Catalyst Incubator Success Story
- Cathy Forner PMP, CMC
- 2 days ago
- 4 min read
Anandi Botanicals
Alberta Based Start-up Pioneers Sustainable Hi-Tec Agriculture
Annie Ray earned a Masters in Forest Conservation from the University of Toronto. She was then employed in the Cannabis industry, but due to challenges in Can
nabis startup culture and impact of Covid, had to change jobs 5 times in 6 years. Annie decided not to look for other jobs. Instead, she decided to rely on her skills and experience to launch something of her own in Lethbridge. This new business would bring together her co-founder with expertise in product development, AI, and automation, with Annie’s international experience in commercial tissue culture production of Agriculture and Horticulture plants.
Together they brought nearly 40 years combined experience to commercial plant production, Robotics and AI technology. Anandi Botanicals started as a for profit business but with a bigger goal to create something useful for society. They would use plant tissue culture technology to address limitations in traditional cultivation methods and create scalable, impactful solutions across horticulture, bioenergy and environmental conservation.
Anandi Botanicals embraced the learning curve to connect with people and organizations like Micro Business training and RINSA and began applying for grants. Suzanne Ebelher who was her advisor at RINSA, recommended the Catalyst Incubator program, where she was also a mentor. Annie joined the Catalyst Incubator’s 2023 cohort, embracing the exploration of the entrepreneur ecosystem fully, and making valuable connections, including Catalyst Incubator coach and advisor Cathy Forner.
The initial challenges brought to the Catalyst Incubator program revolved around understanding the market, defining their customers, and gaining credibility as a business. Annie placed a high priority on attending additional accelerator programs like SVG Thrive, TAP, CTA, etc. and refining pitch presentations. This led to discovering new perspectives and securing a broad network of agencies she would not have met otherwise or known they existed. Every mentor, especially Dr. Wilf Keller, helped them establish significant contacts, like Dr. Pankaj Bhowmick at the NRC-ACRD, where Anandi Botanicals eventually established an important collaboration. The TAP introduced them to import-export trade and regulations, and as a result, Anandi Botanicals has been able to work with the Trade Commissioner of Canada, Uzbekistan, Armenia, India and was selected by CTA Taiwan, where they are currently exploring collaboration opportunities.
Potential of Plant Tissue Culture
The process of tissue culture begins with explants (fragments of plants such as sections of leaves, stems and roots from certified mother plants). These are cultured with nutrients and maintained in a controlled, sterile lab environment, followed by a series of stages all the way up to hardening in a green
house. The result: virus-free, disease-free, genetically uniform plants with fast
er growth and scalable production. Annie shares: “Seeds in seed banks often degrade, are susceptible to infection, and may not survive, making tissue culture almost the only option for rare and endangered species.”
Anandi Botanicals clients and areas of focus include Greenhouses, Nurseries, Fruit and Berry Growers, Research Institutions, Universities, Forestry and Conservation Organizations, to name a few. Currently they have a license to sell 7 varieties of Haskaps and Sour Cherries and these products are ready to go.
Using plant tissue culture, a special collaboration with Anandi Botanicals and the Blackfoot Community is underway for the conservation of rare and endangered native plants. Funded by S-CAP & RDAR, nearly1,000 Wild Turnip, Sweetgrass, a hundred Wild Tobacco and several wild onion plants are currently growing in their lab.
CBC has featured their work on conservation of sweetgrass with indigenous collaborator Api' soomaahka aka. William Singer III of Kainai nation, in a short documentary on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OX1_Xj2S7NI&t=4s
Annie states, “By leveraging cutting-edge tissue culture techniques, we aim to contribute to environmental sustainability and biodiversity conservation, while also providing training and creating job opportunities in rural indigenous communities.”
Business Accelerator Programs and Networks
From the Catalyst Incubator, Trade Accelerator program to Micro Business training, Anandi Botanicals has been growing with support from the extensive network that supports businesses.
Grants and funding
Anandi has also received grants and funding from Elevate IP, Sustainable Canadian Agricultural Partnership (S-CAP) & Results Driven Agriculture Research (RDAR) as well as an Innovation Catalyst Grant (ICG) for sensor based smart packaging solution that has a potential to be used across multiple industries.
From Micro starts to Macro changes
Annie recalls many learnings from the Catalyst Incubator coaches, including patience”. Cathy Forner was a highly valued mentor and everyone she introduced to us through the program has been very useful. The amount of passion Cathy applies really shows that Catalyst Incubator is not just a course. She was very serious about how we are utilizing the information and very caring about the needs of entrepreneurs”, Annie says. “She highly recommends the Catalyst Incubator for any entrepreneur ready to change their destiny. It’s one of the best accelerators I attended, and I encourage everyone to get in touch with Cathy Forner.”
Currently Annie is wearing many hats and getting up-skilled in many areas, including accounting. Pitch training was highly important and overwhelming at times, but it was a positive learning experience. Annie credits the Catalyst Incubator, and other programs for their valuable information and contacts. After the Catalyst Incubator, Annie also connected with Community Futures to understand what is available through them. Today, Anandi Botanicals spends about 70 percent of its time in the lab and 30% percent on research, exploratory discussions, networking and business development.
Milestones ahead
Over the next 12 months, they have several milestones in mind: to continue innovating, automating labor intensive processes, finding customers and revenue generation. Production will continue with many more varieties of horticulture and medicinal plants including indigenous plants.
Anandi Botanicals is working through regulations and learning how to sell to conservation, forestry and land reclamation agencies. They will be reaching out to many different organizations to sell their plants as well as their Automation, AI and Robotics based solutions and would welcome any enquiries in this regard.
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