Forest City SynBio opens the door for everyday Canadians to invest in synthetic biology

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Forest City SynBio

Forest City SynBio launches its second round of equity crowdfunding enabling Canadian retail investors to invest in its synthetic biology startup accelerator.

By creating a hub for synbio startups in Canada, we will retain those companies, intellectual property, and economic opportunities here at home.”

— Shea Tough

TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA, June 4, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ — Forest City SynBio opens the door for everyday Canadians to invest in synthetic biology

Forest City SynBio Inc. (“FCSB”) launched its second equity crowdfunding round this April allowing residents of Ontario, Alberta and B.C. to invest as little as $100 until June 30th. FCSB is an accelerator for synthetic biology (“synbio”) startups focused on applications in agri-food and beverage, providing lab space, mentorship, connections, and investments for pre-seed ventures.

Synthetic biology is the emerging industry of engineered biological systems for useful applications. It is estimated to create US$4 trillion in annual economic impact by 2040 (McKinsey Global Institute 2020) and disrupt up to $30 trillion in value in the manufacturing sector alone (Boston Consulting Group 2022). In Q4 2021, investments in food synbio startups exceeded investments for those in health & medicine (Built With Biology 2022), with applications including cellular agriculture and ingredients.

“Synthetic biology has the potential to help solve some of humankind’s most serious challenges;” says Dr. Mark Poznansky, former President of Ontario Genomics & member of both the Order of Canada & Order of Ontario, “our health (e.g. cancer, infectious disease, mental illness), the security of the world’s food supply and perhaps most importantly, the health of our environment including climate change”

FCSB was founded in 2021 after operating for 3 years as a volunteer organization with the vision of creating a Canadian hub for synbio startups. Last summer, the company announced a partnership with the Western Fair Association, a 150-year-old London-based agricultural society, to develop a 7,000-sf synbio startup incubator in their new agri-food business hub, The Grove. With the proceeds from this raise, FCSB will operate a 1,034-sf pilot facility in Guelph, ON and create a program to equip founders with the skills and connections to grow their companies.

“We have great talent and startups coming out of Canada, but we tend to lose them to startup hubs in the US,” says Shea, co-founder & COO of FCSB. “By creating a hub for synbio startups in Canada, we will retain those companies, intellectual property, and economic opportunities here at home.”

Since 2015, equity crowdfunding has enabled private companies to raise capital from retail investors in Canada. The number of companies on US exchanges has dropped by more than half since 1997 (The Atlantic 2018), cutting small investors out of these high-yield investment opportunities. FCSB’s equity crowdfund will give everyday people exposure to its portfolio of early-stage startups as it grows, letting them in on an industry growing three times faster than robotics (BCC Research 2022). FCSB closed its first round in July 2021 with $111,150 from 82 Ontarian retail investors. FCSB’s crowdfunding is facilitated by Backers Network Inc. and the registered exempt market dealer, 108 Securities Inc.

“Aside from the access to capital for entrepreneurs and previously restricted investment opportunities for retail investors,” says Justin Fox, CEO of Backers Network Inc. “the real benefit is the loyalty and engagement between companies and their stakeholders or, as we like to say, their Backers.”



Forest City SynBio:

Forest City SynBio aims to heal our planet from the past, improve life in the present, and create hope for the future by harnessing the power of synthetic biology. Through providing access to lab space, seed investment, and an ecosystem of service providers and partners, FCSB empowers entrepreneurs to use synthetic biology to solve the world’s most important problems. Learn more at fcsb.ca or visit our crowdfunding portal at https://app.backers.ca/#/108/offering/FCSB.

Backers Network Inc.

Thanks to recent regulatory shifts and blockchain distributed ledger technology, Backers is a web 3.0 social networking platform built for founders of early-stage startups and emerging tech companies to grow their business, cultivate community, and get funding by selling blockchain-based security tokens representing shares in their business to everyday retail investors…

For more information, please contact:

Samir Hamadache

Forest City SynBio Inc.

(519) 221 – 1619

[email protected]

Justin Fox
Backers Network Inc.
email us here

Bringing the biorevolution to Canada | Forest City SynBio



Article originally published on www.einpresswire.com as Forest City SynBio opens the door for everyday Canadians to invest in synthetic biology