Three Burnaby startups receive $3.7M in federal funding

Three Burnaby technology startups have received $3.7 million in funding from Pacific Economic Development Canada (PacifiCan), a federal government agency. The three startups specialize in different fields and have developed processes and projects that promise to improve sustainability and reduce waste and emissions, among other benefits. 

Burnaby startup pH7 Technologies received the largest portion of the funding, with $1.5 million. The company developed a new process for extracting and recycling critical metals commonly used in technology products. 

Two other Burnaby businesses are also receiving PacifiCan funding. PosiTrace, a supplier of GPS tracking solutions, is receiving $1,230,000 in funding through PacifiCan’s Business Scale-up and Productivity program. 

According to the PacifiCan website, “PosiTrace’s innovative reporting software provides businesses with real-time visibility into vehicle location and route analytics, which improves productivity and reduces costs and fuel consumption. PacifiCan funding will help PosiTrace expand its local operations and create new jobs.”

Rigid Robotics Inc. is receiving $975,000 through PacifiCan’s Jobs and Growth Fund to develop its AI-powered cloud platform and application technology for the mining industry. Rigid Robotics’ technology aims to provide data analysis for mining companies to improve efficiency and human safety while reducing emissions.

“The investments announced today are expected to help create 47 jobs, grow the Burnaby and regional economy and drive a more sustainable future for British Columbians,” PacifiCan said in a statement on Nov. 13, 2024. 

According to Mohammad Doostmohammadi, CEO of pH7, the startup’s new metal extraction process promises to reuse critical metals in old tech products that would otherwise end up in landfills. 

“We developed this closed-loop process by combining organic, inorganic, and electrochemistry to extract these metals from both mining and recycling supplies and add them to the circular economy,” Doostmohammadi told the Beacon. “If our process didn’t exist, they would either go to landfill or would be blended with other materials.” 

Doostmohammadi said pH7’s process aims to be a more sustainable solution for the mining, tech, and recycling industries. pH7 is now expanding the range of metals it processes.  

“We started with the PGM group, the platinum group metals, which is one of the rarest and most expensive metals that’s mostly being used as a catalyst. They are a group of six metals: platinum, palladium, rhodium, iridium, ruthenium, and osmium,” he said. “After that, we started adding more metals to our portfolio, including copper, nickel, gold, and silver, and we are adding tin and cobalt. These are the critical metals that we are extracting from both end-of-life materials and mining with the commercialization of the other metal portfolios in the next two to three years.” 

The PacifiCan funding will help pH7 commercialize the process and scale it up. Doostmohammadi said the process also reduces emissions and is less polluting than conventional methods of recycling and metal extraction, and it also cuts down significantly on costs. 

“The major thing about our technology that makes a difference from other technologies available today is that we are extracting these metals in a sustainable manner, both economically and environmentally,” he said. “We reuse our chemistry over and over without generating any wastewater, effluent, or off-gassing...That’s the major difference that we have with other chemical processes or pyrometallurgical processes.” 

Doostmohammadi said the current industry for metal extraction relies on acid-base leaching, which generates wastewater, consumes a high amount of energy, and generates excessive nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions.  

The startups have several deliverables and milestones they need to meet for the funding; at each milestone, they will have to provide reports, and at the end of the project, they will submit a final report to receive the final installment of funding. 

Doostmohammadi founded pH7 in 2021, and the startup has grown significantly in the past three years. 

“I believe it’s one of the fastest-growing companies I’ve been involved in. We started in 2021 with me as the founder and the only employee. And now we are 40 people. We have four sites around Vancouver. We have two pilots and one demonstration plant, and now we are signing international deals to build these plants all around the world.”

According to PacificCan, the three startups were chosen specifically for their innovative and sustainable solutions. The agency expects they will contribute positively to the tech industry in Burnaby and BC as their projects and new processes expand. 

“PH7 Technologies, PosiTrace, and Rigid Robotics received funding because they demonstrated a strong ability to innovate, increase revenue and export sales growth, and create quality jobs. These projects also strongly align with PacifiCan’s clean technology/energy priorities,” PacifiCan told the Beacon in an email. 

The other two startups also expressed excitement about how the funding will support their work. 

“It is tremendously exciting for us to get this vote of confidence from PacifiCan. This investment will allow us to expand our team and help deliver our fleet management and GPS tracking solutions to other parts of North America,” said Bill Kornilo, president and CEO of PosiTrace, in a statement.

Rigid Robotics Inc. said it will use the funding to expand its team and create new jobs. 

“Rigid Robotics is grateful for the support from PacifiCan through the Jobs and Growth Fund. This funding has been pivotal in driving our rapid expansion, allowing us to grow our local team and scale our AI-driven cloud platform. As we grow, our technology is transforming mining operations by reducing costs, minimizing downtime, and improving environmental footprints. We’re excited to build on this momentum and continue our fast-paced innovation in BC and beyond,” said Mehran Motamed, CTO of Rigid Robotics Inc.

However, Doostmohammadi said that while the province and federal government were supportive, the city required many permits, and he wished it would create an environment more conducive to starting businesses, especially technology ones. 

“Finding real estate, finding warehouses where we can build our plants, or pilot plants, or building a lab there, it was really challenging. Getting permits from the city almost took forever, and it’s not much help on that side,” he said. “The City of Burnaby has been, I believe, backlogged with lots of applications. Again, it’s just that there are lots of factors here.” 

Doostmohammadi said one of the main challenges is the limited land available in the Metro Vancouver area for industrial use and that large companies such as Amazon tend to take over all the warehouses. 

“I don’t say this is a problem that can be solved overnight. It needs a team effort. It needs understanding of the problem and then put the right team in the right place to be able to solve it and accelerate the permitting for building the industrial sites in Burnaby, especially with the population rate and increased rate that we see in Burnaby, creating jobs is one of the major challenges that we have, and the government has,” Doostmohammadi said.  

In 2023-2024, PacifiCan approved over $14.4 million in funding for six Burnaby companies, including the three startups mentioned above. 

The other three companies are Greenlight Innovation Corporation which received $1.1 million, Garibaldi Glass Industries, Inc. which received $4.6 million, and ARTMS Inc. which received $5 million. 

“With this investment, PacifiCan will help Burnaby companies grow their business locally, compete globally, and create quality jobs. This builds stronger communities and helps innovative, ambitious BC companies thrive today and into the future. It also provides good quality local jobs and enhances the local tech ecosystem,” PacifiCan said.

This piece was made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.

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