About This Fund
The Climate Tech Fund is a venture capital initiative managed by BDC Capital, the investment arm of the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), a federal Crown corporation wholly owned by the Government of Canada. The fund was established to address the chronic shortage of late-stage risk capital for the commercialization and scale-up of Canadian climate technology companies, representing a core commitment of the federal government's strategy to build a globally competitive cleantech sector and accelerate Canada's transition to a low-carbon economy. With 500 million Canadian dollars in committed capital, the Climate Tech Fund became one of the largest dedicated cleantech venture vehicles in Canada at the time of its launch.
The fund deploys capital into hard technology companies with capital-intensive business models, defensible proprietary intellectual property, and demonstrated market traction. Key investment themes include energy decarbonization, sustainable mobility, the built environment, industrial and resource efficiency, and carbon management. The fund targets companies at the late-stage seed to growth stage of development, requiring validated product-market fit and a clear path to commercial scale and profitability within a defined timeline. BDC Capital's investment model functions as a catalytic public capital instrument: for each dollar of BDC investment deployed from Climate Tech Fund I, the fund unlocked approximately 12 Canadian dollars in co-investment from private sector partners, demonstrating strong institutional demand for Canadian cleantech growth capital.
The Climate Tech Fund has built a diversified portfolio of climate technology companies including alterBiota, Ayrton Energy, CabriCrete, Carbon Upcycling, CarbonRun, CO280, Cyclic Materials, Deep Sky, DeNova, Exterra, Freshr Technologies, and Future Fields, spanning clean energy, advanced materials, carbon capture, and sustainable agriculture. The pan-Canadian investment team is led by Managing Partner Shirley Speakman. Following strong portfolio performance, BDC Capital launched a Climate Tech Fund II in November 2022 at 400 million Canadian dollars with a heightened focus on capital-intensive deep decarbonization technologies, bringing BDC's total committed investment in the cleantech sector to 1 billion Canadian dollars.