The PEI BioAlliance has received $3.18 million in funding from the governments of Canada and Prince Edward Island to help fund the next iteration of its Emergence Bioscience Business Incubator.
The federal government’s Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency issued a press release on Thursday saying it would provide $2.35 million through the Regional Economic Growth through Innovation program. The release also said the provincial government would provide $825,000 through Innovation PEI.
Emergence is a support organization for life sciences companies in Atlantic Canada, providing both curriculum and one-on-one mentorship, assisting with business strategy and access to networks. Rather than offering cohort-based programing, it customarily works with companies over periods of years.
“Emergence is a proven, metric-based success story that has been instrumental in supporting early-stage bioscience companies and a broad stakeholder base across the Atlantic Canada region,” Dr. Jason Cleaversmith, Executive Director of Incubation and Infrastructure at the PEI BioAlliance, said in the statement. “With funding support for the next phase of Emergence, we can build on our past success and continue to work with our clients and collaborators to support the growth of Atlantic-Canada’s bioscience ecosystem.”
The PEI BioAlliance, an organization made up of private- and public-sector organizations that support bio companies, launched Emergence in 2014 to give a boost to startups and SMEs in the sector. For the past few years, it has been progressing under its Emergence 2.0 plan, and the new funding will help to get Emergence 3.0 off the ground.
During Emergence 2.0, companies working with the incubator raised more than $297 million in capital, increased staffing from 289 to 849, and almost quadrupled revenues to $129 million. The startups working with Emergence include Charlottetown-based AffinityImmuno, Fredericton-based Chinova Bioworks, and St. John’s-based Breathe BioMedical.
The statement said the funding is expected to benefit 55 bioscience businesses annually.
Disclosure: ACOA and Emergence are clients of Entrevestor.
