Calgary-based cleantech startup Eavor’s Series B funding round now totals $182 million following a $90-million investment from the Canada Growth Fund (CGF), the federal government’s clean energy investment fund.
According to a statement from the CGF, its investment, which is CGF’s first, will be used by Eavor to accelerate the deployment of its flagship product, Eavor-Loop.
“The funding received here today emboldens our efforts to deploy Eavor-Loop systems worldwide.”
Eavor, which offers geothermal technologies for producing energy, initially raised $80 million in Series B financing in June from Austrian oil and gas company OMV and existing investors including BP Ventures, Eversource Energy, and Vickers Venture Partners. According to a recent statement from Eavor, other investors in the financing round include Japan Energy Fund, Monaco Asset Management and Microsoft’s Climate Innovation Fund.
At the time of the June investment, Eavor said it planned to raise $145 million for its Series B round this year. According to a statement released by Eavor, its Series B financing round now exceeds that goal by nearly $40 million.
“The funding received here today emboldens our efforts to deploy Eavor-Loop systems worldwide helping to drive us all towards a sustainable, reliable, and bright energy future,” John Redfern, president and CEO of Eavor, said in a statement.
Founded in 2017 by John Redfern and Paul Cairns, Eavor’s solution is designed to produce energy using heat generated within the earth, or geothermal energy. The startup says it has the potential to provide a consistent and resilient source of clean energy, while also offering a significantly smaller environmental footprint compared to traditional geothermal systems.
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Eavor-Loop circulates a benign working fluid that is completely isolated from the environment in closed-loop, through a massive radiator underneath the surface of the ground. The radiator collects heat from the natural geothermal gradient of the earth via conduction.
The CGF is a $15-billion fund first introduced in the federal government’s 2022 budget aimed to bridge the liquidity gap in the Canadian cleantech market and offer support to companies at the commercialization and scale-up stages. One pillar of the CGF’s mandate is to directly invest in Canadian cleantech businesses.
The new funding comes at a time when a number of Canadian cleantech companies are migrating south of the border. According to a June report by the Boston Consulting Group, Canada is home to 12 of the top 100 cleantech ventures in the world, yet only 17 percent of climate tech investor dollars remain in Canada, with the vast majority flowing into the United States.
“Eavor, a homegrown clean technology champion, has the potential to accelerate decarbonization of global heat and power markets, and we’re proud to support this Alberta-based company as they scale up and grow their business worldwide,” said Patrick Charbonneau, CEO of CGF Investment Management.
