Halifax-based Reazent has joined the P.E.I. BioAlliance’s Emergence startup incubator as it seeks regulatory approval to sell its sustainable fertilizer products in Canada and finishes raising a seed round.

Chief Executive Sumit Verma said in an interview that the company has completed test projects under partnerships with agricultural companies at a range of scales, including some of the sector’s largest global players. His Canadian regulatory bid will be followed by applications in the United States and Europe.

Verma, a chemicals industry veteran with an MBA from Stanford, founded Reazent in 2019 and subsequently relocated to Nova Scotia from India.

“We help mitigate climate change by reducing the carbon footprints of chemicals and ingredients,” said Verma. “And we are currently focusing on agriculture.

“Farmers use synthetic chemicals, such as fertilizers and pesticides, which have huge carbon footprints, and we help replace them with sustainable alternatives.”

While confidentiality agreements prevented Verma from naming Reazent’s testing partners, he said many of the testing deals also helped offset research and development expenses, thanks to cost-sharing agreements.

“These companies have not only helped us in validating our technology, but also helped us carry out these trials and tests in a cost-efficient manner,” Verma said. “They also saved some of the costs of a trial, so it was a win-win situation.”

So far, Reazent has four employees, counting Verma, and a two-member advisory board. Verma is also in the process of hiring.

When it reaches full commercialization, the company will employ multiple sales models, selling to some customers directly and partnering with distributors to reach others.

“Some customers we’ll be able to sell to directly, where the sales cycles is short and we don’t need an intensive distribution and marketing infrastructure,” Verma said. “But in other applications, we are partnering with different types of companies.”

Last year, Reazent won a $600,000 grant from the federal Sustainable Development Technology Canada, following on from an earlier funding package awarded in 2020, and Verma is now eyeing a capital raise that he describes as “somewhere between a seed round and a Series A,” which he aims to close in the coming months.