Six university-linked startups took the stage at Web Summit Vancouver today as the University of British Columbia and Simon Fraser University teamed up to showcase the next generation of climate and agritech ventures.
Held at the Climate Innovation Zone, the University Power Pitches featured five-minute presentations from emerging companies working on problems ranging from plastic pollution and crop loss to shipping emissions, food waste, and industrial carbon emissions.
The session brought together six startups from UBC and SFU: Phyco, Sustainable Bioproducts Innovations (SBI), Subvision Robotics, PrecisionPest Guard, Farade Research Corp, and Tydra Labs. Each company pitched to a panel of judges before the audience voted for a People’s Choice winner.
The vote ended in a tie between Tydra Labs and Phyco, with Phyco ultimately named the winner.
The pitches showed the range of climate innovation emerging from B.C.’s university ecosystem, with several companies already moving beyond research and into pilots, customer discovery, and early commercialization.
Phyco, led by co-founder and CEO Ranah Chavoshi, pitched a seaweed-based alternative to conventional plastics. The company is developing soil-biodegradable, non-toxic pellets that can be used for films, coatings, and other applications.
“Our mission is to stop eating plastic,” Chavoshi told the audience.
Phyco is working with coastal communities, including Indigenous Nations, and says its process can use farmed and invasive seaweed rather than wild-harvested sources. The company has raised more than $550,000 in non-dilutive funding, signed three letters of intent with early adopters, and is preparing for paid pilots.
Sustainable Bioproducts Innovations, represented by co-founder and CEO Dave Eto, pitched a food ingredient designed to replace saturated fat in consumer packaged goods. The company uses chia seeds and natural fibres to create a powder that can be rehydrated during food manufacturing to replace oils, butter, and other fats.
SBI says a UBC-led blind taste test found 70 percent of participants preferred a zero-fat hazelnut spread made with its ingredient over the full-fat version. The company has 130 prospects in its pipeline, is actively working with 30 companies on R&D, and expects to begin shipping product to customers within months.
Subvision Robotics, led by CEO Ali Hakam, introduced Zima, an autonomous subsea rover designed to prevent biofouling on ship hulls before it forms.
Hakam said biofouling can drive significant fuel costs for shipping companies and is typically addressed through divers or robots that scrub hulls after organisms have already accumulated. Subvision’s approach uses UV light to prevent the microbial layer that algae and barnacles need to grow.
The company has raised $55,000 in non-dilutive funding and has spoken with potential industry partners including Seaspan and Maersk.
PrecisionPest Guard, founded by Ibtehal “Ibby” Al Sallaiy, is building an image-based pest detection and treatment platform for greenhouses. Al Sallaiy said farmers can spend six to eight hours a week manually counting pests, while infestations can contribute to major crop losses.
The company’s system collects images as a cart moves through greenhouse lanes, identifies pest type and density, and calculates how much pest control solution should be applied to specific areas. PrecisionPest Guard says it has achieved more than 80 percent accuracy and could reduce pest control solution use by 30 percent.
Farade Research Corp, represented by researcher Subash Rajasekar, pitched a carbon recycling technology aimed at heavy-emitting industries such as cement and steel. Rajasekar described the company as focused on turning carbon emissions into valuable industrial feedstocks, targeting sectors that are difficult to decarbonize through electrification alone.
The company has completed lab-scale work in cooperation with the National Research Council and is looking toward pilot-scale validation, with a stated goal of raising approximately $2 million to advance the technology.
Tydra Labs, represented by co-founder Jaiya Varshney, closed the pitch lineup with a biomaterials platform focused on chitin, a naturally occurring biopolymer traditionally extracted from shellfish waste using chemical-intensive processes.
Varshney said Tydra Labs is developing a vegan, hydrated form of fibrillated chitin using local food and agricultural waste. The company is starting with cosmetics because of the sector’s faster path to revenue, while positioning its material for broader future applications.
Tydra Labs said it already has 50 cosmetic labs waiting to test its material, along with 26 letters of intent and 14 material transfer agreements. The company also announced it had completed an oversubscribed $1.2 million financing round earlier this year.
The session was judged by a panel that included representatives from Osler, Moment Energy, Tandem Innovation Group, ClimateDoor, and Active Impact Investments.
For UBC and SFU, the showcase offered a window into how university research and student entrepreneurship are moving into the market at a moment when climate technologies are drawing increased attention from investors, governments, and industry.
As Web Summit Vancouver brings global investors and technology leaders to the city, the University Power Pitches served as a reminder that some of the next climate companies to watch may already be building inside B.C.’s academic ecosystem.
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