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Marc Appleby (left) and Mark Watson of EcoTraction. (Image supplied)

Pair of Ottawa eco-entrepreneurs land $500,000 deal

Ottawa entrepreneurs Mark Watson and Marc Appleby scored a $500,000 venture capital deal on CBC's Dragons' Den Nov. 24 using little more than a fish, a plant, a bag of dirt . . . and a whole lot of business acumen.

Their pitch for EcoTraction – an environmentally friendly volcanic soil touted as an alternative to sanding and salting winter roads – was to call their product a "miracle mineral" on the show.

For Mr. Watson, appearing before the panel of five angel investors was even more intimidating than a typical pitch to a potential financier, he says.

"Although they do present it as making a quick decision on the show, the actual filming was much longer – probably we were there altogether three hours all said and done," says Mr. Watson.

"They just send a barrage of questions and they make a bid and you have to go through the whole due diligence process which can take several months."

Their product has been on the market for about four years, since shortly after Mr. Watson's dog was diagnosed with cancer and died.

A veterinary oncologist told him that road salts, particularly ferrocyanide, probably caused the problem. This launched Mr. Watson on a search for an alternative, leading to one company in the Pacific Northwest which mines the volcanic soil.

But the cancer claim is difficult for some to believe. "I think that's just a really twisted piece of information," says Dorothee Bienzle, a University of Guelph professor and Canada Research Chair in veterinary pathology.

After being contacted by OBJ, she researched ferrocyanide on the U.S. National Library's of Medicine's PubMed, an oft-used medical journal search engine used by biomedical specialists and life scientists.

Ms. Bienzle says her survey of the literature did not turn up any links between ferrocyanide and lymphoma, in any species.

"Ferrocyanide, in general, is considered a relatively harmless substance. It might interfere a little bit with oxygen metabolism in cells, but there's no damage to link it to DNA damage causing cancer."

Regardless, Ms. Bienzle says road salt can cause damage to the environment. In that respect, she says she supports the 'green' sentiment of EcoTraction's founders.

And with 1,500 retailers under their belts ranging from Staples to Pharmasave, Mr. Watson says he feels the company has "snowballed" in the last while – but could do even better in the future.

"We have a huge, pent-up demand (in) the United States market and get calls every day, but we need more capital to tackle that market. It's such a larger scale."