Long a hub for agricultural innovation, the Prairie provinces are now bringing their unique mix of creativity, pragmatism, and entrepreneurialism to foodtech. The region’s Foodtech Frontier 25 honourees span data science, manufacturing modernization, and workplace systems, each showing how technology rooted in practical solutions to big problems can reshape the foundations of our food sector from the inside out.
Based in Saskatoon, BetterCart Analytics helps grocers and CPG brands make data-driven pricing decisions. Its AI engine aggregates grocery data from thousands of retail sources, tracking more than 30 million product price changes per week to generate real-time competitive and promotional insights. The company partnered with Saskatchewan Polytechnic’s DICE Lab to refine its machine-learning models for price pattern recognition and sale-event detection. In 2024, BetterCart won Startup TNT’s Agri-Food Investment Summit, securing over CAD $140,000 in equity commitments. Earlier support from CFIN’s Foodtech Next program and BDC Capital’s Thrive Lab helped the team expand its dataset and platform features.
Calgary-based Cubbi is redefining workplace foodservice through smart logistics. Its system combines centralized kitchens, a mobile ordering app, and temperature-controlled delivery pods installed in offices and campuses, allowing employees to order meals or groceries delivered in bulk to secure smart lockers. The company raised CAD $1.35 million in 2022 to expand its IoT-enabled platform and later joined Creative Destruction Lab Rockies (2024) for venture mentorship. Cubbi was one of two Foodtech Frontier 25 winners to receive additional investment from Redstick Ventures.
Impact: In an era of hybrid work, Cubbi is redefining what “office food” means — building the physical and digital rails for a more sustainable, employee-centered food ecosystem.
Regina-headquartered Mode40 is modernizing food manufacturing from the factory floor up. Its MAST platform (Manufacturing Automation and Systems Transformation) connects sensors, machines, and analytics into a unified cloud-native system that gives operators real-time visibility across production lines. By combining MES software, agentic AI, and process-integration services, Mode40 helps processors monitor quality, energy use, and uptime with the same sophistication found in advanced automotive or aerospace manufacturing. For mid-sized food and ingredient plants — the backbone of the Prairie economy — that visibility translates directly into yield, efficiency, and compliance gains.
The Prairies’ foodtech strength lies in this blend of practicality and ambition. BetterCart is transforming data into actionable insight, Cubbi is reinventing how people access food at work, and Mode40 is digitizing the factories that feed the world. Each operates in a different corner of the value chain, but together they point to the same horizon — a more connected, intelligent, and resilient food economy growing from the middle of the country outward.