Canada Invests $26 Million in Cleantech and Quantum Computing
More massive cleantech investments in Canada are coming thanks to the government and Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC).
The Government of Canada has announced that they will be investing $26.3 million into four cleantech companies, with two companies receiving $10 million each. The announcement was made at the SDTC’s Cleantech Leadership Summit where 150 cleantech CEOs gathered to discuss how to champion the environment through technology over the foreseeable future.
The four companies receiving funding all hail from Western Canada. They are Burnaby’s D-Wave Systems; Vancouver’s Ionomr Innovations; Calgary’s MEG Energy; and Vancouver’s MineSense Technologies.
“Our government’s investments in cleantech reflect our commitment to protecting the planet and growing our economy,” said Navdeep Bains, Minister of Innovation, Science and Economic Development. “They also point to a clear direction for economic development through innovation. That’s because innovations in clean tech have the potential to create thousands of well-paying middle-class jobs for Canadians. That’s how innovation leads to a better Canada.”
Navdeep Bains at the Cleantech Leadership Summit.
D-Wave Systems will get $10 million as a unique choice for a cleantech investment, considering they are not directly related to energy conservation or environmentalism. They are a quantum computing company that were chosen because this new field of technology is much more energy efficient when compared to traditional methods of computing.
They have received several funding rounds (ranging from $28 to $30 million) and even landed on the cover of TIME Magazine for their “Infinity Machine.”
More recently, they have begun to work with the Creative Destruction Lab to help foster the growth of their quantum computing accelerator.
MEG Energy is a more traditional cleantech company, as they work to improve bitumen recovery in oil sands development and production while also reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions and water consumption. They will receive $10 million as well.
MineSense Technologies—with their almost-annual appearances on the Global Cleantech 100 and 2018’s winner of the Automation of Everything award—is receiving $4 million. The cleantech firm makes the mining process more environmentally-friendly through the efficient use of sensor analytics and big data.
Ionomr Innovations will receive $2.3 million for their efficient, durable and effective water treatment membrane system. It also helps with purification, grid-level energy storage and generation. Ionomr won a Startup Energy Transition award at the Berlin tech Festival last month.
“These companies are great examples of how Canadian innovations are poised to improve Canada’s economy while protecting the environment,” said Leah Lawrence, president and CEO of the SDTC. “SDTC’s investments in D-Wave, MEG Energy, MineSense and Ionomr will deliver environmental benefits to multiple industries and demonstrate our government’s commitment to helping businesses scale and compete on the global stage.”
So far, SDTC has invested close to a billion dollars spread over 350 ideas and 300 companies to better create a cleantech future in Canada. Those companies have created close to 10,000 jobs and generated almost $2 billion in revenue.
