Nventure Backs AI and Cleantech Ventures in Southern Ontario
Cobourg, ONTARIO – July 28, 2025 – Nventure Business Development Corporation is pleased to announce investments backing next gen innovation-driven enterprise in southern Ontario. Launched under the thriveFORWARD banner, and after after a rigorous application and competition selection process, the following ventures secured $50,000 each to propel their commercialization efforts, with an emphasis on AI and Cleantech:
Adderbee Research: Peer-to-Peer personal AI.
Demagel: Green polymer science and hydrogen technologies.
HARvEST Systems: Capturing and recycling waste heat in commercial kitchens.
New Protein International: Canada’s first hexane-free soy protein production.
PredictNow AI: Corrective AI for financial institutions.
All deals have successfully closed.
“While some investors may be pausing to gauge macro-economic uncertainties, our organization is actively deploying risk capital to invest in Ontario-made innovation,” said Wendy Curtis, CEO of Nventure. “Today, we want to highlight exceptionally talented entrepreneurs as they pursue big ideas and engineer breakthrough technologies.”
Overall, Nventure equity financing is designed to:
Get start-ups onto a solid venture capital track
Galvanize early-stage investment rounds
Bridge companies to larger investments, while providing innovation capital at the right time to clear mission-critical milestones.
Nventure’s early-stage entrepreneurial finance initiatives are helping to ensure pivotal projects maintain their momentum and potential.
“The bottom line is that we believe in the power of entrepreneurs to forge the industries of the future,” said the Chair of Nventure’s Board of Directors, Jason Ewart. “And we are proud to be in a position to back these new portfolio companies at the right moment for Canada.”
Quotes from Investee Companies
“This investment from Nventure will accelerate our mission to build a privacy-first AI ecosystem at Adderbee and further establish Canada as a global leader in AI—one that ensures that local innovators, system integrators and developers remain at the forefront of a global movement toward responsible, people-focused technology. Working with Nventure has been a seamless and energizing experience. We are thrilled to take this major step forward in our mission to build our AI ecosystem here in Canada.”
Vaughan Hines, Founder & CEO, Adderbee Research.
"At Demagel, we recently closed an important funding round and were pleased to have Nventure participate through the thriveFORWARD initiative. This continues a relationship that began with Nventure’s Women Entrepreneurship Loan Fund. Now we have an equity partner who also is there to provide welcome advice and counsel as we continue on our journey to commercialization."
Siziwe Bebe, Founder & CEO, Demagel.
“Nventure played an early and significant role in igniting our latest investment round. We truly appreciate their passion for championing Canadian cleantech, local manufacturing and collaborative innovation, and we're excited to have them with us as we scale up.”
Jim Cotton, Co-Founder & CEO, HARvEST Systems.
“The recent investment from Nventure comes at a perfect time in our company's journey, providing critical capital to enable us to scale. It has never been more important for our country to start producing more critical food ingredients that we eat every day, here at home. The Nventure due diligence process was professional but also fair. We are grateful to have them on our cap table.”
Graham Markam, Chief Development Officer, New Protein International.
“The Nventure decision-making process was super efficient, and it has been a great pleasure working with them. Their investment has helped convince top-notch talent to join us. It also enables us to continue our innovation and to provide enterprise AI solutions to major banks and asset management firms.”
Ernest Chan, Founder & CEO, PredictNow.
About thriveFORWARD
With the support of FedDev Ontario, Nventure launched the first round of thriveFORWARD in 2022: a $10 million initiative that co-funded industrial innovation projects driven by almost 200 start-ups and SMEs across southern Ontario. Non-repayable performance-based contributions of up to $100,000 leveraged 5X from the private sector, with a focus on advanced manufacturing, agri-food, biotech/medtech and cleantech ventures. thriveFORWARD round two featured an open call in late 2024 for $50,000 convertible notes for qualifying early-stage innovation-driven enterprise in southern Ontario.
About Nventure
Nventure Business Development Corporation is an innovation organization based at Venture13 in Cobourg, Ontario. Nventure drives economic advancement by investing in entrepreneur and industry-led growth in Northumberland, southern Ontario, and across the country, through numerous initiatives such as the Community Futures Program (CFP) and CANtrade™ (alternative lending in Northumberland, with the support of FedDev Ontario), the DELIA Women Entrepreneurship Loan Fund (with the support of ISED Canada), StrikeUP Canada (with co-presenting sponsors Export Development Canada and The Scotiabank Women Initiative®) as well as the V13 Policetech Accelerator, a joint initiative of Nventure and the Cobourg Police Service.
