Climate Tech Canada - Issue #7

Mar 11, 2022

Hi there,

Welcome to issue #7 of Climate Tech Canada, my bi-weekly round-up of what’s happening in Canadian climate tech.

The last few weeks have truly felt like years. I was surprised by (and grateful for) the speed at which sanctions were applied against Russia after invading Ukraine. We saw policies that previously seemed off limits being re-evaluated overnight, whether it’s the use of nuclear energy in Europe or Nord Stream 2 being shut down, with huge implications for renewables and clean tech.

It’s heartening to see Ukraine’s allies taking these serious measures and willing to make some sacrifices in order to put pressure on Russia. I’m going to skip being an armchair policy expert, but my hope is we collectively seize this opportunity to accelerate the switch to renewable and more decentralized energy sources, while also continuing to back Ukraine and ending the war. We need more proposals and initiatives like Bill McKibben’s “Heat Pumps for Peace”.

It’s a shorter issue this week, with funding announcements for Toronto’s Flashfood, a ton of growth announcements including a data platform for Indigenous land management, and more.

Funding and growth

Flashfood (Toronto, ON) raised a $15.6M Series A round to fuel expansion into the U.S. Flashfood partners with grocery stores to connect buyers with food that is approaching its best before date, thereby avoiding food waste and helping buyers save money. The focus on savings sets it apart from other food waste initiatives, and builds on existing consumer habits for grocery shopping like Airmiles, price-matching and coupons. Current partners include Loblaws and Meijer.

Summit Nanotech (Calgary, AB) raised $17.8M in Series A financing to continue commercialization efforts. The company offers lithium extraction solutions that make extraction cleaner and more efficient.

Andion Global (Vancouver, BC) secured $270M in financing to expand operations and accelerate the development of projects in North America and Europe. Andion builds and operates waste-to-energy plants, using anaerobic digestion to convert organic waste into biofuels.

Nano One (Burnaby, BC) received $404k in funding and services from the National Research Council of Canada to support research and development of it’s “Metal to Cathode Active Material” technology. Nano One has developed a low carbon process for producing low cost cathode materials for lithium-ion batteries that eliminates several stages (and waste) from the traditional process such as converting lithium-carbonate to lithium-hydroxide and metals to metal-sulfates.

Growth

LlamaZOO launched their new software platform for Indigenous peoples, called “Guardian”. The platform uses geospatial data and digital twinning to enable land management and cultural data preservation.

The Ontario government is investing up to $22M in the ag-tech sector through its Agri-Tech Innovation Program. The funding will go towards over 170 projects at universities and startups.

Montreal startup Letendra unveiled their zero-emission passenger bus, the Electrip. Designed specifically for operation in cold winter weather.

Innovative Fuel Systems has signed Certarus as a client for their multi fuel technology platform. IFS’ technology enables emissions reductions of up to 60% for heavy duty engines by integrating different fuels.

Guelph-based Current Water secured $250k in funding from client Highland Engineering (US) to continue developing it’s green hydrogen technology. Their technology uses the ammonia extracted via wastewater treatment to produce hydrogen.

Atlas Power Technologies announced they are building a manufacturing facility for their supercapacitors in Abbotsford. Supercapacitors are a form of long-duration energy storage for intermittent sources like solar. Hear CEO Mitchell Miller discuss their technology here.

Hillcrest Technologies unveiled their innovative High Efficiency Inverter prototype for EV powertrains. Their design has the potential to greatly reduce weight and increase efficiency, range and payload capacity for EVs.

BlueWave-ai partnered with Summerside Electric to launch the “Canadian Smart Grid AI Center of Excellence” in Summerside, PEI. The Center will act as an AI test center for wind, solar, grid, battery and smart metering innovation.

Wolf Midstream announced a new carbon capture hub in Fort Saskatchewan, using saline aquifers.

Here & there

Opportunities

Natural Resources Canada has opened a challenge for companies that can provide resolution vegetation mapping data for fire prediction and mitigation. Submissions close on March 21st - learn more here.

United Utilities (UK) is seeking solutions for water quality and monitoring projects in partnership with Foresight Canada and EDC. United is looking for innovations related to reducing the impact of sewer overflows and low-impact water treatment solutions. Submissions close April 29th - learn more here.

Events

🗓March 28th: WFF hosts “How should companies finance climate action beyond their value chains?” featuring speakers from Klarna, Ikea, and more. The event will explore how companies can think about allocating funding, selecting projects, and what claims companies can make based on these contributions. RSVP here.