Thousands of dollars were on the line, along with exposure to a global audience and tech investors, for the 30 companies that hit the stage at the INVENTURES 2024 Startup Pitch Competition.
The May competition was divided into six tracks, each with a $10,000 prize for one of five finalists who pitched live on stage during the conference.
From a field of more than 1,000 total applicants, CO2Brew won the competition’s “Earth Tech: Building Everything Better” track.
And since then, things have only looked up fort the fledging firm.
The Calgary-based startup is looking to transform the brewing industry by unlocking cost and emission reductions while bolstering supply chain resiliency and accessing new revenue streams.
Toward this mission, the Alberta firm has received pre-seed capital from a range of investors, it was revealed this week.
Leading the round was the Avatar Leadership Fund, a $2.5M fund backed by Cenovous Energy with a focus on “nation-building investment” for early-stage energy technologies and also “supercharging the country’s leadership in the decarbonization of energy and industry. ”
Specifically, the fund supports promising technologies and companies that have graduated from the Avatar Studio ecosystem.
CO2Brew, which spun out of Avatar Studio in 2022 and marks the fund’s inaugural investment, also received capital from “numerous Canadian angel investors.”
“We are thrilled to strengthen our partnership with Avatar,” said Kent Swanlund, cofounder and chief executive of CO2Brew. “Having formed CO2Brew within Avatar’s Studio, we have benefited from Avatar’s hands-on leadership, expertise and strategic support as we bring our innovative technology to market.”
“We are honoured to be Avatar’s fund first investment and are empowered by Avatar’s passion for decreasing industrial emissions,” he added.
With a fresh influx of capital, the Calgary company is marching down a pathway toward commercializing their proprietary technology, which is an engineered CO2capture and scrubber system.
This system, according to CO2Brew, will recover high-purity liquid CO2 from the fermentation process and reuse it in the brewery carbonation process.
By ensuring a self-sufficient supply of beverage-grade CO2, brewers will be able to offset the purchase of industrial food-grade CO2, a statement from the firm reads.
And once its technology has been “de-risked within the brewing industry,” the startup intends to expand into the winery, distillery, and food processing industry, unlocking incremental revenue streams for clients through the sale of excess CO2.
“CO2Brew is an impressive representation of the innovation that can be unlocked by working within industry to create solutions for real problems,” said Bryan Trudel, Partner of Avatar’s Fund and chief of finance for Avatar Innovations. “We are inspired by team’s passion and dedication, and thrilled to lead this transaction and fill a critical gap in the clean-tech ecosystem by providing CO2Brew with necessary early-stage risk capital to pursue their business strategy and growth.”
CO2Brew is currently working on a pilot project with Cold Garden Beverage Company to bring its first commercial unit to market.
The company was a finalist for “Venture of the Year” in Foresight Canada’s 2024 Alberta Cleantech Awards.
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