Two Calgary-based energy giants are contributing up to $100 million for a new B.C. cleantech fund aimed at entrepreneurs.
The fund will be managed by Vancouver’s Evok Innovations, a partnership between the B.C. Cleantech CEO Alliance, Cenovus Energy (TSX:CVE) and Suncor Energy (TSX:SU).
“We really are addressing both environmental and economic challenges,” Evok CEO Marty Reed told Business In Vancouver.
“We’ve created an organization that is both entrepreneurial and has access to big customers, and that’s kind of unique.”
Cenovus and Suncor have committed over the next decade to contribute up to $50 million to the fund that will invest in early-stage companies developing cleantech innovations.
While Evok is based in Vancouver, Reed said the fund will be evaluating technology from across the globe.
“My managing director is down in San Francisco, so we’ll be looking to build bridges not only between Alberta and B.C., but B.C. and the Silicon Valley,” he said.
If Evok is presented with an opportunity it’s happy with, the submission will go before a panel that includes Reed, a representative from the cleantech industry and a representative from either Cenovus or Suncor.
The panel would then vote on whether to go forward with investing on the project.
“One of the reasons an entrepreneur would want to work with us is so that they could have access to Suncor and Cenovus,” Reed said.
“So we could expect that the majority of the new technologies we invest in, we will have shared a good bit of information with Cenovus and Suncor to ensure that there was alignment in terms of vision and application.”
An example, he said, of a project Evok might consider would be an innovation that treats industrial water or converts carbon dioxide into a valuable product.
