Who Are Calgary’s Most Investable Cleantech Companies?

According to the Climate Change Performance Index (CCPI), Canada has fallen four spots since 2023 and now ranks 62nd globally in key climate battlegrounds like greenhouse gas reduction, renewable energy advancement and adoption, and overall energy consumption reduction.

It is increasingly clear that Canada is struggling to keep up with other G7 countries in tackling climate change.

But, there is hope. 

Cleantech investment in Canada held steady in 2023, with $1.1B invested—underscoring the sector’s resilience amidst global economic challenges. Securing early-stage funding remains crucial for cleantech ventures to scale and succeed.

Building a strong, prosperous future economy driven by sustainability starts with investing in innovation—Canadian innovation.

A new list of Canada’s most investable cleantech companies exemplify the potential for progress, indicating that while there is much work to be done, a clear path forward exists.

The Foresight 50 recognizes ventures from across Canada and a variety of sectors including green housing, emissions reduction, and food security. This year the list includes 5 companies that call Calgary home.

The 5 Calgary-based companies on the Foresight 50 are:

• Ayrton Energy‘s technology stores hydrogen in organic liquid for convenient handling and transport. This innovation enables hydrogen to serve as a backup power source, replacing diesel generators and lithium-ion batteries for grid sustainability.
• Drishya AI Labs makes AI-powered digital twins enabling up to 45% emissions reduction and 10% more output without costly overhauls.
• Ionic Solutions’ desalination technology, called Capacitive Electrodialysis Reversal (C-EDR), drastically reduces the power required to remove dissolved minerals (salts) from all kinds of water – converting up to 95% of drawn saline water into freshwater.
• Litus pioneers nanotechnology solutions for global energy challenges, with a patented method to extract high-purity lithium from water sources. This innovation offers superior efficiency and environmental benefits.
• Sustainable Projects Group provides optimized capital deployment strategies enabling actionable decarbonization at 34% lower cost.

Ionic Solutions’ Executive Vice President, Jordan Grose, says the accolade is an important reminder of the relationship between water scarcity and climate change.

“We’re thrilled to have the work of the Ionic Solutions’ team recognized by Foresight Canada,” continues Grose. “We are a small team, proud to be developing and manufacturing our product in Calgary. We are passionate about bringing our incredible desalination technology to those markets where we know it will have a global impact on water scarcity and climate change.”

The Foresight 50 were selected by an independent panel of judges who chose the companies based on criteria including investability, potential environmental and employment impact, and probability of success.

This is the second year in a row that Ayrton Energy and Litus have appeared on the Foresight 50 list. Check out the complete Foresight 50 pitchbook here.