There’s a lack of venture capital funding for Saskatchewan startups, leaving these promising startups undervalued and underfunded. In 2018, Saskatchewan startups received less than half a percent of all venture capital funds deployed across Canada. Knowing our province’s startups were being overlooked for funding, we sought out ways that we could fill this funding gap. In early 2019, we launched the Conexus Venture Capital Fund, continuing our commitment in supporting Saskatchewan’s entrepreneurs and economy.

This $32 million Fund aims to bring together a variety of partners and investors eager to build Saskatchewan’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, focused on investing in high growth Saskatchewan-based technology startups. The Limited Partner base, all entirely from Saskatchewan, represent a strong mix of credit unions, individual business leaders, and a Saskatchewan-based retail venture fund with approximately 28,000 Saskatchewan-based shareholders.

The Fund will invest in a diversified portfolio of approximately 15 Saskatchewan-based high-growth startups and other investments as permitted within the Fund’s investment policy over the next four to five years.

Current portfolio companies include:

• 7shifts Employee Scheduling Software Inc.
• Coconut Software Corp.
• SalonScale Technology Ltd.
• Curatio Networks Inc.
• Taiv Inc.
• SafetyTek Software Ltd.
• LIVe 54e Dev Studios Inc. (dba OneShot Golf)
• Jobbox Software Inc. (dba ServiceBox)
• Callia Inc. (dba Callia Flowers)
• Showbie Inc.
• Rivercity Innovations Ltd.
• Prairie Robotics Inc.

Canada is a country of innovators, yet the majority of our agricultural products are shipped as raw materials, and almost 70% of the machinery on Canadian farms comes from other countries. One of the biggest challenges in Canadian agtech is the lack of private capital that flows into the space, with Canada’s share of global agtech investments being only 3.4%. Additionally, only 11% of Canadian agriculture research and development comes from privately funded sources.

Emmertech is a $60 million venture capital fund that focuses on Canadian agtech and agribusiness innovation. This new fund was built from an industry-first approach, with investors being some of Canada’s most innovating farmers, agribusiness owners, and agriculturally centred financial institutions.

Learn more at www.emmertech.ca.

For general inquiries, contact the Conexus Venture Capital Team via email: vc@conexus.ca

For media inquiries, contact Conexus’ Media Relations at:
Email: publicrelations@conexus.ca
Phone: 306-751-8201