Quebec will announce this Tuesday that it is injecting millions of dollars into a brand new consortium that will support young clean technology startups, from ideation to international marketing.
“What we want is to create Shopify and Cirque du Soleil in clean technologies in Quebec,” says Patrick Gagné, CEO of Cycle Momentum. This green technology accelerator joins forces with the 2 Degrees incubator and the IVÉO innovation accelerator to give birth to the Clean Technologies Consortium.
The new grouping wants to quickly increase the pool of businesses and accelerate the marketing of innovations to reduce emissions and improve environmental quality. However, to do this, the Quebec clean technology ecosystem must review its ways of doing things. “We have to start from needs,” says Patrick Gagné.
The Consortium intends to identify promising markets and the commercial potential of technologies to subsequently support managers in the development and marketing of their solutions. He also hopes to facilitate financing efforts by helping to structure, upstream, the share capital of a company to make it more attractive to investors.
But above all, the support must be continuous. “We must avoid gaps during the development of a business. It’s super important to make sure we take it to the growth and expansion phases,” says Alexandre Guindon, general director and co-founder of the 2 Degrees incubator. He emphasizes that start-ups will be able to benefit from the network of the three organizations in the same place.
The millions that the Ministry of Economy, Innovation and Energy will announce – the exact amount will be revealed this Tuesday – will be used in part to strengthen the commercialization of green technologies.
A phase that is all the more critical as the time required to commercialize these solutions is very often longer than for other types of start-up companies. For example, the adoption and change of technologies by mining companies or energy companies requires a longer canvassing.
One thing is certain, commercial success is necessary for the survival of a technology, recalls Mr. Balmana. The Consortium must serve as a facilitator for young companies to open the doors to industries likely to adopt their technologies, whether they are part of institutional or private, or even international, markets.
“One of the things we want to emphasize is helping these start-ups market externally from the start. This is one of the ways that they become bigger, more quickly,” says Patrick Gagné, adding: “And that’s why they don’t sell too early. »
The general director of 2 Degrés, Alexandre Guindon, agrees. Canada is one of the countries with the highest number of patent applications filed: “The potential is there, but we have to succeed in bringing these ideas to market. »
To do this, Quebec must take the example of economies comparable in size and population, such as Sweden, the Netherlands and Israel, indicates Mr. Gagné. “In Israel, just in clean technologies, there are over 1,000 start-ups. In Quebec, there are between 400 and 500,” says Patrick Gagné.
Strength in numbers is crucial, he says, for the cleantech ecosystem to become “economically self-sufficient.” The more companies there are, the greater the chances that there will be quality projects, he reasons. Successes will have the effect of attracting investors. “That’s what brought us together: we want to give this impetus. »
