Burnaby, BC-based cleantech company Svante has received a $137-million CAD ($100-million USD) financing commitment from the federal government’s cleantech-focused Canada Growth Fund (CGF).
The commitment, which takes the form of convertible notes, is aimed at ramping up the development and construction of Svante’s commercial carbon capture and removal projects in Canada and the United States.
“Svante has a tremendous market opportunity, globally and here at home.”
Patrick Charbonneau, CGF
According to a statement from Svante, CGF will invest through an initial $68-million CAD ($50-million USD) tranche, which will be used to accelerate and de-risk Svante’s current commercial projects.
The remaining half will be made available for Svante to draw upon for future carbon capture, utilization, and storage projects.
Founded in 2007 initially as Inventys, Svante develops filters and machines that capture and remove carbon dioxide from industrial emissions and the air. The company rebranded to Svante in 2019, and currently has four pilot plants in North America, including one in British Columbia, one in Saskatchewan, and two in California.
Svante has raised over $600 million CAD since its founding, most recently closing $435 million CAD ($318 million USD) in a Series E financing round led by Chevron New Energies, the oil and gas behemoth’s climate-focused fund. Svante was also one of 13 Canadian tech companies named to the 2024 Global Cleantech 100 list in January.
The company is currently constructing a 141,000 sq.-ft. facility in Burnaby, which it claims will produce filters capable of capturing 10 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year. The facility will also serve as Svante’s global headquarters and R&D centre, when completed. Svante has already invested nearly $200 million into the facility to date, according to a statement from the federal government.
“Svante has a tremendous market opportunity, globally and here at home, and we look forward to supporting this company in its growth,” CGF president and CEO Patrick Charbonneau said in a statement.
The first tranche of the CGF funding will be disbursed immediately, while the second tranche can be drawn from subject to the approval of both organizations. The proceeds from the first investment tranche will be used by Svante for commercial development and what Svante described in its statement as “first-of-a-kind project funding.”
“This will strengthen our integrated project development services offering to help our customers de-risk [first-of-a-kind] projects by providing both our in-house project development advisory expertise and financing,” Svante president and CEO Claude Letourneau said in a statement.
This is not the first time the federal government has funded Svante. In 2021, the government provided Svante with $25 million CAD to support the commercialization of its carbon capture technology.
CGF is a $15-billion CAD fund launched in 2022 with a mandate to invest in scaling Canadian clean technology businesses in the commercialization stage. This investment marks CGF’s first venture in British Columbia. The fund invested in Calgary-based Eavor in October 2023, and Idealist Capital in March 2024.
Carbon capture is the process by which emissions created during oil and gas production, refining, and upgrading are captured and either sequestered underground or used in further industrial processes.
While the technology has taken off in the last decade, some critical voices, such as the International Institute for Sustainable Development, have called it a “poor strategy for decarbonizing oil and gas production,” primarily due to its high price point, a lack of industry oversight, and the technology’s role in facilitating continued oil and gas production, rather than lessening the world’s reliance on these resources.
Feature image courtesy of Svante.
