UBC entrepreneur Takachar wins big at 2023 Mitacs Entrepreneur Awards
Authored by Dr. Shannon Bard and Climate Venture Studio Work Learn, Alison MacFarland.
At entrepreneurship@UBC, we are proud to facilitate the development of ground-breaking ventures. Takachar’s recent win at the Mitacs Entrepreneur Awards is a testament to the impactful change that our Climate Venture Studio facilitates. The Mitacs Entrepreneur Awards is a competitive opportunity for Canada’s most innovative start-ups to be honoured, and for their leaders to receive well-deserved recognition in their fields. On May 18, 2023 at the University of Waterloo, the Environmental Entrepreneur award was awarded to Dr. Kevin Kung, the CTO of Takachar.
Takachar, under the support of the Climate Venture Studio, improves air quality globally by providing farmers an eco-friendly alternative to open-air burning and foresters a more manageable flammable forest residue. Takachar utilizes low-cost, portable equipment to convert waste biomass into solid fuel, fertilizer, and other specialty chemicals. Kung notes that Takachar’s small, mobile bioreactors that turn organic waste into products like biochar can be accessible worldwide; stating to the Business in Vancouver journal that “it’s a small-scale, low-cost portable system that can latch onto the back of a tractor or pickup truck and deploy in these rural, hard-to-access regions”. Takachar has already made a positive impact to support farmers in Africa and India.
This is not the first time Takachar has taken home a coveted award! In 2021, Takachar won an Earthshot Prize in the Clean Our Air Category, worth £1 million British pounds. The Earthshot Prize is awarded on behalf of none other than the Royal Foundation of the Prince and Princess of Whales (known as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at the time of the award). Also, in 2021, the venture took home US$250,000 in the Carbon Dioxide Removal Demonstration student category from the XPrize and Musk Foundation, represented by Elon Musk. Even further, in late 2022, Takachar won another $1,00,000 USD from the Musk Foundation's XPrize competition, alongside fellow entrepreneurship@UBC team, Arca. Well deserved, Takachar!
Takachar received much of its early assistance through HATCH Venture Builder, a collaboration between entrepreneurship@UBC and the Institute for Computing, Information and Cognitive Systems (ICICS). The team worked directly with Paul Needham (Entrepreneur in Residence), Chang Han (Lead Entrepreneur in Residence), and Dr. Shannon Bard (Lead of the Climate Venture Studio, Entrepreneur in Residence) for grant opportunities, financing development, and development of key strategies to support impact in the agricultural and forestry sectors and beyond.
entrepreneurship@UBC is excited to celebrate with the team on this win, and help support the next leg of their venture building journey. Find out more about Takachar and read more about their recent Mitacs Award.
Congratulations Takachar!
