Climate-focused venture capital in Canada is no longer a rarity, with investors, corporations and governments now competing for startups’ attention.
To make good on all those net-zero commitments made at last November’s United Nations summit in Glasgow, we are going to need to dramatically scale up and deploy new technologies that will allow us to transform our economies to climate-friendly energy sources. It’s not going to be easy.
It will require the emergence of a vast array of new firms to create energy efficiency and new industrial processes, as well as renewable and non-emitting sources of energy. However, it takes time for ventures to develop from startup stage to full commercial capacity, and it takes patient investors to provide the capital needed to nourish that growth. Fledgling companies can survive on government grants and individual investors in their early years, but they need access to private capital to commercialize their products.
“Venture capitalists are catalysts for change,” says Dave Caputo, CEO of Trusscore, which manufactures sustainable building products. “Where they put their money, change will happen.”
While many cleantech firms have struggled to attract capital over the past decade, that’s starting to change with the financial industry’s embrace of ESG investing — which focuses on companies that commit to good environmental, social and governance practices.
In fact, venture-capital investors are now competing for the attention of the most promising Canadian cleantech firms.
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