CTC #73 - Opalia closes $2M for animal-free dairy

Opalia will bring cell-based milk to market, Joyride raises a Series A to expand electric micro-mobility, and Canada's charging network continues to grow.

Mar 13, 2024

Hey there,

Welcome to another issue of Climate Tech Canada! I hope you’re enjoying the extra hour of sunlight this week.

Before we jump into this week’s issue, I wanted to share some exciting news - I’m launching a podcast later this month! It’s an opportunity to bring you more in-depth conversations with Canadian climate tech founders and explore the solutions they’re building. The first season features conversations with founders working on home electrification, corporate emissions reduction, net-zero supply chains and a whole lot more.

I’ll share a trailer with you all in next couple of weeks once it’s live on podcast platforms!

This week in climate tech:

Opalia bags $2M for animal-free milk
ClimateFirst tackles climate risk for commercial real estate
Public charging networks grow 33% YoY

Let’s go!

💰 Funding

🐮 Opalia raised $2M in funding for their cell-based milk alternative. Netherlands-based dairy ingredient provider Hoogwegt led the round with participation from Box One Ventures, Cycle Momentum, Kale United and others.

Opalia is developing technology to produce milk using mammary cells that tastes and functions just like milk from cows, but without the same environmental footprint. Cows can produce as much as 260 pounds of methane in a year and livestock are responsible for 14.5% of GHGs globally. Opalia will use the funding to support the launch of their initial product into the market.

🛴 Joyride closed a $7M Series A round for their mobility fleet software. The round was led by Yamaha Motors and included EDC, Urban Innovation Fund, Proeza Ventures, and Two Small Fish Ventures. Joyride offers a software platform that allows fleet operators to launch and manage private or public fleets from e-bikes, scooters and more.

Adoption of electric micromobility is growing and these vehicles are packing a large climate punch - two-wheel EVs accounted for about 60% of global avoided oil demand in 2023. Joyride’s new funding will be used to continue expanding offerings for vehicle manufacturers and enterprise customers.

🔋 Li-Cycle secured a $75M strategic investment from mining giant Glencore. The funding will give Li-Cycle additional runway as they re-visit their strategy for a recycling hub plant in Rochester, NY that was paused earlier this year. Glencore previously invested $200M into the company in 2022.

⛽️ Westport Fuel Systems secured $37.7M from Volvo Group for a joint venture to commercialize their hybrid fuel system. Westport’s direct fuel injection system enables long-haul vehicles to swap in low-carbon alternatives like biogas or hydrogen.

⛽️ Three low-carbon fuel companies received $15M via the federal Clean Fuels Fund:

StormFisher received $4.6M support plans for a renewable natural gas facility
Azure Sustainable Fuels received $5M to build a sustainable aviation fuels plant
CHAR Technologies secured $5M to explore a biomass-to-renewable-energy plant

🛍️ Two Quebec companies received a total of $330K from the federal government for their sustainable CPG products.

Grazy develops plant-based dairy alternatives and will use the funding to continue their expansion from wholesale to direct to consumer.
Myni designs, manufactures, and sells water-soluble cleaning tablets for home and personal care. Their products are biodegradable and weigh less than conventional products which cuts down on transport emissions.

📈 Milestones & growth

📊 Acuicy is kicking of a pre-seed fundraising effort after winning the Atlantic Canada Cleantech Scale-up and Investment Challenge. Acuicy offers business intelligence software for net-zero supply chains.

📊 Guelph’s ClimateFirst will team up with ClimateCheck to help the commercial real estate sector assess financial risks from climate change with its climate-risk analysis software for buildings.

💡 Climate tech accelerator Foresight will absorb Project Greenlight, a challenge-based innovation hub, from the now-closed Vancouver Economic Commission.

🏅 Foresight also announced the finalists for their BC Cleantech Awards. The list includes Lite-1, Ideon Technologies, Lucent Bio, Intelligent City and others.

💨 Carbon removal developer Deep Sky is partnering with atdepth MRV to develop monitoring, reporting and verification models for ocean-based carbon removal.

🌱 Vertical farming startup SkyAcres joins the latest cohort of Google’s Women Founders accelerator.

🗞️ In the news

⚒️ Mining meetup: The Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada conference wrapped up this week. Notable announcements include federal funding to support Indigenous participation in critical minerals projects and $1.95M to help mineral-rich countries establish rules for climate-smart extraction and processing. Despite low moods around nickel prices, the conference notably attracted more attention from automakers than in years past, as they look to get closer to their suppliers.

📊 Show us your risks: The SEC will require large, publicly traded companies to disclose climate-related info to investors. The rules include disclosures for short- and long-term physical climate risks, spending related to climate goals and pollution from certain greenhouse gases - as long as they’re “material”. It’s a watered down version of what was originally expected - for example, Scope 3 emissions don’t need to be disclosed - but is an important first step to get rules on the books.

⚡️ Expanding charging networks: Canada’s public EV charging network grew by 33% over the past year, adding more than 6,700 chargers. That’s 18 new plugs every day! There’s still a long way to go though - Canada needs to build about 195,000 chargers by 2030 to meet growing demand and help mitigate range anxiety.

🗞️ In other news:

Electric muscle cars are on the way - Stellantis will build its electric Dodge Charger at its assembly plant in Windsor, ON. See it action here.
Ontario’s grid operator received $16.7M from the feds to build out its distributed energy resources program to tap into home batteries and small-scale generation.
B.C. Hydro is the first Canadian member of PACT, a new coalition focused on removing bottlenecks in utility infrastructure for electric truck charging.
A huge transmission project to bring energy from Canada to New England was cancelled. The private utility determined the project was not viable.
The feds announced $97M to fund projects to help farmers develop and adopt clean technologies to reduce their emissions.
The feds also launched Canada’s Methane Centre of Excellence to support projects that improve the measurement and mitigation of methane emissions.
Alberta intends to put a limit on the price natural gas generators can charge in an attempt to avoid spiking energy prices.
Alberta committed $55 million for a new multidisciplinary science hub at the University of Calgary, focused on energy, chemistry, and agtech.

📣 What’s going on

💡 Foundations in Startup Investing: Get started with angel investing in this program from impact investor group Spring. The program covers evaluating investments and how to leverage your existing skills as an investor.

💡 Methane Measurement and Mitigation Call for Proposals: Natural Resources Canada is seeking applications for methane mitigation. Areas of focus include improving accuracy and timeliness of methane detection or mitigate fugitive unburned methane. Apply by April 17th.

🗓️ Cleantech 2024 Finale Pitch Night: Join the finale event for Startup TNT’s Summit featuring pitches from the top 5 finalists. March 14th, Calgary and online.

🗓️ U of T Climate Impacts Hackathon: Get your hands dirty with global climate models, and explore how they can help quantify regional-scale climate change impacts. March 15-17th, Toronto.

🗓️ The Future of Climate & Energy: This one day event will discuss the disruptions impacting the built environment, urban communities and energy infrastructure, and pathways forward. March 20th, Toronto

🗓️ Climate Exchange: Regenerative Agriculture: Join for an engaging conversation about regenerative agriculture and the challenges faced by Canadian farmers in adopting more climate-friendly and resilient practices. March 21st, Ottawa.