Brust Beverages Lands Strategic Investment

RHA Ventures Portfolio Company Brust Beverages Gains Strategic Partner with Clearstone Capital.

Toronto, Ontario – RHA Ventures is pleased to announce that one of its portfolio companies, Brust Beverages, has secured a strategic investment via the acquisition by Clearstone Capital, a Canadian private-equity firm focused on growth-stage consumer goods. See the full news release link. Newswire

Investment Highlights

  • Brust Beverages, known for its innovative ready-to-drink, high-protein coffee line, will benefit from Clearstone’s capital and operational expertise to accelerate expansion across Canada and the U.S. Newswire

  • The investment positions Brust to scale production, deepen its distribution footprint (both retail and e-commerce) and continue driving product innovation in the functional-beverage category. Newswire

  • Clearstone Capital commented: “Brüst pioneered the protein coffee category in Canada… this first-mover advantage, paired with the brand’s commitment to clean ingredients and sustainable growth, positions Brüst to continue shaping the future of functional beverages.” Newswire

“This partnership with Clearstone Capital will enable us to continue our North American expansion while maintaining our core values,” said Josh Barr, Co-Founder of Brust Beverages. “Having an experienced partner with operational expertise will allow us to build scalable systems, accelerate our innovation pipeline and cement our leadership in the category.”

“RHA Ventures is proud to have invested in Brust’s early stage growth journey and excited about what this strategic investment means for the future of the business.  We are very happy for Josh and Amar, they are gifted founders.” said Joe Dales, Co Founding Partner at RHA.

About Brust Beverages

Brust Beverages specializes in high-protein, functional ready-to-drink coffee products that combine premium taste with nutritional benefits. The company has built a reputation for clean-label ingredients and strong category leadership in Canada. Newswire

About Clearstone Capital

Clearstone Capital is a Canadian private-equity firm investing primarily in lower middle-market companies with high-growth potential across Canada and North America. Its strategy emphasizes partnering with management teams to drive operational improvement and long-term value creation. Newswire

About RHA Ventures Inc.

RHA Ventures is a venture-capital firm focused on investing in innovative early-stage companies.  We help entrepreneurs scale and drive category-defining innovation leveraging our founders for founders experience and approach.

Media Contacts

Brust Beverages
Josh Barr, Co-Founder       josh@brustbeverages.com

RHA Ventures Inc.
Michael Dales     michael.dales@rha.ventures

From Struggling Side Project to Life-Changing SaaS Exit with RHA Ventures Partner Zamir Khan

Zamir Khan, Partner at RHA Ventures, shares his story of how he nearly gave up, the pandemic surge that changed everything and the emotional ride that led to a life-changing exit.

Episode 794 | From Struggling Side Project to Life-Changing SaaS Exit

AgRobotics Ontario Challenge: Innovate Agriculture with Robotics

AgRobotics Ontario Challenge: A Quick Overview

The AgRobotics Ontario Challenge pairs Ontario high school teams with local farms to solve real agricultural problems using robotics. Launched by Innovation Farms Ontario (powered by FCC AgExpert), Western Fair District and OCTE, finalists showcase their prototypes at the London Farm Show in early March—Eastern Canada’s largest indoor farm expo.

Key Details

  • Who’s Involved: Teams of 4–6 students from any Ontario high school Technological Education or SHSM program.

  • Timeline:

    • Launch & Registration: Week of Sept 24, 2025

    • Community Partner Proposals: Due late November

    • Six Teams Selected: Early December

    • Build Phase: December–February

    • Showcase: London Farm Show, early March 2026

  • What You Need:

    • A co-developed problem statement with a local farm partner

    • CAD schematics and a working robot prototype

    • A short demo (video or live) explaining how your solution tackles the challenge

  • Support Provided: Robotics kits from Studica, mentorship from AgTech experts, plus technical workshops and judging guides.

