Hi friends,
A quick personal note before we dive in. I’ll be taking a few weeks off to focus on a new, exciting project: being a dad.
My wife and I are expecting our first any day now, and I’ll be fully offline while we find our footing and spend some quality time together.
I’m also looking forward to some time to reflect on Climate Tech Canada, where we go next, and how to build a better world for this kid.
Thank you for reading and listening, and for giving this work a place in your week.
This week we look back at Q3: where Canadian climate tech funding landed, how policy is shifting toward building faster, and what data centres, fuel prices and electricity demand mean for the grid.
Elsewhere in climate tech:
EverWind adds a $10B data centre to its clean fuels hub
CarbiCrete issues its first verified credits
Ottawa’s $100M commitment to offshore wind
Q3 in Canadian climate tech: Fewer deals, bigger bets
Source: EverWind Fuels
Climate tech funding felt quiet last quarter, then the numbers came in. $685.8M — more than 3x compared to Q3 last year. We break down where capital went and the policy, power and market stories that shaped the quarter.
1. Growth wins in Q3
We tracked $685.8M in venture and growth funding in Q3/26, almost a 7x increase from Q2 and more than three times the $201M we tracked in Q3 2025.
Four growth rounds made up about 89% of the quarter: Hydrostor's $320.4M, Kanin Energy's $138M, Cyclic Materials' $104M and EnerPure's $49M.
The Canada Growth Fund participated in three of these deals, plus Cyclic's Series C earlier this year, playing a growing role in unlocking growth capital.
Early-stage deals thinned out, with just one Pre-Seed (Meissner), one Seed (Daedal) and two Series A rounds (NxLite, Ultimarii).
Globally, CTVC reported a similar trend toward large deals. 31 mega deals took 82% of disclosed dollars, deal count was the lowest since 2020, and dollars were the highest since 2021.
Despite a difficult fundraising environment, a handful of investors closed new funds: Wittington Ventures ($180M), Amplify Capital ($60M) and BlackTech Capital's first close.
2. Policy: Mega projects
Canada's climate agenda is now a build-faster agenda.
The Canada Investment Summit prospectus pitched $184B of clean energy and low-carbon projects to international investors, and a new Productivity Mega Deduction unlocked full capital cost expensing.
What we're watching: whether projects clear the bankability bar. The prospectus listed 160+ projects, and project financers say they're ready to deploy for de-risked infrastructure.
3. Clean compute
Hyperscaler projects are starting to be announced, and questions about electricity prices and local impacts are following them. Energy affordability, local benefits and grid reliability are driving the debate more than emissions.
Meta announced a $13B data centre campus in Alberta, and EverWind's $10B+ Nova Scotia campus landed this week.
Provinces are converging on bring-your-own-power requirements. Ontario and Quebec are setting higher rates for large loads, and Alberta's reliability thresholds favour fossil fuel power. Ottawa launched its Responsible Data Centre Development Principles, and 19 more signatories joined.
Communities are having their say. More municipalities are pausing data centre development, protests have reached Nova Scotia and Vancouver, and data centres are starting to show up as ballot issues in local races.
What we're watching: AI and data centre demand are creating market opportunities for some startups, but we aren’t seeing as strong of a pull on company formation and early stage deals.
4. Oil shocks and opportunities
Higher oil prices continue to ripple through the economy, pushing US inflation above expectations and leading G7 countries to tap reserves.
Fuel price spikes are boosting interest in Sustainable Aviation Fuel, not so much for short-term cost relief, but as a longer-term security hedge. The Canada Investment Summit included $29.8B in renewable fuels projects, five of them SAF.
At the same time, the EV sales mandate is being repealed, replaced by sales rebates, funding for EV charging infrastructure, and Canada's own, to-be-developed, emissions standards.
What we're watching: medium- and heavy-duty vehicles, since operators exposed to skyrocketing diesel prices have a new reason to look at electrification. And whether new interest in SAF converts into real production capacity.
5. Electricity superpower
Firm power is a national theme, and the East Coast may be the most interesting place for electricity growth in the country.
Renewables are dominating power procurement, while nuclear power is poised to grow with Ontario's large- and small-scale nuclear plants, Saskatchewan's plans for two new reactors, and a NexGen's uranium mine that could supply 1/5th of global demand.
Maritime provinces are exploring a unified regional grid and expanded clean energy: from the $70B Churchill Falls hydro project to plans for tidal power and both onshore and offshore wind.
What we're watching: the opportunities that grid growth and rising electricity demand create for solutions across the electricity stack. And whether Canada's nuclear industry can tap growing demand or cedes the opportunity to US competitors.
What’s your take? Hit reply and let us know what you’re watching in the quarter ahead.
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EverWind Fuels announced a $10B data centre project at its Point Tupper campus with Anthropic as the anchor tenant. The data centre complements EverWind's Green Fuels project which plans to produce 200,000 tonnes of ammonia for export to Europe.
Neo Performance Materials' rare earth project secured EU Strategic Project status, unlocking faster permitting and funding to expand capacity.
Verdex Capital launched the Carrot Ventures Food & AgTech Innovation Challenge to identify and fund early-stage companies cutting emissions in food and agriculture.
CarbiCrete issued its first verified carbon removal tons from its CO2-negative concrete. It's one of the earliest issuances under Verra's low-carbon concrete methodology.
Calgary-based liquid cooling startup 3C merged with the UK's Datalec to create an integrated data centre services platform. 3C CEO Steve Walton was previously the CEO at CoolIT, which sold for $6.5B earlier this year.
Opening up offshore wind: The federal government committed $100M to developing Nova Scotia's offshore wind industry and attracting private investment. Part of the funding will be used to gather essential data on wind speeds and ocean conditions
The investment comes as the global offshore wind industry is struggling. The Trump admin has cancelled projects off the US east coast, while other developers have struggled with supply chain disruptions and higher costs.
EV market rebounds: Canada's EV market is recovering, but a bit slower than expected. Sales are up 30% from 2025, consistently hit 10% market share, and prices are down 15% YoY.
Electricity about-face: Ontario will import electricity from the US this winter, likely due to reduced capacity from refurbishing the Pickering nuclear plant. The move undercuts Premier Ford's threats to cut off electricity supplies to the US.
Protecting carbon sinks: The Nature Conservancy of Canada will protect forest and peatlands 1.3 times the size of Toronto in Northern Ontario. Peatlands are critical carbon stores, and the protected lands store more than 30M tonnes of carbon.
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TotalEnergies ditches offshore wind for solar
EU Summit heats up over rising energy prices
Underwater geothermal startup generates its first power
🚀 2026 Call for Innovation: Capacity & Energy Solutions: NorthX and BC Hydro are seeking projects that reduce greenhouse gas emissions while helping bring greater flexibility to BC’s electricity system. Apply by Oct 30th.
🗓 Industry Connect Canada: Bringing together industrial leaders and technology innovators to solve the power, capital, and execution challenges shaping Canada's industrial future. Oct 27th, Toronto.
🗓 Cleantech Data Symposium: Learn about the future of cleantech with data-driven insights and sessions from NRCan, ISED, and StatsCan. Oct 28th, virtual.
💼 Co-Founder & CEO, New Venture: Diagram is seeking a CEO & co-founder for a new orchestration and edge deployment venture for energy operators.
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