Faster, Gentler, and Smarter Food Drying
CanDry™ Technologies delivers a game-changing alternative to conventional food and pet food drying. Their patented GentleDry™ system uses low temperatures and hybrid vacuum energy to dry products in under one hour — compared to the 36 hours often required by traditional methods.
Drying is a critical step in food manufacturing, but it’s notoriously inefficient. Traditional dryers are slow, energy-intensive, and can degrade texture, aroma, and nutritional value. This bottleneck hurts producers and diminishes product quality.
CanDry’s solution slashes drying time while preserving 100% of the product’s protein, colour, and aroma. Their tech enables faster, cleaner, and more sustainable food production. With both toll drying services and scalable in-house equipment, they help companies go to market faster without sacrificing quality or efficiency.
Turning Up the Heat
What they’ve done: The foodtech startup has moved fast — and with precision. They’ve signed deals with leading pet food brands, secured a major pilot project with a global food company, and built a commercial-scale production facility in BC. CanDry has also landed multiple government grants to support R&D and commercialization and their cross-functional team recently graduated from entrepreneurship@UBC. With patents filed in both Canada and the U.S., the foodtech startup is gaining serious traction across North America.
Why NVBC: CanDry entered the New Ventures BC Competition, presented by Innovate BC, to sharpen their strategy, get expert feedback, and gain exposure to the investors and mentors who understand the unique challenges of scaling foodtech hardware. The competition also offers an opportunity to refine their pitch, validate assumptions, and stay laser-focused on their next phase of growth.
Up next: They’re ramping up in every direction — from expanding toll drying capacity (including dedicated meat lines) to scaling equipment sales across North America. Plans are in motion to launch new product lines, hire across sales and ops, and establish drying sites in Eastern Canada and the U.S. On the tech side, they’re advancing automation and loading integration while strengthening their IP portfolio to stay ahead of fast followers.
Mentors Behind the Momentum
entrepreneurship@UBC was instrumental in CanDry’s early growth, offering access to production space, shared equipment, and a top-tier network of mentors. This support helped the team move faster, make smarter decisions, and bring GentleDry to market more efficiently. The startup sends out a special thanks to Tom Urban, Michele Wallcraft, and Chang Han for their invaluable guidance on everything from IP strategy to business operations.
Meet The Team
Maddie Aliasl, CTO & Co-Founder
Fun Fact: Since CanDry’s tech started working, Maddie’s been gaining weight — turns out testing all those delicious dried snacks is a serious (and tasty) side effect of R&D!
Behrouz Aliasl Khiabani, Product Development Lead & Co-Founder
Fun Fact: Behrouz spent decades building machines — but the ones he built for CanDry, alongside his daughter, are the ones he’s most proud of because they carry both his lifetime of skills and a whole lot of love.
Company Cheatsheet:
City: Coquitlam
Founded: January 2020
Sector: Foodtech and cleantech
