Tech Update: Plant-based salmon startup takes a giant leap with IKEA partnership

Everyone’s getting in on back-to-school celebrations — even fish.
In Ontario, the beginning of September is a high-water mark in the annual salmon run, and the provincial government has implemented new guidelines to help protect Chinook swimmers, which are particularly exposed as they make their way upstream.
And thanks to a recent announcement from New School Foods, those salmon, their offspring and their cousins across Canada and the U.S. may swim a bit easier now. The Toronto-based startup has developed a proprietary process to produce “whole-muscle” plant-based proteins that mimic the look, taste, texture, mouthfeel and nutritional profile of seafood.
It has just closed on a seed funding extension of $8 million, which will help support the rollout of its faux salmon fillets (made of seaweed, algae, various plant proteins and supplementary vitamins and omega fatty acids) across North America.
This latest investment — which includes buy-in from Inter IKEA Group, the division that connects suppliers with franchisees of the Swedish chain — bolsters New School’s plan to launch its alterna-fish in restaurants.  
Last year, New School piloted its product with chefs; testing the waters in restaurants is a smart next step toward commercialization. According to Sylvain Charlebois, the director of the Agri-Food Analytics Lab at Dalhousie University, plant-based proteins have had more success in food service environments than they have in grocery stores and other retailers because “the democratization of proteins is much more critical for restaurants.”
If even one member of a party adheres to a vegetarian diet, that group will choose to dine somewhere with plant-based options — which means a restaurant that fits that criterion makes a sale. In contrast, explains Charlebois, grocers who don’t stock specifically plant-based proteins still offer plenty of products for veg-leaning shoppers.
“It doesn’t change the allure of the place,” says Charlebois, “and it won’t compromise the perception of it being exclusive or not.” 
Conventional retailers have also encountered challenges in determining how to categorize and where to place these items, which leads to consumer confusion and frustration. (As Charlebois suggests, a shopper in search of plant-based products may wind up on a wild faux-goose chase: does the store have a vegan section? Are veggie burgers in the freezer aisle? Or did they wind up with the actual meat?) 
The overall plant-based meat market has trended downward since 2021; even Beyond, a heavyweight in animal-free grilling options, reported losses of US$54.4 million in the first quarter of 2024. But faux fish may help turn the tides: the global plant-based seafood market is projected to grow to $1.3 billion by 2030, up from $84 million in 2022.
According to predictions from the Independent Electricity System Operator, the demand for energy in Ontario is on track to double by 2050.
Current estimates suggest consumption is increasing by 2 per cent every year. With this data top of mind, the provincial government has announced a new energy procurement plan, which aims to add 5,000 megawatts to the grid from a number of sources, from nuclear to renewables to natural gas.
Given the impetus to find more sustainable energy sources to achieve net-zero goals, it makes sense that this source-agnostic approach is raising some eyebrows. As Dan Hoornweg, an associate professor in the faculty of engineering and applied science at Ontario Tech University, explains, cost and availability are major factors in the new plan.
The province’s largest renewable energy source is hydroelectricity, but there isn’t enough to keep pace with demand; wind and solar power require storage solutions and are harder to integrate into the grid. By comparison, while gas releases methane and other pollutants, existing infrastructure makes it a go-to option. (“You turn it on and it’s there,” says Hoornweg.) And 50 to 60 per cent of the province’s electricity comes from nuclear power, which is low-carbon but not renewable, Hoornweg adds.
Although Ontario is building more nuclear facilities, Hoornweg notes that there is still a real need for renewables.
Critics of solar power often raise the issue that harvesting this form of energy can require large swaths of land — a point that may have influenced the provincial government’s decision to ban solar farms on prime agricultural land as part of its new procurement plan. This does not necessarily preclude creative options for obtaining energy from the sun, like bifacial solar panels that capture light that bounces off the ground as well as beams from the sky, which can be installed on roofs and other existing infrastructure.
This tech can produce more energy with a much smaller footprint, and software such as that developed by Ottawa-based Enurgen can aid in the strategic deployment and arrangement of the arrays. 
Ultimately, says Hoornweg, the government’s plan can be seen as an effort to plan for future energy requirements without being overly didactic.
“They want to leave options open as much as possible, but with guardrails,” he says. “And the guardrail is really that we need to be producing low-carbon electricity in a hurry because that’s key to our net-zero transition.”
At this year’s International Economic Development Council (IECD), Invest Durham received a bronze award for its Durham at Collision project, a partnership with the region’s eight municipalities, higher education institutions and other tech groups to showcase the local  innovation community during the 2023 Collision Conference. The centrepiece of the award-winning endeavour was Project Arrow — the first Canadian, zero-emissions connected vehicle.
$1.2 million: How much Toronto startup Fibra raised in its pre-seed funding round. Fibra creates advanced fertility tracking underwear that gives wearers more agency and insights into their reproductive health.
2 million: The number of users who’ve signed up with Collectr, an app that helps memorabilia aficionados keep track of their Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh cards and other collectibles and assess the value of their overall portfolio. The startup recently announced a $500,000 pre-seed funding round.
$3.5 million: The amount invested by Raven Indigenous Capital Partners in RunWithIt Synthetics, an AI modelling company that creates digital twins of cities to help municipalities make decisions about infrastructure investment.
$4.3 million: How much Toronto-based HDAX Therapeutics raised in the first closing of its oversubscribed seed round. The biotech company is targeting the HDAC6 gene in an effort to develop specialized treatments for neurological and inflammatory conditions.
Rebecca Gao writes about technology for MaRS. Torstar, the parent company of the Toronto Star, has partnered with MaRS to highlight innovation in Canadian companies.