A brand new fund launched in November by the Enterprise Growth Financial institution of Canada to assist increase the expansion of homegrown local weather expertise has made its greatest funding but.
The Crown company’s funding arm, BDC Capital, together with Vancouver-based Evok Improvements, not too long ago co-led a Sequence A2 funding spherical that raised US$50 million in funding capital for Summit Nanotech, a Calgary-based lithium expertise firm.
The corporate, which has developed a proprietary lithium extraction expertise that it says makes use of much less water and chemical compounds and produces fewer emissions than conventional extraction strategies, is at the moment working a multi-customer pilot challenge in Chile and dealing towards commercialization.
Though BDC didn’t disclose the precise quantity it invested itself (the overall US$50 million raised by Summit Nanotech included different traders, together with Xora Innovation and Capricorn Funding Group, in addition to a consortium of climate-focused funds) , it confirmed that its funding was the most important but of its $400-million Local weather Tech Fund II.
The fund, introduced in November 2022, goals to handle the dearth of enterprise capital for the commercialization and scale-up of Canada’s cleantech and local weather expertise trade.
It picks up the place BDC’s first $600 million local weather expertise fund, launched in 2018 and now totally dedicated, left off by searching for investments in expertise that may assist Canada attain its purpose of net-zero greenhouse gasoline emissions by 2030 to realize
These applied sciences embody issues like lithium — a key element in making electrical automobile batteries — in addition to different promising applied sciences like hydrogen, carbon seize and storage, low-carbon concrete and extra.
Cheri Corbett, senior accomplice of BDC Capital’s Local weather Tech Fund, mentioned solely 5 % of enterprise capital funding in Canada in 2021 went into climate-related expertise and clear expertise. That is in comparison with 14 % of enterprise capital funding worldwide.
BDC’s Local weather Tech Fund was supposed to assist bridge that hole by supporting the longer improvement timeframes and better capital wants typical of many local weather tech startups, she mentioned.
Learn extra:
‘Elon is watching us’: Calgary lady makes use of nanotechnology to create new lithium extraction expertise
Learn subsequent:
Air Canada misplaced man’s custom-made wheelchair, affords $300 voucher and damaged substitute
“Most of those applied sciences, and those we’re notably targeted on, are arduous tech/deep tech alternatives. As a operate of that, they take extra money, and so they take longer,” Corbett mentioned.
“We have created a fund that may actually dig in, make investments early in these firms and actually comply with by, and never all funds are constructed that means.”
BDC additionally goals to assist forestall Canadian entrepreneurs from having to maneuver to the US or one other jurisdiction to scale up their applied sciences. Amanda Corridor, CEO of Summit Nanotech, mentioned the funding from BDC allowed her firm to take care of its standing as a Canadian-owned firm, as a lot of the corporate’s earlier funding capital got here from cleantech-savvy traders in Singapore, USA and Australia.
“Ninety % of our staff are Canadian, our manufacturing is finished in Canada, the expertise is Canadian — so we needed that Canadian recognition,” Corridor mentioned.
A report launched Tuesday by Deloitte mentioned there are about 1,100 clear expertise, or clear expertise, firms throughout Canada as we speak. These firms signify about 3.1 % of GDP, in line with Deloitte, and greater than 210,000 jobs.
The Deloitte report mentioned enterprise capital funding for clear expertise in Canada grew to US$342 million within the second quarter of 2022, up 21.6 % from the primary quarter and a 223 % year-over-year improve.
Learn extra:
The implications for Alberta’s power sector will not turn into clear for a very long time after a leap ahead in merger analysis
Learn subsequent:
Mexico prohibits smoking in all public locations, together with seashores and resorts
However the report additionally mentioned non-public sector funding in analysis and improvement in addition to expertise adoption in Canada stays effectively under the worldwide common
The Deloitte report mentioned that if Canada is to satisfy its local weather objectives, it must do a greater job of transitioning promising startups inside the sector into an industrial base of firms that may turn into globally aggressive, dominant gamers.
“Decarbonisation turns into costlier the longer motion is delayed,” the Deloitte report mentioned.
© 2023 The Canadian Press
