Foresight 50 list names Canada’s “most investable” cleantech firms

Vancouver-based cleantech accelerator Foresight Canada has identified what it deems Canada’s 50 “most investable” cleantech companies.

The 2022 Foresight 50 list recognizes leading Canadian cleantech innovators “moving the needle towards net-zero, connecting honourees to international investors. The chosen firms were evaluated based on criteria that included investability, potential environment and employment impact, and probability of success.

The second annual Foresight 50 list names cleantech firms from across the country building a wide variety of different climate solutions, from Terramera to Summit Nanotech and Ekona Power.

Firms were evaluated based on investability, environment and employment impact, and probability of success.

“Last year’s Foresight 50 companies went on to collectively raise $593 million to amplify their cleantech solutions,” said Foresight Canada CEO Jeanette Jackson. “We can’t wait to see what’s possible for this year’s companies as they lead Canada—and the world—in the transition to net zero.”

The companies on the latest Foresight 50 were selected from a group of over 150 nominations, and 83 finalists, following consultation with partners and expert reviews, by a panel of judges and cleantech community leaders.

Known in part for their cleantech prowess, British Columbia (BC) and Alberta dominated the list with 21 and 17 representatives, respectively. Elsewhere, Ontario plays home to six of the 50 companies on the list, which also named three Saskatchewan firms, and one apiece from Manitoba, Quebec, and Nova Scotia.

One of the BC companies named to the list was Vancouver-based AgTech company Terramera, which aims to transform how food is grown. The startup, which has 131 employees, has raised $100 million CAD in equity funding and $18.4 million in grants to date, and expects to generate $6 million in revenue this year.

Terramera founder and CEO Karn Manhas was recently honoured as an industry icon at the 2022 BC Cleantech Awards. The cleantech leader was recognized alongside fellow Foresight 50 honouree and BC firm Ekona Power, which was named a rising star.

RELATED: Hydrogen production tech startup Ekona Power closes $79 million Series A

Burnaby-based Ekona Power is building a methane pyrolysis platform that converts natural gas into hydrogen and solid carbon, allowing for the elimination of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To date, the company has closed $79 million in equity financing and secured $20 million in grants to date.

In Alberta, Calgary-based Summit Nanotech develops processes designed to sustainably extract lithium resources, which are a key element in electric vehicle batteries. During its lifespan, the startup has closed over $19 million in equity funding and secured more than $8 million in non-dilutive capital. Summit Nanotech founder and CEO Amanda Hall also recently took home Woman in Tech of the Year at Start Alberta.

Other companies named to the Foresight 50 include Intelligent City and Hydra Energy, among others.

Readers can access the full report here, and the complete list of selected companies below:

-Adaptis (Ontario) uses AI-powered technologies to enable building owners, architects and engineers to make informed decisions for decarbonizing buildings and lowering the costs of planning.

-Agora Energy Technologies (British Columbia) is repurposing CO2 as a raw material for supplying sustainable and abundant clean electricity.

-Axine Water Technologies (British Columbia) treats organic pollutants in industrial wastewater to eliminate hazardous contaminants in the worldʼs water ecosystem.

-Bio Graphene Solutions (Ontario) converts 100 percent of organic material (biochar) via an eco-friendly process and manufactures graphene for use across numerous applications.

-Carbin Minerals (British Columbia) accelerates the natural process of atmospheric carbon mineralization, removing carbon dioxide from the air and storing it permanently as rock.

-Carbon Upcycling Technologies (Alberta) is a waste and carbon utilization company unlocking a new frontier of circular materials.

-CarboNet (British Columbia) is accelerating the world’s transition to recycled water with a new class of chemistry.

-CarbonGraph (Ontario) is a digital platform that lets companies share the carbon footprint of their products with their customers.

-Copperstone Technologies (Alberta) helps industrial clients manage liabilities and safety costs associated with hazardous sites, particularly water and wastewater facilities.

-Cvictus (Alberta) decarbonizes difficult sectors with hydrogen and chemical feedstocks that are ‘cleaner than green and cheaper than grey.’

-Digital Water Solutions (Ontario) is reducing water loss and providing insight into what is happening underground to municipalities and water utilities.

-Earthware (Alberta) is a high growth ‘return-for-reuse’ takeout container service that will disrupt the $160 billion takeout container industry.

-Ekona Power (British Columbia) aims to unlock the power of clean hydrogen.

-Farment (British Columbia) is providing fermentation solutions for bio regenerative performance.

-FREDsense Technologies (Alberta) is building better biosensors to help environmental consultants, industrials and communities understand what’s in their water.

-Galatea Technologies (Alberta) is helping the energy industry digitalize, optimize and automate transportation workflows.

