The B.C. Centre for Innovation and Clean Energy (CICE) has awarded the first two recipients of a new non-dilutive investment avenue for emerging B.C.-based ventures that have recently graduated from university entrepreneurship programs.
Vancouver-based VulcanX Energy and Victoria-based Curat Innovations have each been awarded $75,000.
Many innovative ideas, including clean energy and climate solutions spun out of universities, lose momentum due to lack of funding, despite their potential.
To address this, CICE collaborates with entrepreneurship@UBC-O, entrepreneurship@UBC-V, SFU VentureLabs, UNBC Innovation Program and UVic Coast Capital Innovation Centre. Together, they bridge the funding gap that typically hinders ventures between early solution validation and the development of a commercialization strategy.
VulcanX Energy, a University of British Columbia spinout, is accelerating the transition to net-zero by providing a technology that produces hydrogen and solid carbon from natural gas based on methane pyrolysis with a molten metal recirculation system.
If successful, VulcanX holds the potential to produce hydrogen at the same price as current technologies (<$2 per kg), but with minimal emissions and lower energy consumption (13 kWh/kg H2).
Curat Innovations, a University of Victoria spinout, is tackling organic waste disposal problems and associated GHG emissions by developing an organic waste processing technology that significantly decreases the amount of hauling and methane gas release associated with food waste.
Organic waste is neutralized in three days, creating beneficial soil supplements that can also help restore the natural ecosystems’ abilities to sequester carbon.
Non-dilutive investment from CICE is structured in two stages: an initial corporate investment of $75,000 per selected venture, followed by additional potential investment consideration for CICE’s larger project-based funding from its bi-annual intakes.
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