Prairie Clean Energy (PCE), a Saskatchewan-based company, is embarking on a crowdfunding campaign with a goal to raise $1.5 million.

As of Friday evening, over $930-thousand has been raised through Front Fundr, an online private market investing platform.

“Crowdfunding is really all about bringing investment opportunities and investment experience to everyday Canadians, so under current regulations Prairie Clean Energy – outside of something like crowdfunding – would be limited to accepting investments from what’s called accredited investors, so the average everyday person likely wouldn’t be able to invest in Prairie Clean Energy, but through Front Fundr they can for a minimum investment of five hundred dollars they can buy shares in our company and be part of the journey that we’re on,” explained President and CEO of Prairie Clean Energy Mark Cooper.

“Through the Front Fundr platform, and it’s partners, we can also offer investments via RRSP’s, TFSA’s, so we really are opening up unique opportunities for people to invest in Prairie Clean Energy and open it up to everyday people and that was our goal because we’re everyday people and we think that what we’re trying to do, and what we’re trying to build here in Saskatchewan, really connects with the story of a lot of people in Saskatchewan, so we want to give them the opportunity to participate in this, and of course, it takes it broader than Saskatchewan – to people across Canada and around the world so we’re pretty excited about it.”

Cooper reminds Saskatchewan residents who are accredited investors that they can use the 45 per cent Saskatchewan Technology Startup Incentive (STSI) tax credit when investing a minimum of 15-thousand dollars.

PCE specializes in turning underutilized flax straw into pellets that can be used as “bioenergy, biofuel, and other high value industries in the mining, fuel, agriculture, and retail areas”, according to the company on the Front Fundr website. In a news release, PCE notes “more than one million tonnes of flax straw are burned on the Canadian and US prairies each year. Most farmers burn their flax straw as it has no nutrient value, cannot be tilled into the soil, and has no market value. PCE buys this flax straw directly from producers – providing farmers with two sources of revenue from one crop — and pelletizes it with their dual patent-pending process.”

Currently, PCE is producing pellets at a tolled facility in Manitoba. Cooper says the money raised from this campaign will be used to purchase processing equipment for their already-established facility in Regina, purchase more flax straw from producers around the Regina area, and support operations.

“The total cost of that equipment is just under five million dollars Canadian — we’ve been fortunate that Farm Credit Canada has agreed to partner with us to finance half of that cost of the equipment so it’s conditional on our ability to raise the rest and we’ve been actively doing that…and anticipate between Front Fundr and the STSI tax credit that we’ll get all of the way there before the end of the summer.”