-GRT (British Columbia) is rethinking waste, specifically waste soil, to bring sustainable, valuable materials to market that meet the critical, growing need for circularity within built environments.

-Hempalta (Alberta) is an AgTech company focused on innovative hemp processing and product creation.

-Highwood Emissions Management (Alberta) helps operators make better emissions management decisions and accelerates decarbonization by revealing profitable emission reduction opportunities.

-HTEC (British Columbia) provides end-to-end solutions across the clean hydrogen value chain to advance the widespread deployment of hydrogen electric vehicles.

-Hydra Energy (British Columbia) allows existing diesel heavy-duty trucks to run on hydrogen-diesel co-combustion, displacing their emissions up to 40 percent.

-Intelligent City (British Columbia) is an urban housing technology company that simultaneously addresses three urgent problems: housing affordability, urban livability and the need for life cycle carbon neutral buildings.

-Klean Industries (British Columbia) is an international company focused on applying best-of-class technologies that provide industrial symbiosis between energy, waste and resources in a commercially viable and environmentally responsible manner.

-Korotu Technology (Ontario) is a carbon measurement social enterprise that helps communities protect the climate and biodiversity using remote sensing AI.

-LightLeaf Solar (Saskatchewan) makes high-performance solar panels for things that move—RV, marine, automotive, and aerospace.

-Livestock Water Recycling (Alberta) provides high-tech digital manure processing that enables net zero food production and increases food for the supply chain.

-LlamaZOO (British Columbia) facilitates the creation of highly accurate and data rich digital twins of various scales and types, for different industries including natural resources, manufacturing, Indigenous lands management, and ESG.

-Lucent BioSciences (British Columbia) delivers crop nutrition that improves yield and soil health while sequestering carbon.

-MarineLabs Data Systems (British Columbia) is a coastal intelligence company and real- time data provider, transforming marine safety and building climate-resilient coastlines.

-NanosTech (Alberta) is Alberta’s catalytic innovation hub, supporting the development of process technologies and supplying catalysts to other cleantech companies leading the energy transition in Canada.

-NULIFE GreenTech (Saskatchewan) is transforming industrial wet waste into carbon negative fuel and carbon credits.

-Nyoka (British Columbia) engineers proteins that create safe, sustainable and efficient light.

-Open Ocean Robotics (British Columbia) is at the leading edge of robotics as a service for all meaningful markets in the blue economy.

-OptiSeis Solutions (Alberta) is bringing a new era of environmental consciousness to energy exploration.

-Permalution (Quebec) works on fog and cloud water collection technology and climate adaptation solutions.

-Planetary Technologies (Nova Scotia) has developed an ocean-based carbon removal approach that uses existing infrastructure and resources to accelerate the supply of high-quality, durable carbon removal credits.

-Proteus Waters (Saskatchewan) has experience and expertise in circular/cleantech wastewater treatment, recovery, and reuse, and converts raw sewage into clean water and fertilizer.

-Psigryph Inc. (Ontario) develops foodtech for health and owns NanopectTM, a platform, biodegradable nanodelivery system for living cells.

-SeeO2 Energy (Alberta) is turning emissions into value and closing the carbon loop.

-SolarSteam (Alberta) is delivering renewable heat to industrial and institutional clients, helping to reduce their costs and emissions.

-Summit Nanotech (Alberta) has developed a novel sorbent-based direct lithium extraction (“DLE”) technology, denaLiTM to accelerate the global energy transition.

-Swift Charge (Alberta) is developing a smart EV charging technology with proprietary power control software and power conversion hardware that closes the gap between the demand for EV charging and the limit of grid power capacity.

-Swirltex (Alberta) takes the toughest wastewater and turns it into a reusable resource.

-Takachar (British Columbia) turns trash—crop and forest residues—into cash (higher-value chemicals, biofuels and fertilizer base) in remote communities.

-TechBrew Robotics (British Columbia) has developed patent-pending, vision-guided robotic automation that accelerates conventional manufacturing processes.

-Terramera (British Columbia) fuses complex science, mobile applications and automation to transform how food is grown and the economics of agriculture.

-TheoryMesh (Manitoba) is building traceable and transparent food supply chains for sustainability and food safety.

-Verdi (British Columbia) is building the platform to help the global agriculture industry to adapt to climate change.

-Viridis Research (British Columbia) is removing microplastics from water while helping washing machine manufacturers meet environmental requirements with their cartridge-free microfiber filtration system.

-ZILA Works (Alberta) is developing a bio-epoxy resin to help product manufacturers lower their carbon footprint.

Feature image courtesy Terramera.