Ready to innovate? Visit www.innovationfarmson.ca/student-competition

RHA Ventures Invests in Materia Bioworks Inc., Revolutionizing Sustainable Product Development

RHA Ventures Inc., is proud to announce a strategic investment in Materia Bioworks Inc., a Canadian startup who is transforming how brands and manufacturers develop and launch sustainable products. Their machine learning platform, MAPS (Materials Application Prediction System), accelerates R&D by helping companies replace petroleum-based plastics with high-performance sustainable material, faster, cheaper, and smarter.​

The Popular Pig Podcast - Digitizing Biosecurity to Prevent Disease Outbreaks | Rob Hannam

Rob Hannam, CEO of Farm Health Guardian, appeared on the Popular Pig Podcast to talk about how Farm Heath Guardian is revolutionizing biosecurity in the swine and poultry sectors through digital solutions. The Farm Heath Guardian technology helps reduce the spread of diseases like PRRS and PED by improving biosecurity compliance; by identifying common failures such as truck washes and dedicated equipment breaches, and providing real-time breach alerts. Tracking the data helps expose hidden risks, ultimately saving time, reducing production costs, enhancing farm sustainability and fostering better compliance and behavioral changes on farms

Listen

Exploring Innovation at the Polaris Pitch Competition & Showcase

The Polaris Pitch Competition & Showcase, organized by TechAlliance of Southwestern Ontario, is an exciting event that highlights innovation within the Canadian tech ecosystem. On March 19, 2025, at the London Music Hall, this event will feature eight innovative ventures competing for a prize package of up to $65,000 in funding and $7,500 in services.

Learn more

The competition is open to a wide range of tech sectors, including agri-tech, medtech, AI, cybersecurity, fintech, gaming, clean growth, and zero-emission vehicles. This diversity ensures a rich showcase of cutting-edge ideas and solutions.

Beyond the prizes, the Polaris Pitch Competition offers participants the opportunity to receive personalized mentorship and gain exposure to potential investors and industry leaders. This platform is designed to help innovators turn their ideas into reality and make a significant impact on the tech landscape.

Applications to pitch are open until January 27, 2025. This event is a valuable opportunity for those with groundbreaking ideas to gain recognition and support within the tech community.

Apply

Joe Dales Joins Board of Directors of the Canadian Agri-Food Automation & Intelligence Network.

The Canadian Agri-Food Automation & Intelligence Network (CAAIN) has appointed Joe Dales to its Board of Directors. The non-profit company, which was awarded $49.5 million in 2019 by the Government of Canada to fund Canadian agtech projects, cited his distinguished career in agriculture, food innovation, and entrepreneurship, as motivation for adding Mr. Dales to its leadership team.

Revolutionizing Asparagus Harvesting: A3H Harvester Showcased at the Great Lakes Expo

The future of asparagus harvesting is here. HarvestCorp Technologies is excited to announce that the A3H Asparagus Harvester, the next generation in agricultural robotics, will be showcased at the Great Lakes Fruit, Vegetable & Farm Market Expo from December 10–12, 2024, in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Visitors can experience this groundbreaking innovation at booths 1158 and 1059.

RHA Ventures Invests in UniSeeds Inc., Growing the Hemp Industry.

RHA Ventures is pleased to announce a strategic investment in UniSeeds Inc., an innovative company that develops and distributes high quality industrial hemp seed. This investment marks a significant milestone in the mission to grow the industrial hemp sector, bringing new cutting-edge opportunities to farmers and hemp processors across North American and international markets.

RHA Ventures Announces Investment in Real Life Robotics

In the face of rising costs for domestic businesses in Canada and competition from abroad, RHA Ventures, an Ontario-based venture capital firm specializing in cutting-edge technologies, announced today its investment in Real Life Robotics, a Waterloo-based company designing real robots for real businesses. This investment marks a significant milestone in the development of Real Life Robotics and underscores RHA Ventures' commitment to supporting true, tried, and tested founders and Ontario’s growing startup ecosystem despite an overall decrease in entrepreneurship across the rest of Canada.

OCI and RHA Ventures Sign MOU to Boost Support for Ontario Start-ups

Today, at the DiscoveryX Conference, the Ontario Centre of Innovation (OCI) and RHA Ventures Inc. (RHA) announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) aimed at enhancing support for start-ups and entrepreneurs across Ontario. This collaboration seeks to leverage the strengths of both organizations to foster innovation, economic development, and job creation in the region.

RHA Ventures Commits Investment in Harvest Corp Technologies, Accelerating Agricultural Harvesting Robotics.

London,ON  April 15, 2024 – RHA Ventures Inc, a leading venture capital firm specializing in agri-food and technology enabled innovations, proudly announces its investment in Harvest Corp Technologies, a pioneer in agricultural harvest robotics. This strategic partnership marks a significant milestone in advancing harvest automation and reducing manual labor in the horticulture sector.