The secret behind Canada’s cleantech advantage

Two investors share their insights on why they look to Canada for cutting-edge climate innovations.

Canada is a global leader in cleantech. Despite having half a percentage point of the global population, the country consistently churns out some of the world’s top climate ventures that rank on the annual Global Cleantech 100 list. With only $1.2 billion in cleantech investments, Canada’s environmental and clean technology sector has generated $80 billion — the equivalent of 3.5 percent of the country’s GDP. Canada has also benefited from nearly $21 billion-worth of cleantech exports, producing 314,000 jobs domestically. On a global scale, Canada is the second-largest producer of hydroelectric energy, and represents 20 percent of the world’s large-scale carbon capture, utilization and storage projects.

So what makes a country with such a small population and relatively minimal investment dollars such a green goliath?

In this special video recording, Leah Perry, the climate capital lead at MaRS Discovery District, sat down with two climate tech investors who provide an outsider’s perspective on what makes Canada oh-so-great at all things cleantech.

Featured in this episode:

Leah Perry is the senior manager of cleantech at MaRS Discovery District where she works closely with the MaRS climate tech portfolio through all stages of growth, primarily when they are raising capital.

Jason Blumberg is a co-founder and managing director at Earth Foundry, an early-stage venture capital fund that builds groundbreaking cleantech and energy companies. Based in Chicago, Energy Foundry has backed some of the most transformative companies in the cleantech and energy space.

Michael Gryseels is the founder and managing partner of Antares Ventures, an early-stage VC firm out of Singapore that supports deep-tech startups tackling sustainability challenges in Asia’s growth markets, including energy transition, industry decarbonization, sustainable transport, agriculture, food and accessible healthcare.

Further reading:

• Meet the investor who is helping Canadian startups break into the Southeast Asian market
• Why experts say Canada is a leader in the global cleantech industry
• 9 Canadian startups feature on the Global Cleantech 100 in 2025
• EDC report: Rapid growth in AI-enabled cleantech unlocking opportunities for Canada
• Why Canada could be the answer to China’s clean tech dominance
• How to spot disruptive tech decades before the competition