Tech Update: Six Canadian startups make the Cleantech 50 to Watch

The Cleantech Group, a U.S.-based green advisory firm, has just released its latest 50 to Watch list.
Each year, the organization highlights promising early-stage companies that have the potential to disrupt the market in the near future — and this year, Canadian ventures make up more than a tenth of the list. Canada’s six to watch are Ayrton Energy, Litus Inc., Nxlite, TerraFixing, Tersa Earth and ThinkLabs AI. 
To develop the list, says research manager Anthony DeOrsey, the Cleantech Group consults with venture capitalists, corporate innovation insiders and key representatives who work closely with startups at incubators and accelerators. While the Cleantech Group also produces a separate roundup of more established companies, the 50 to Watch aims to illustrate “what the next wave of technology will be,” says DeOrsey, while also providing a snapshot of the top trends in cleantech.
Judging from the 2024 list, hydrogen is particularly hot (figuratively speaking). So far, much of the innovation in this sector has focused on sourcing and producing the gas, but this year’s must-watch ventures are exploring novel ways to transport, store and use hydrogen — a “very healthy” progression, in DeOrsey’s opinion. These developments could be crucial in fostering a wider adoption of hydrogen as a clean energy source.   
Among the honourees in this category is Calgary-based Ayrton Energy, which has developed a method to store hydrogen as a room temperature liquid fuel that can be easily transported and converted for use. While investors have already taken notice of the company (it just closed a $9.1-million round of seed funding), CEO and co-founder Natasha Kostenuk is grateful for the accolades. “It’s recognizing the hard work that our team has done to get as far as we have with our tech development and early market traction,” she says, noting that the list will help get Ayrton’s name out to other stakeholders in the sector.
Unsurprisingly, another trend among the companies on this year’s list is grid resilience, a sign of the growing urgency to ensure our electrical systems can withstand both skyrocketing demand and the increased prevalence of extreme weather events. As DeOrsey points out, the 50 to Watch lets us “see around the corner a little bit,” where innovators are finessing not-yet mainstream tech that will provide us with the solutions needed to reach net zero and adapt to a rapidly changing world.
Once upon a time, walkability and proximity to good schools were prime variables in the value of a home. These days, other factors may take precedence.
As residents in the southeastern U.S. struggle to clean up the destruction wrought by Hurricanes Helene and Milton, real-estate marketplace Zillow has added climate risk to its home listings. Climate change exacerbates extreme weather, which increases the odds that flooding, wildfires and torrential storms will cause property damage.
In Florida, hundreds of homes were destroyed by Milton. Coastal communities are in a particularly precarious spot, but areas nowhere near an ocean also need to contend with climate-related calamities.
This past summer, flooding caused by heavier-than-usual rain cost Toronto homeowners thousands in damages.
In Canada, disaster-related insurance claims have quadrupled over the past 15 years.
Climate change is also making it more expensive to own a home with Canadians’ insurance premiums increasing 7.66 per cent year-over-year in 2024.
At an event held by Carbon Removal Canada in Ottawa, Minister of Transport Anita Anand announced that the federal government plans to purchase at least $10 million in carbon removal services (which include direct air capture and mineralization) by 2030 as part of a strategy to reach its goal of net-zero emissions in operations by 2050.
Public procurement initiatives are fundamental to scaling cleantech in this sector and achieving overall net-zero objectives.
Nova Scotia–based Aruna Revolution, which makes plastic-free and compostable menstrual pads, has been named the winner in Canada’s Next Sustainable Changemaker Challenge.
The six-week competition, which comes with a $25,000 prize, targets Canadian ventures that are developing solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Second place went to Toronto’s CERT Systems, which has developed an electrochemical process that converts carbon into high-value chemicals, while B.C.–based NANOSentinel Technologies, a toxic metal monitoring system, came third.   
US$25 million: How much Toronto-based startup Fable raised in series B funding. The company, which specializes in improving the accessibility of digital platforms, is aiming to integrate data related to cognitive and hearing impairments into the tools and resources it provides to businesses seeking to make their products more inclusive.
$2 million: The amount that Moselle raised in seed funding. Moselle is a Toronto-based AI inventory planner and procurement manager that helps underserved small and medium-sized businesses.
1983: The year Geoffrey Hinton came up with the algorithm for Boltzmann machines, an early type of neural network that uses statistical probabilities. Earlier this month, Hinton and his co-inventor, John J. Hopfield (whose research led Hinton to develop the algorithm), were awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for their foundational work, which paved the way for today’s machine learning tech.
82 acres: The area of land in Vaughan that is earmarked for a future medtech campus. The City of Vaughan, Mackenzie Health, York University and ventureLAB have partnered to develop the Vaughan Healthcare Centre Precinct, with the goal of catalyzing innovative research, practices and tech focused on health.