Editor's Note: Photo Courtesy of Maia Farms
In 2021, the three co-founders—and three sole employees—of Maia Farms were working out of a small, subleased lab in North Vancouver, dedicated to solving on of the most urgent challenges facing our food system: how can we produce more protein without pushing the planet past its limits?
The team was convinced they had an answer. They were working with mycelium—the dense, protein-packed root-like structure of mushrooms that grows quickly, uses minimal land and water, and can be cultivated year-round in indoor, controlled environments. It had all the makings of a more resilient, sustainable protein source—if they could figure out how to scale it.
A Breakthrough, and a Bottleneck
Maia’s early efforts working to scale their production of mycelium wasn’t glamorous. The company’s Chief Science Officer, Sean Lacoursiere, recalls spending long days running fermentation trials, refining fungal strains, and troubleshooting contamination—while also keeping the operation afloat in every other way.
“I was everything from janitor to grant writer,” he says. “Just trying to grow enough mushroom mycelium to bring to a customer of some sort.”
They didn’t yet have investors or a commercial production line, just talent, vision, and a lot of belief in the potential of mycelium-based protein. That belief was validated when Maia connected with Big Mountain Foods, a plant-based food company from Vancouver that had spent nearly a decade searching for a Canadian-grown source of mycelium.
“They said, ‘If you guys can supply us with a mushroom mycelium ingredient, we’d want to work with you, we’d want to buy it,” says Lacoursiere. This huge opportunity came with a huge operational challenge for the startup. Big Mountain Foods needed at least 800 kilograms of mycelium to align with their production run—far beyond anything Maia had ever produced. At the time, Lacoursiere was using solid-state fermentation, a common method for early-stage mycelium cultivation that involves growing fungi on sterilized grains in small containers. It’s accessible, inexpensive, and works well in lab conditions—but it’s also slow, labour-intensive, and hard to scale.
Lacoursiere immediately busied himself sourcing grain for the mycelium feedstock, sterilizing it in pressure cookers, inoculating each batch by hand “After about a month and a half I had 30kg of dry material,” he says. “It was clear it wasn't going to work.”
To make good on their big break, Maia needed a new approach—and fast.
Realizing their small-batch process wasn’t going to cut it, the team went back to the drawing board. While Lacoursiere continued experimenting in the lab, Maia’s Chief Operating Officer and co-founder Ashton Ostrander began looking into new production methods. That search led him to the Saskatchewan Food Centre, and to extrusion—a process typically used in producing textured plant proteins.
The idea was to blend Maia’s mushroom mycelium with a complementary vegetable protein to improve texture and increase yield. The team packed samples into suitcases, flew to Saskatoon, and spent several days running extrusion trials—testing different strains, blends, and inclusion rates until they landed on a combination that delivered on both function and flavour. The result was a complete protein with superior texture and a clean ingredient list, just mycelium and pea protein.
They named it CanPro—short for “Canadian Protein.” It is a subtle nod to the Canadarm, Canada's iconic contribution to space exploration. This reference was more than symbolic; it reflected Maia's origins as a project at Ecoation, a BC-based agtech company that had previously participated in the Deep Space Food Challenge. Designing efficient, closed-loop protein systems for space missions influenced their approach to food production on Earth, emphasizing sustainability and resource-conscious methods.
A System Designed to Support Growth
Maia now had the process and the product, but they still needed the right support to scale production. In early 2024, the company applied to the Canadian Food Innovation Network’s Foodtech Next program, which helps companies demonstrate and pilot novel food technologies in operational environments.
Their proposal was successful, and Maia was awarded $226,119 to pilot CanPro in a real-world production environment with Big Mountain Foods. The funding allowed Maia to move beyond benchtop R&D and into full production trials—testing CanPro’s hydration, pumpability, mixability, and cooking performance at scale. The results helped finalize the specs that would form the backbone of Maia’s first commercial product line.
Scaling Through Connection
The impact of the project reached far beyond technical validation. One of the most transformative outcomes came through a connection facilitated by CFIN: food scientist and chef Karen McAfee.
Lavina Gully (CFIN’s Regional Innovation Director for B.C. & Yukon), made the introduction. McAfee was exactly who Maia Farms needed, at exactly the right time. “In the last year, Karen has progressed us as ingredient suppliers to a level we didn’t know existed,” says Lacoursiere.
McAfee turned Maia’s clean-label base into fully developed prototypes that made it easier for manufacturers to say yes. One of her creations, a mushroom-based granola bar, was showcased at industry events by CFIN and went on to spark its own wave of interest.
“We just have people come up at conferences saying, ‘Oh my goodness, I was at this trade show last week, and I tried your granola bar, and it's the best thing I've had,’” says Lacoursiere. “If nothing else happened through CFIN but the connection with Karen, that would have been a huge benefit to us.”
Scaling Canadian-Made Protein Production
Since launching their Foodtech Next project, the Maia Farms team has expanded from three founders to nine full-time employees. They are now producing several tonnes of mycelium protein per month, supplying a growing roster of Canadian manufacturers who are using it to replace soy- and wheat-based textured proteins that are often imported from the U.S. or Asia. “Food manufacturers are dropping their entire textured protein ingredients and switching right to us,” Lacoursiere says. “It’s a testament to the quality of the material and how well it works in all the recipes.”
This impressive trajectory growth was powered by the right support coming at the right time. CFIN's funding supported gave Maia the runway they needed to refine their process, scale output, and build the confidence of early customers. As Lacoursiere puts it, “CFIN helped us get out of the lab and into operational and commercial facilities where we needed to be.”
A Foundation for What’s Next
Maia's products were shaped, tested, and scaled within a growing network of funding programs, researchers, investors, and manufacturers who see food not just as a commodity—but as critical infrastructure. This network effect is precisely what innovators like Maia Farms need to flourish and help Canada build a food system that’s both climate-resilient and nationally secure.
That’s no small task, to be sure. But these are the challenges that get Canadian innovators like Lacoursiere out of bed every morning. “Solving hard problems is the point of Maia Farms,” he says. “When we find a proper solution, we just find another hard problem and work to solve it.”
It’s a mindset fitting of the current moment—in which we need more Canadian companies solving hard problems, creating more opportunities, and building a more prosperous future along the way. Maia Farms is a reminder that these solutions can be found right at home. They just need the right conditions to grow.