Salmon Arm’s TechBrew Robotics is rebranding on the heels of securing $17.5 million in equity financing in a round led by BDC Capital’s Industrial Innovation Venture Fund and InBC Investment Corp.
Rebranded as 4AG Robotics (pronounced “Forage”), the startup is addressing the labor-intensive challenges of the mushroom industry with cutting-edge robotic solutions.
The financing round also included Emmertech, Jim Richardson Family Office, Lex Capital, and a series of angel investors from across Canada.
The investment marks the first direct investment into a company from InBC, a public fund with $500 million to invest.
4AG Robotics stands at the forefront of addressing the most critical challenge in the mushroom industry – the intensive labour required to harvest mushrooms.
Mushrooms thrive in dark, and humid environments, astonishingly doubling in size every 24 hours. Their delicate nature, even more fragile than tomatoes, poses a formidable challenge for automation when it comes to tasks such as picking, trimming, and packing.
The mushroom sector is in urgent need of automated solutions, given the complex logistical and labour challenges posed by a highly perishable product. 4AG Robotics is dedicated to providing this much-needed transformative solution, and has secured purchase orders with farms in Canada & Europe.
“We believe that we can build a globally successful robotics company, based right here in Salmon Arm, and are eager to start growing our team. We’re excited about the quality of this investment group and the people we can lean on in these critical years ahead,” shared Sean O’Connor, CEO of 4AG Robotics.
“We have the deep experience in agtech from BDC Capital & Emmertech, along with the fresh approach and new energy coming in from InBC’s new fund.”
Leave a Reply