Investing in Innovators: How Cleantech entrepreneurs are leading the way to Net Zero

Clean technology is revolutionizing our world, and Canadian entrepreneurs are leading the way.

Whether it’s using drones for crop protection and higher yields like Precision.ai, creating on demand commercial ventilation systems that recover wasted heat like Intellinox, or converting petroleum refinery by-products into high quality activated carbon like AdvEn Industries, clean technologies are transforming every sector of our economy.

Net Zero is all the buzz right now, but how does it relate to cleantech?  Well, to achieve Net Zero, we need new emerging technologies to gain mainstream acceptance in the marketplace.

And that’s where SDTC comes in. We find, fund, and foster the entrepreneurs who will lead the transition to a zero-carbon, zero-waste economy. Moving at the speed of business, we catalyze cleantech innovation at every stage: with seed funding to identify emerging innovations; with start-up support to develop and demonstrate these innovations; and, with scale-up investments to give firms the final nudge toward commercialization, adoption, and market leadership.

Today our Chair Annette Verschuren and President & CEO Leah Lawrence were joined by Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne and  Minister Jonathan Wilkinson to discuss how the Government of Canada’s recent investment in SDTC’s future will enable more Canadian companies to seize the opportunities of the Net Zero economy, developing world-class solutions that deliver real environmental results.

Parliamentary Secretary Will Amos and Canadian cleantech leaders Julie Angus, CEO of Open Ocean Robotics; Louis Brun, Co-Founder, President & CEO of Sollum Technologies; and Pouria Ghods, CEO & Co-Founder of Giatec Scientific also joined Leah to chat about the trends in cleantech and how the market (and their approach to it) has changed in the past year.

In his focus on entrepreneurs who will lead the charge to Net Zero, Minister Champagne announced SDTC investments of $55 million in 20 Canadian companies who are pushing the boundaries of innovation and making Net Zero a reality.    Learn more about these trailblazers:

Agriculture:

• Entosystem in Sherbrooke, QC receives $1.6m for their Optimized Black Soldier Fly protein and fertilizer production
• ChrysaLabs in Saint-Georges-de-Windsor, QC receives $1.6M for their Fast & Reliable Real-time soil data
• Precision.AI in Regina, SK receives $4.0M for their Reduced Chemical Agriculture via Autonomous Drone Technology
• Advanced Intelligent Systems in Burnaby, BC receives $400,000 for their Outdoor Cart Puller and Post Harvesting Robots
• Sulvaris Inc. in Calgary, AB receives $1.3M for their Development of Potash and Ammonium Sulfate MST®

Energy Exploration & Production:

• Carbon Cap Inc in Hamilton, ON receives $600,000 for their Energy Recovery System
• Challenger Technical Service Ltd. in Elk Point, AB receives $400,000 for their Multi-Component Downhole Injection System
• Novamera Inc in Mississauga, ON receives $3.0M for their Sustainable Mining by Drilling

Energy Utilization:

• Universal Matter Inc in Burlington, ON receives $4.5m for their Low-Cost Turbostratic Graphene from Flash Joule Heating
• Edgehog Advanced Technologies Inc. in Montreal, QC receives $2.5m for their Omni-directional Anti-reflective Cover Glass for Enhanced Solar Panels.
• Giatec Scientific Inc in Ottawa, ON receives $1.1m for their Real-time Strength Monitoring for Reduction of Cement in Concrete
• Intellinox Technologies. Inc in Québec, QC receives $1.2M for their intelligent kitchen ventilation system
• Thetis Environmental Inc. in Hamilton, ON receives $1.5M for their 3D spatial UF membrane & XL module for solid/liquid separation of industrial wastewater
• AdvEn Industries Inc. in Edmonton, AB receives $3.9M for their AdvEn Super Activated Carbon Commercial Demonstration Plant

Power Generation:

• Westgen Technologies Inc in Calgary, AB receives $1.3m for their Commercial Demonstration of EPOD Zero Bleed Pneumatic Instrument Air Solution
• Hydrostor Inc in Toronto, ON receives $1.6m for their OPG Scaling to Commercialization Project for Full-Scale Advanced-CAES
• QD Solar Inc. in Toronto, ON receives $5.3M for their Perovskite-Colloidal Quantum Dot Multi-Layered Solar Cell

Waste Management:

• Li-Cycle Corp in Mississauga, ON receives $4.0m for their Hub Technology Commercial Scale-up Preparation
• Titanium Corporation Inc in Calgary, AB receives $10.0M for their Creating Value from Waste (CVW) Horizon
• Excir Work Group in Calgary, AB receives $5.4M for their Technology Large Scale Demonstration and Deployment