Invest Together

Spring is increasing the flow of investment capital into Canadian climate innovation startups. Recognizing the systemic underfunding of underrepresented founders, they prioritize creating equitable ac   cess to funding. Their Invest Together in Climate Innovation program trained sixteen climate founders, while investor-facing parts of the program—Invest Together & Foundations in Climate Startup Investing—trained thirty-two investors. The Program Finale saw a $63K direct investment into Genuine Taste, a woman and BIPOC-led company and a $50K investment made into the woman co-led company, Fireswarm. Drawing attention beyond what is being done, to who is supported with the opportunities to do it, Spring is bringing a lot more cleantech talent out of the ground to grow.

It’s not hard to believe, but it is difficult to process the fact that 90% of climate tech deals went to all male teams in 2023, and investments in women-led climate companies was less than 7%. Women, non-binary people and BIPOC men are significantly underrepresented in the climate tech venture capital space. At the same time, the evidence shows, over and over and again, that ventures with diverse leadership outperform their peers.

It’s clear to Caroline von Hirschberg, Co-CEO of Spring Activator, a Canadian incubator focused on supporting social-impact startups, that, if we’re going to accelerate the growth of climate innovation across Canada, that needs to change. Spring is working to ensure that impact founders—especially women, non-binary and BIPOC entrepreneurs—have the capacity-building support they need to become investment ready, access capital and move forward to growth and success.

Recognizing that the benefits created when women invest in climate solutions aren’t ones we can afford to do without, Spring focused on recruiting as many diverse climate companies in the raising stage as possible. They also prioritized diversity in their investor-facing programming, but they wanted to do still more. The fight against climate change is going to take all we’ve got and so, to help ensure that good climate tech talent wasn’t being left on the shelf, Spring developed two new custom programs.

Invest Together in Climate Innovation—the first of these programs—invited sixteen climate ventures to participate in Spring’s Investment Readiness program before joining a cohort of twenty-four investors from across Canada to collaboratively navigate the full investment process. Over the course of weekly sessions, including a dedicated company Q&A, investors evaluated the cohort and ultimately selected five ventures, at which point each company underwent due diligence with a team of angel investors and a comprehensive investment memo was developed for each finalist in order to support a potential investment. The full cohort of angel investors ultimately chose one company to receive their pooled investment. The program also included a public pitch, where the audience voted for a People’s Choice.

Ultimately Invest Together in Climate Innovation saw a $63K direct investment made into Genuine Taste, a woman and BIPOC-led company and a $50K direct investment made into a woman co-led company, Fireswarm.

Needless to say, the program made a splash, and the ripple effect will mean the Invest Together in Climate Innovation program inspires and informs many more people beyond the lucky participants and winners.

The second of these programs, Foundations in Climate Innovation Investing, offered participants a collaborative environment for learning, discussion, and actionable insight into climate investing. Developed in 2024, the program saw Spring host a week-long bootcamp designed to equip prospective investors with the core knowledge and confidence needed to begin investing in climate startups. The program culminated in a live deal screening with a climate startup, giving participants the opportunity to apply their learnings in a real-world context.

Experience has taught the Spring program delivery team that filling out the entrepreneur and investor cohorts with the usual suspects, the people, and organizations that traditionally get and provide the bulk of climate investment, would be easy. Instead, they chose to work harder, reach further, and find the right participants for their cohorts.

Achieving a more diverse cohort of participants required a unified effort across their marketing, programming and investment teams and even that wasn’t enough. Their initial recruitment for their Invest Together program fell short and some regulatory changes meant only accredited investors could participate in the investments, causing the Spring team to lower their original goals.

Undeterred, the Spring program team did further research and outreach to build the relationships necessary to address those challenges. Already Invest Together in Climate Innovation has trained sixteen climate founders, while the investor-facing parts of the program. Invest Together and Foundations in Climate Startup Investing, trained 32 Investors.

RBC was Spring’s primary partner on this project—a positive experience for both parties. From Spring’s perspective RBC was an exemplary example of how a partner can contribute their expertise, profile and connections to an initiative, but also allow the space for the other half of the partnership to do what it does well. Both parties are eager to work together again to achieve positive results for the environment—while shaking up the tech investment environment so we see some different types of people coming out on top. Spring is happy to share that RBC has just confirmed 3 more years of funding for the project.

Spring Activator has sprung into action, getting funding to climate ventures, making a positive difference, while making the landscape of who gets investment and who’s making the investments more inclusive. They’re funding innovative solutions in an innovative way, helping to make it rain, where it’s been far too dry in the fight against climate change.

By taking the most positive kind of concrete action to bring much-needed awareness to the imbalances in climate investment, Spring is setting a very public example. Theirs is both an example and a model that can be replicated. By drawing attention beyond what is being done, to who is supported with the opportunities to do it, Spring is bringing a lot more green tech talent out of the ground to grow.