At Innovation UBC, we have the privilege of working with dozens of groundbreaking companies creating solutions across a wide range of industries. As part of a top 40 research university, the innovations and entrepreneurs we support are at the leading edge of their fields: from biotech to human health and AI to climate solutions, we see it all. And with a special few…we get to taste it all too.
Meet CanDry Technologies
CanDry Technologies Inc. is a pioneer in the dehydration of heat-sensitive products. They are revolutionizing the agri-food industry through their novel low-temperature dehydration technology, developing technology that preserves nutrients, improves food safety and promotes sustainability at a much lower operation cost and higher performance than alternatives, creating the ultimate solution for efficient and effective dehydration on a commercial level.
Their aim? To disrupt traditional dehydration methods and provide the market with highly scalable, energy efficient and cost-effective solutions, with a mission to maximize nutritional value and cost savings.
CanDry launched operations focusing on fruit: think dried apricots, pineapple and coconut, amongst others, with plans to expand into vegetables, meats, soups and more through their low temperature drying machines. The features of their technology enables them to work across markets, working with medical ingredients or cosmetic compounds demonstrating their reach and versatility.
Dried blueberry, thyme, potato, mango, peach and raspberry powder
From quality and footprint to scale, CanDry is winning
In an alternative to freeze drying - typically more expensive with costs passed onto consumers with varying shelf lives - or other dehydration techniques, CanDry’s technology is able to dry at low temperatures and preserve more than 97% of original color pigments and nutrients. For comparison, other thermal drying methods lose anywhere between 60-80% of its nutritional value, making CanDry’s feat something to behold. Their affordable, smaller size and portable machines offer both commercial (contract drying, selling and leasing) and consumer avenues, making their technology more energy efficient and available at scale compared to alternatives on the market.
What does this mean?
Conversations around food security, cost and quality have never been more prevalent as the world reckons with the current climate crisis, supporting 8 billion people, and Canada’s recent record of crossing 40 million inhabitants. Increasing access to nutritious, shelf stable food is one means of supporting these issues, with CanDry managing to do this at commercial scale, more economically and environmentally efficient than competitors.
Growing their business
As part of Innovation UBC and the Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive System’s (ICICS) HATCH Venture Builder, CanDry has worked intimately with Entrepreneur in Residence Tom Urban to move their technology into a developed business.
The team is composed of Co-founders Maddie Aliasl, who has her Masters in Electrical Engineering from UBC, and Hamid Rezaei, a UBC PhD in Chemical and Biological Engineering, and is currently a Research Associate in the same department.
As part of HATCH, they’ve been able to access office and Makerspace, as well as tools and advisory support to accomplish their growth and path to market since starting the business in 2019. On their experience, Hamid shared: “When we first came to HATCH, we were in TRL (Technology Readiness Level) 4 or 5. Now, we are in TRL 8 ready for commercialization.”
Hamid Rezaei, Co-founder of CanDry Technologies
“From the business side, we didn’t know anything when we entered HATCH. The whole community of startups is perfect - [and there is] continuous training being provided through different workshops like sales and finances as well as support which has been so helpful.”
- Hamid Rezaei, Co-founder of CanDry Technologies
What's up next for CanDry?
Recently, the team has decided to launch in the consumer space through consumer packaged goods, in addition to working with commercial clients. This means that you can expect to see CanDry’s offerings of dried fruits and vegetables in retail stores (soon!).
With this move, the team is excited to work with the Innovation UBC community to help name their drying technology as they step ‘outside’ and engage directly with you - potential customers!
