AgSphere is a new Calgary-based hub with a goal to co-ordinate the process of innovation in the ag sector. It’s a physical hub, with a virtual network and platform.
Chris Paterson, executive director of AgSphere, has extensive experience working with big and small companies in Alberta and the United States.
Through his storied career, Paterson saw the innovation process work in multinationals, corporate venture capital, corporate innovation and research and development.
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WHY IT MATTERS: A physical hub for innovation in agri-food in Calgary will help keep innovators and investors in Western Canada instead of taking their talents and dollars elsewhere.
When Paterson moved back to Canada, he spotted gaps in the ecosystem, compared to jurisdictions he’d been involved with in Europe and the U.S., including Raleigh, N.C., St. Louis, Mo., and Austin, Texas.
“There were places I’d seen innovation happen, not just within one company or one university. It was an ecosystem. What we lacked was a coordinated effort,” he said.
Paterson noticed isolation between companies, scientists and investors, who were all working in silos.
He wanted to focus on innovation and join players together including universities, investors, multinationals and start up innovators. He also wants to include farmers and consumers in the equation.
He received $2.75 million in funding from the Calgary Economic Development Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund (OCIF).
Calgary Economic Development was the first partner, followed by the Calgary Stampede, Olds College and AdFarm, who will be contributing strategy and marketing.
The consortium came together in spring 2025, and AgSphere launched publicly on Dec. 2. Paterson is working on expanding the network globally.
“Just a few years ago, say pre-COVID, we did not have agri-food focused investors, and we did not have agri-food focused tech and we did not have SMART Farms emerging across the nation,” he said.
“There is momentum right now. Some of these strategic innovation assets have already started to emerge and we’re fuelling that up. What AgSphere is, is a hub to try and co-ordinate the process of innovation and the things I call innovation assets, in a meaningful way.”
New home in the works
The company has an office but will soon be based on the Calgary Stampede grounds and will feature a science and educational centre on agri-food. Food innovation will be happening on site, which could include food labs, a food court and the opportunity for entrepreneurs to showcase what they’re doing and show it to the public. The site will also feature a co-working space and an events centre.
“You couldn’t get a better place to base an innovation hub. Because ultimately, it’s not only the upstream of innovation which could happen in an innovation campus or even on a university,” he said.
The Stampede grounds are currently in the process of reconstruction, so AgSphere doesn’t have a specific relocation date yet.
Based on success
Paterson named Innovation Place at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon as an example of a successful innovation hub.
“We want to do more of that, because we have a lot of other really strategic assets here, which includes our farms and our universities that are underutilized and maybe even unknown,” he said.
“We don’t have a lack of capital, but we need to use our capital and attract our capital to stay here and not leap to other jurisdictions.”
Other goals of AgSphere include stopping the leaking of capital and the talent pool. Paterson wants entrepreneurs and research and development to stay here.
“Let’s use our assets locally and not send them away to other jurisdictions that are better organized. The second goal is just to drive innovation more purposely towards outcomes. … So commercial outcomes, whether that is export products, new food products or in the realm of technology, data, robotics and autonomy,” he said.
“We have a lot of talent and a lot of competencies in these areas, but we often don’t have the right mix to fund them all the way down the pathway, and then we lose them before they become commercial successes.”
“We need to do a better job of being purposeful about where we should be innovating, that will be here, and employ people, pay tax revenue and interact with the public.”
Global reach, local impact
AgSphere already has a partnership with European Innovation and Technology (EIT) and it’s part of the European Union Innovation fund and has existed for 14 years.
“They’ve already figured out a lot of the important things for an innovation community, like governance, structure, the corporate partnership model and the university engagement model,” said Paterson.
AgSphere will be following EIT’s example, to move faster and make fewer mistakes and will also be collaborating with EIT to figure out their internal processes. Canada is already an investor in Horizon EU.
“We’re part of the member countries as if we were part of the EU. We have some rights and privileges there to get funding back for our entrepreneurs here,” he said.
Paterson said market access is an advantage for a Calgary-based business. But even though Calgary is the hub of AgSphere, the geography of the hub will be much larger. It will eventually spread through the Prairies and to the rest of Canada.
“It’s a Canada-wide innovation network,” he said.
Future-forward
One of the next steps is an exchange of entrepreneurs with EIT. They will send a cohort of tech companies to Canada and AgSphere will give them a “red carpet experience” where they will be able to meet investors, customers, retailers, universities and processors and see what type of grants exist.
This process could encourage European companies to move to Canada or set up an office here.
Canadian tech companies will also be travelling to Europe, and EIT would provide those solid connections, and explain European opportunities.
Paterson said AgSphere also has opportunities in Asia, Australia and Brazil.
“The first thing you’ll see from AgSphere will be the exchange of entrepreneurs. The next thing you’ll see is the events that will be for attracting the talent pool and attracting capital to this jurisdiction,” he said.
