Canadian fund to invest C$100mn in Svante DAC technology

Canada Growth Fund (CGF), an arms-length public investment vehicle established by the government of Canada to attract clean tech investments, said August 15 it had made a C$100mn financing commitment to Vancouver-based direct air capture (DAC) developer Svante Technologies.

The funding will help accelerate the development and construction of Svante’s commercial carbon capture and removal projects in Canada and the US.

“CGF is working to accelerate the deployment of key Canadian carbon capture technologies, and to scale the manufacturing and export of promising solutions to showcase Canadian technologies internationally,” CGF Investment Management CEO Patrick Charbonneau said. “Svante has a tremendous market opportunity, globally and here at home, and we look forward to supporting this company in its growth.”

CGF will fund its investment in two C$50mn tranches. The first will be used to accelerate and de-risk commercial projects currently underway and will be disbursed immediately, while the second tranche can be drawn for the development and construction of carbon capture projects with a focus on Canadian projects, subject to approval by both organisations.

The funding commitment, Svante CEO Claude Letourneau said, complements a US$145mn capital investment made in the company’s new carbon capture and removal filter manufacturing facility under construction in Vancouver.

“This will strengthen our integrated project development services offering to help our customers de-risk FOAK (first-of-a-kind) projects by providing both our in-house project development advisory expertise and financing,” he said. “This new offering bridges the gap for our customers as it enables them to reach final investment decision.”