This article is part of a series presented in partnership with BC Tech, profiling the finalists for the 2026 Technology Impact Awards‘ Company of the Year – Startup category.
Viridis Research co-founder and CEO Macarena Cataldo-Hernandez’s commitment to clean water began far from the textile mills her Vancouver company is now working to transform.
While studying chemical engineering in her native Chile, Cataldo-Hernandez volunteered as a mentor to children in underserved neighbourhoods. During one visit, she discovered that a community in the same city where she had lived her entire life did not have access to clean water.
“The experience exposed the deep inequalities surrounding access to clean water and inspired me to dedicate my career to solving water-related challenges,” she recalls.
Cataldo-Hernandez went on to earn a Ph.D. in water treatment in Italy, where she trained alongside experts in electrochemical technologies. She later moved to Canada and worked on water-treatment solutions for rural, remote and Indigenous communities facing water insecurity.
Those experiences laid the foundation for Viridis Research, a cleantech startup launched in 2020 with a mission to give water a second chance.
Viridis is initially targeting the textile industry, which consumes an estimated four percent of the world’s freshwater and generates nearly 20 percent of industrial water pollution.
Textile dyeing presents a particularly difficult challenge. The dyes, salts, surfactants and other chemicals used in manufacturing are designed to be durable, making them equally resistant to conventional wastewater treatment.
Most mills rely on biological or chemical treatments and membrane-based filtration systems operating through centralized effluent plants. These approaches can require substantial capital, ongoing purchases of chemicals and regular membrane replacement while producing sludge and brine that must be managed or discarded.
They can also struggle to break down complex dye molecules completely, allowing pollutants to enter surrounding environments and affect local communities.
Viridis is developing a different approach based on proprietary electrochemical oxidation technology. Its system uses an electric current to destroy organic contaminants in wastewater, converting them into gas instead of transferring the pollution into another waste stream.
“Viridis’ technology can achieve near-complete destruction of dyes, chemicals and surfactants commonly used in textile dyeing,” Cataldo-Hernandez says.
The process does not require added treatment chemicals or membranes and does not produce solid or liquid treatment byproducts. It is designed to recover nearly all the water used in dyeing operations, allowing mills to recycle it rather than continually drawing on freshwater supplies.
Viridis can integrate its technology into an existing centralized treatment facility or deploy it as a smaller, decentralized recycling system within an individual dyeing operation.
That flexibility could reduce the capital costs, operational complexity and maintenance requirements that have made water reuse difficult for many textile manufacturers.
For mills operating in regions affected by drought, water restrictions or rising utility costs, the benefits are both environmental and economic. Recycling wastewater can reduce freshwater consumption while eliminating expenses associated with treatment chemicals, membrane replacements and hazardous sludge disposal.
Viridis is pursuing a brand-led route to market. Rather than approaching thousands of mills individually, the company works with major apparel companies that can introduce the technology throughout their manufacturing networks.
The startup has completed field pilots with Canadian hosiery manufacturer Sheertex and global fashion company H&M, including a program in Bangladesh that tested its technology in an industrial setting. A collaboration with Lululemon is also underway, while Viridis is in discussions with Inditex, the owner of Zara.
These relationships could provide Viridis with a pathway into more than 1,400 manufacturing facilities around the world.
Since its launch, the company has developed its core technology and filed patents covering proprietary reactor configurations and methods for improving reaction efficiency. It has also assembled a team of chemists, engineers and materials scientists focused on research, product development and commercialization.
Another important milestone was the arrival of co-founder Ahmad Erfan, a former lawyer and Lululemon executive who has helped establish the company’s commercial pathway within the textile sector.
Viridis has raised more than $1 million in equity investment and secured over $2 million in non-dilutive government funding. It is now advancing additional textile-sector collaborations and plans to deploy its commercial system in early 2027.
Despite that progress, Cataldo-Hernandez says fundraising remains the company’s greatest challenge.
“Cleaning wastewater is not sexy. Neither is building hardtech,” she says. “In a world that is obsessed with artificial intelligence and quick returns on investment, raising capital with local institutional investors has been an uphill battle.”
Viridis has responded by cultivating relationships with international investors, particularly in Europe and Asia, where water scarcity, textile manufacturing and environmental regulation are creating greater urgency around industrial water reuse.
British Columbia has nevertheless provided the company with access to highly qualified scientists and engineers, as well as universities and programs supporting early-stage technology development.
Viridis has participated in SFU VentureLabs and UBC’s HATCH Venture Builder. It received the Sustainability Prize at the 2023 New Ventures BC Competition and has secured support from Innovate BC and AccelerateIP for technical validation and intellectual-property development.
Cataldo-Hernandez says relationships with other founders and executives across the province have also given her a trusted network for guidance, advice and “occasional venting.”
Being named a BC Tech Startup of the Year finalist represents another meaningful milestone for a company working to preserve a resource that is especially visible in its home province.
“Living in a region surrounded by acres of lush rainforest intersected by roaring rivers, dotted with serene lakes and bordered by the mighty Pacific Ocean, I’m constantly reminded of the precious resource that we are fighting to preserve,” Cataldo-Hernandez says.
For her, the recognition is a sign that others share Viridis Research’s vision of a future in which clean water is abundantly available and sustainably managed.
“Water is the source of life and the driving force of nature,” she says. “I’m proud to be working on technologies that help preserve this precious resource.”
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