Calgary-based Interface Fluidics has raised $6.7 million CAD ($5.4 million USD) in a Series B investment round led by Equinor Ventures, the corporate venture arm of energy company Equinor.
Four other investors also participated in the financing round, including Techstars and Phaze Ventures. Interface has not disclosed the other entities.
Launched in 2015, Interface leverages technology from the biomedical industry, adapting it to the oil and gas sector. The company provides sampling collection and testing from its nanotechnology platform that allows operators to analyze a variety of downhole chemicals, which helps to evaluate the viability of increasing oil recovery.
Interface provides its services to major producers including Suncor, Equinor, Total, Cenovus, BP, Ovintiv, Saudi Aramco, and Petroleum Development Oman.
Interface plans to use its new capital to cut down on the shipping of hazardous chemicals and increase the pace of test results, in order to allow for quicker procurement of its offering.
This is the third financing round since the company was founded, with more than $13.8 million CAD ($11 million USD) raised in total funding to date. In August 2019, the company raised $6 million CAD ($4.5 million USD) in its Series A round funded by Equinor Ventures and Techstars.
Interface Fluidics is a recent graduate from the first class of the Techstars Energy Accelerator, in partnership with Equinor. The company completed the Oslo-based program in December of 2018.
“It’s a true vote of confidence in Canada’s ability to commercialize innovative technology,” said Interface co-founder and CEO Stuart Kinnear, adding that the financing would also help in bolstering the company’s workforce, with the potential to double the number of its employees.
The investment follows the COP26 summit in Glasgow where prime minister Justin Trudeau announced Canada will impose a hard cap on emissions from the oil and gas sector.
Trudeau also said that the country is prepared to limit the growth of one of the country’s largest industries to help the world hold the global average temperature increase to 1.5 degrees celsius.
As reported by CBC, Canada’s oil and gas sector accounted for 191 megatonnes of greenhouse gas emissions in 2019, making up 26 percent of the country’s total emissions.
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