The problem is clear: British Columbia has cultivated one of Canada’s most productive climate tech accelerator pipelines, only to see its graduates leave the province to secure growth capital.
Programmes run by Foresight Canada, entrepreneurship@UBC, and SFU Venture Connection have collectively graduated more than 200 climate tech startups over the past four years. The proof-of-concept funding, mentorship, and university-linked talent pools are world-class.
However, the Series A stage has historically marked the end of the local climate tech journey.
The structural crack
Founders have long noted that while early-stage and seed capital are accessible in BC, the jump to Series A—typically requiring $8 million to $12 million—demands investors with the mandate to support hardware-heavy or infrastructure-dependent ventures. These investors have traditionally been concentrated in Toronto, San Francisco, and European hubs like Zurich.
Consequently, founders who built their companies in Vancouver often relocated their headquarters to be closer to their lead investors. The province funded the R&D phase, only to export the scale-up.
Canada's cleantech sector attracted $2.5 billion in venture investment in 2025, according to Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association data. Yet, BC’s share of that capital remains disproportionately low relative to its output of companies. This mismatch is the core challenge facing the ecosystem.
New capital, new calculus
A small but meaningful cohort of sector-specific funds is now emerging locally, designed to bridge the Series A moment for BC climate tech companies. This shift indicates that the province’s high-net-worth and family office community is beginning to treat climate tech as a core asset class rather than a philanthropic adjacency.
This development aligns with findings from Innovate BC and the BC Tech Association, which emphasize the need for capital with the sector knowledge to underwrite the specific risk profiles of energy transition companies—including long development cycles and regulatory dependencies.
What founders actually need
Climate tech founders consistently report that the accelerators themselves are not the bottleneck. Foresight Canada, in particular, is recognized for its technical rigour and corporate partnership access. The challenge arises at graduation.
A founder scaling a grid-edge energy management platform faces a different fundraising conversation than a SaaS founder. The due diligence is more extensive, and the investor base is smaller. When specialized capital is absent locally, founders face a difficult choice: relocate to where the money is, or spend 18 months traveling to build relationships with investors unfamiliar with the BC regulatory environment.
Local capital changes this calculus. It preserves founding teams, keeps intellectual property in the province, and provides a credible local path for graduates from UBC and SFU to pursue climate tech careers.
The bigger picture
BC is not building this infrastructure in isolation. The province's CleanBC roadmap creates regulatory demand for the very companies emerging from local accelerators. The policy demand, talent, and accelerator infrastructure are all present.
The growth capital layer is now, slowly, being built. For founders approaching their first institutional raise, the local fund landscape is thin but growing. Those who engage early with these local options may find they no longer have to choose between their company and their city.
