Ahead of Web Summit Vancouver, British Columbia (BC) organizations teamed up to showcase the innovation happening in cleantech, life sciences, and creative industries across the province. The stage? An electric bus.
BetaKit participated in the cleantech portion of the tour, which chauffeured approximately 40 investors and other attendees from as far away as Uruguay, Italy, and Japan around the Metro Vancouver Area. The road trip offered time to check in with industry leaders about the state of BC cleantech, how they are feeling about Web Summit Vancouver, shifting geopolitical winds and Canadian venture capital (VC).
In true West Coast fashion, Monday’s proceedings began under grey skies with a shuttle from downtown Vancouver to Surrey and what the event’s master of ceremonies called “a little bit of liquid sunshine.” But the dismal weather didn’t dampen the mood. The vibes were upbeat, and the excitement about BC cleantech—and the prospect of showcasing it to the globe at the conference—was palpable.
“Web Summit is an opportunity to speak to the world.”
Sarah Goodman,
NorthX
“As we think about this moment that we’re in, our sovereignty, the need to diversify our economy and trade routes, Web Summit is an opportunity to speak to the world,” NorthX Climate Tech president and CEO Sarah Goodman told BetaKit in an interview outside 33 Acres Brewing Company after the tour concluded.
During an introductory networking lunch in Surrey, speakers argued that BC’s diversified economy, clean energy resources, proximity to the western United States (US) and the Asia-Pacific region, strong postsecondary institutions like the University of British Columbia (UBC) and Simon Fraser University, and deep pool of tech talent have helped the province establish a strong presence in cleantech, life sciences, and creative industries.
Tech is BC’s fastest-growing industry, with more than 12,000 companies, 220,000 employees, and $55 billion in revenue, according to Invest Vancouver, which says 492 of those businesses are pure-play cleantech firms. The province currently hosts over half of Canada’s hydrogen and fuel cell companies, and five of the nine Canadian startups that cracked the 2025 Global Cleantech 100 list are headquartered in BC.
During a panel conversation before a lunch break in Surrey, moderator and Invest Vancouver president Jacquie Griffiths asserted that Metro Vancouver is “punching above its weight” when it comes to both cleantech and deep tech.
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Panellist Brett Henkel, co-founder and senior VP of business at local cleantech scaleup Svante, cited BC’s cleantech talent, access to global markets, and the support it has received from various levels of government as some of the reasons Svante was built in the province. Svante, which has grown to more than 300 employees and raised a total of about $1 billion CAD, just opened a new, 141,000-sq. ft. carbon capture and removal filter manufacturing facility in Burnaby.
After lunch, the cleantech bus hit the road again to sunnier skies and warmer temperatures, forcing this reporter to lug around his umbrella for the rest of the day and regret the decision not to wear shorts.
Pit stop number one was at pH7 Technologies’ facility in Burnaby. There, Ph7 founder and CEO Mohammad Doostmohammadi noted that demand for critical minerals has increased amid the clean energy transition, growing artificial intelligence (AI) use, and electric vehicle adoption.
pH7, which closed a $16-million USD ($22-million CAD) Series A in 2023, has developed tech for helping mines, recyclers, and other firms extract metals more efficiently and sustainably. The company claims to have successfully commercialized its process and says it now has the capacity to process five tonnes of recycled material daily.
Hydron Energy’s site in North Vancouver was the next destination. Launched by Svante co-founder and ex-CTO Soheil Khiavi, Hydron has built a biogas upgrading solution designed to turn raw, waste gas into clean, refined “better than pipeline-grade natural gas” in a more cost-effective process with a lower carbon footprint than conventional methods.
In a presentation at the company’s facility, Khiavi, Hydron’s founder, president, and CEO, said that the market for biogas is large, but the price of the associated equipment is high. Hydron, which has raised $10 million USD (about $13.8 million CAD) in total funding to date, just recently inked a commercial collaboration agreement with natural gas utility FortisBC to deploy its system to sites across Canada.
The tour concluded at Arca Climate’s office in Vancouver. Arca, a UBC spinout, is developing tech designed to accelerate the natural process of carbon capture through mineralization in alkaline mining waste, generating carbon credits that it plans to sell to companies like Microsoft with net-zero commitments.
In an interview with BetaKit at the startup’s facility, Arca head of science Greg Dipple said that the startup has benefited from BC’s cleantech talent and support, quality of life, and proximity to San Francisco. “We’ve done really, really well hiring locally, and it’s easy to get people to move to Vancouver,” Dipple said.
“We’ve done really, really well hiring locally, and it’s easy to get people to move to Vancouver.”
Greg Dipple,
Arca Climate
Dipple said organizations like non-profit cleantech accelerator NorthX have helped create a strong “sense of community” around cleantech in Vancouver. He noted some of the province’s more established cleantech players, like Squamish’s Carbon Engineering—which was acquired by US-based Occidental Petroleum for $1.1 billion USD in 2023—have drawn folks to the region who have then visited Arca and other emerging startups. He expects Web Summit Vancouver to play a similar role.
Arca, Hydron, and pH7 are all currently fundraising or gearing up to do so amid a tough VC funding market, and a particularly sluggish one for cleantech firms. Battery and hydrogen investments have also been stalling as of late. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump, who campaigned against his predecessor’s landmark cleantech tax bill, has spent his early days in office reversing many of the country’s climate policies.
Goodman told BetaKit she’s optimistic even amid these conditions. “Where the US steps back, we can step in,” she said.
“This problem is not going away,” she added. “The market is pulling back right now, but it’s going to come back around. The world needs these solutions, and we can build them.”
Feature image courtesy NorthX Climate Tech.