The new Earth Tech accelerator has announced its first cohort, which includes 16 startups and nonprofits that are advancing freshwater and climate solutions.

The Centre for Social Innovation’s Climate Ventures aims to facilitate tech-based solutions to climate and freshwater challenges with Earth Tech, a six-month accelerator that aims to help startups and nonprofits validate their solutions, advance their technology readiness levels, grow their revenues, and create meaningful impact.

“CSI’s Climate Ventures is helping to build the next economy—one that is just, carbon neutral, circular, and regenerative,” said Tonya Surman, chief executive officer of CSI.  “We’re proud to support the entrepreneurs and innovators working on the technology solutions that will play an important role in enabling this transformation for people and planet.”

The 16 participants in the 2020 Earth Tech cohort are divided into two streams: freshwater and climate.

  • Participants in the freshwater stream include: Biopolynet Inc., RainStick Shower, CANN Forecast, Clean Nature, SENTRY, Water Rangers, and EAIGLE.
  • Participants in the climate stream include: Project Neutral, Springbay Studio Ltd., Dunya Habitats, CERT, Flash Forest Inc., Innovia GEO Corp., Just Vertical, Solar Wind Reliance Initiatives (SWRI) Ltd., and Volta Technique.

“Sponsoring community-based environmental initiatives has always been a crucial part of Bullfrog Power’s identity,” said Sean Drygas, president of Bullfrog Power. “With Earth Tech, we’re excited to support cutting-edge, scalable initiatives with the potential to help all Canadians by fighting climate change and protecting freshwater sources.”

Bullfrog Power is supporting the program alongside the RBC Foundation, Spark Power, Vancity Community Investment Bank (VCIB), and WWF-Canada.

“Climate change is the most pressing issue of our time,” said Valerie Chort, vice president of corporate citizenship at RBC Foundation. “We are committed to bringing the power of innovative technologies to address and scale solutions to some of the most pressing environmental issues of our time.”

Earth Tech participants will receive access to the Centre for Social Innovation’s facilities, an advisor network, and one-to-one coaching from seasoned entrepreneurs-in-residence. Participants will also receive training and mentorship from experts at RBC, Bullfrog Power, and WWF-Canada.

“Safeguarding Canada’s watersheds is critical for the wellbeing of wildlife and communities and we’re excited to see how our award recipients will be tackling these issues with their innovative technological tools and bring to life some great solutions for freshwater health,” said Elizabeth Hendriks, vice president of freshwater conservation at  WWF-Canada.

The Earth Tech program will culminate with an opportunity for participants to pitch to investors and funders at a Pitch Night in June 2020. During previous Centre for Social Innovation climate programs, participating early-stage enterprises earned and raised over $22M while supporting 260 jobs.

More information about Earth Tech and the 2020 cohort can be found here.

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