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Home > About > News > Innovating in agriculture from rural Alberta
January 28, 2025
AdvancedAg, a family-owned business, is proving that rural Alberta is a crucial market for new industries.
In Raymond Alberta, one company is proving innovation can happen anywhere. Rural Alberta is a crucial market for new industries.
The town of roughly 5,000 people south of Lethbridge is home to the family-owned business AdvancedAg. The company is carving out a name for itself in agricultural innovation with an assist from the broader innovation support system in Alberta.
AdvancedAg CEO Josh Day Chief.
Walk into the company office and displayed prominently is a photo from nearly a decade ago, showing a single small building on an acre of land with no services. CEO Josh Day Chief likes to have the photo as a reminder of how things began. Today that one acre plot is covered in multiple buildings and AdvancedAg has clients that stretch from Kansas to New Brunswick.
“It’s been pretty cool to see how we’ve grown,” says Day Chief, who runs the company along with his wife, sister and several other employees, along with company founder his mother, Dr. Phyllis Day Chief.
AdvancedAg began as a small research project started by Phyllis in the early 2000s exploring how biological agents could aid in water treatment systems. It stayed as a small business for several years until 2015 when its focus expanded to look at how biologics could be applied to soil and agriculture. Biologicals in agriculture are products created from other living organisms designed to improve soil conditions and plant growth as an alternative to chemical fertilizers or other manufactured stimulants. Needing support to explore this idea, the company applied for a micro voucher innovation grant from Alberta Innovates. That grant supported the research and development of a software analysis system AdvancedAg still uses today.
CEO Josh Day Chief looks at how biologics could be applied to soil and agriculture.
The company continued to grow and develop both clients and its intellectual property with a supplier based in Cleveland, Ohio. Much of its revenue was invested back into research and development. It also connected with the Regional Innovation Network of Southern Alberta (RINSA) based in Lethbridge and received coaching and connections from multiple contacts developed through the network. In the past year, Day Chief was approached and encouraged to apply to the Scaleup Growth Accelerator Program, specifically working with the program partner SVG Thrive, a business accelerator with a focus on agriculture innovation.
“We signed up and didn’t go in with a lot of expectations,” he says. “Now, we’re moving forward on our first (venture capital) raise. It really was valuable for our company…we’re in an exciting phase now.”
The Scaleup Growth Accelerator Program works with four global accelerators, private organizations that supply advice, mentorships and guidance to startup companies to help them take a step forward and move from a startup phase to a scaling and growth phase.
CEO Josh Day Chief in the field.
Going through the program exposed him to possibilities that he hadn’t even considered previously, says Day Chief.
“I had no idea about the venture capital world and investment. It opened our eyes.” As AdvancedAg works towards its first Series A funding round, it’s speeding up its growth. The company reported $3.6 million in sales in 2023 and is forecasting growth of $9 million in sales by 2026. The venture capital investment will be used to conduct a partial or full purchase of its primary supplier in the United States and further develop its technology, says Day Chief.
“It will allow us to move into international markets. The world of biologicals is moving fast, we want to be pushing the boundaries of our research. Our supplier can’t believe all the supports that exist up here for us.”
The family has its roots in southern Alberta as members of the Blood Tribe and Blackfoot confederacy. When asked if a relocation is planned in the future to a larger centre, Day Chief is quick to answer that they remain committed to rural Alberta.
“We want to look at giving back to the community,” he says.