cry from the 60 percent in VC funding that U.S. and U.K. startups receive. The report goes on to share that while VC round sizes for pre-seed and seed rounds are comparable to those achieved by U.S. and U.K. startups, Series A and Series B round sizes lag, coming in at about 50 percent of those competing markets. To offset this disparity, public grants play a greater role in Canada, participating in 30 percent of all food-tech funding rounds compared with 5 percent and 8 percent in the U.K. and U.S., respectively.
“If we can build a stronger community of risk-tolerant investors, it’ll unlock so much potential in Canada’s food-tech scene and help turn great ideas into global breakthroughs,” stated Redstick Ventures’ Cam Crowder cited by the report.
Chart courtesy of the CFIN report
The report also identifies food waste reduction and upcycling as opportunities in Canada’s food system, considering over 21 million tons of food is wasted annually. Demand for solutions across the food value chain spectrum has sparked innovation from startups focused on this issue. Canada’s food system’s challenges are not unique to the country and include labor shortages complicated by supply chain issues that have never fully recovered since the pandemic. A bright spot is Canada’s bio-food innovation, which is emerging as another driver of the country’s food-tech advancements in areas like synthetic biology, precision fermentation and health-focused ingredient production.
Of the findings, CFIN CEO Dana McCauley stated, “Canada’s food-tech ecosystem has made remarkable progress over the last decade, driving transformative innovations that enhance sustainability, boost economic productivity, and create jobs nationwide. However, to truly realize our potential as a global food-tech superpower, we must address the pressing challenges that remain. CFIN is fully committed to empowering homegrown innovators and fostering solutions that will shape the future of food technology in Canada.”
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