Landing Pad Investment Program

Can we support home-grown start-ups and talent to secure Canada’s place as a global leader in the commercialization of Intellectual Property (IP)?

How do we bring back and retain high-quality personnel (HQP) and companies in Ontario?

The Landing Pad Investment Program (LPIP) seeks to provide investment and in-kind support to help Ontario-based genomics and engineering biology companies to return to and scale successfully in Ontario.

Securing Ontario's Place in the Global Bioeconomy

Driving forward our vision of developing the engineering biology ecosystem within Ontario and Canada, Ontario Genomics is enabling start-ups by providing investment and in-kind support through the Landing Pad Investment Program (LPIP).

The Landing Pad Investment Program aligns well with our strategic goals to advance genomics, applied research, and innovation to drive industry’s competitiveness, by providing access to high-risk investment, fostering connections between businesses, funders, investors and others, and advocating for policies that enable commercialization and implementation of genomics-based technologies. This enables a higher return on investments in genomics technology research, development and commercialization, filling a critical gap in Ontario’s life sciences ecosystem.

Ontario Genomics offers support to start-ups that attend an International Accelerator Program and wish to return to Ontario upon completion. Our official partner IndieBio (San Francisco & New York), backed by the global venture capital firm SOSV., offers $250,000 USD to companies accepted to their program. Successful applicants returning to Ontario from IndieBio or another approved international accelerator program may receive up to $100,000 CAD in investment from Ontario Genomics.

We are also working with Ontario Incubator Partners to provide access to laboratory space and mentorship. The mentorship includes regulatory pathway assistance, global outlook and connections, understanding of export markets, business model strategy, technical development, funding and foreign investment. Our partners are some of Ontario’s leading incubators and support organizations such as Velocity, Synapse, McMaster Innovation Park and Toronto Metropolitan University’s Science Discovery Zone (SDZ).

Funded Companies

Using engineering biology, Liven produces sustainable and animal-free protein ingredients with functionality equivalent to or superior to animal products. Liven is establishing a bioprocess and fermentation platform to transform food industry side streams into these protein ingredients, allowing scalable, environmentally friendly, and cruelty-free protein production to feed the growing population. Liven’s first product is animal-free collagen, a versatile protein ingredient with an $8 billion market.

“The funding support from Ontario Genomics through the LPIP program allows Liven to establish our R&D home base in Canada and produce the first sample for customers to validate. Financial support for early-stage engineering biology companies is rare in Canada and truly critical for our growth. Ontario Genomics is definitely an enabler!” Fei Luo, Co-founder and CEO, Liven

Ceragen is developing probiotics for plants that help hydroponic fruit and vegetable growers increase crop yields 10-20%. Ceragen’s inoculants are formulated with plant growth promoting microbes that increase crop yields by increasing nutrient uptake and improving the plants’ response to environmental stress. The company currently has two products on the market and is working to develop products for all hydroponically grown crops. “The funding our team has received from Ontario Genomics has been key in helping our company fund the development of new inoculant products that can increase Ontario fruit and vegetable greenhouse revenue by hundreds of millions of dollars each year.” Danielle Rose, CEO, Ceragen

Through the Landing Pad Investment Program, Ontario Genomics incentivizes genomics and engineering biology companies to scale their operations in Ontario, creating jobs at home and enabling our ecosystem to solve global challenges in therapeutics, food, biomaterials, biological tools, diagnostics and bioinformatics and AI-based technologies.