Woodland Biofuels has received a $800,000 loan from Fed Dev through the Investing in Business Innovation (IBI) initiative for the construction of their new efficient biofuel plant. The plant hopes to produce ethanol for half of the cost it takes to produce gasoline at today’s oil prices. The innovative process behind it uses a series of chemical reactions to break down plant material waste from the agricultural and forestry industries to produce ethanol.
With the investment, the company must assess both the feasibility and scalability of the procedure to help determine the optimal process and allow Woodland to license the process to other companies. The expansion will allow for the creation of 18 full-time jobs and based on the results, has the potential to create up to 1200 new jobs as more plants are added. Receiving the IBI investment also allowed Woodland to secure more financing through the MaRS Clean Tech fund that saw Woodland receive $2 million in venture capital.
The IBI fund is designed to assist startup businesses, who have already secured some funding through angel investors or venture capitalist, to accelerate the commercialization new products. The program also assists startups to receive additional funding through angel investor groups like that of MaRS. The eligible cost under the program include wages, consulting fees and materials related to projects such as technology development, market research, design, product testing, commercialization and proof of concept.