Vancouver-based NorthX Climate Tech is helping women-led climate entrepreneurs get funding and mentoring to move from research and development to rapid commercialization of their technologies.

NorthX, backed by a mix of public and private funding, focuses on early‑stage climate hard technologies — areas where capital requirements are high, risk is significant and traditional startup and technology investors are often reluctant to back. These include technologies developed to cut greenhouse gas emissions, energy storage systems, low-carbon biofuels and hydrogen fuel production.

“Our mandate is really to back the builders of climate hard tech and pinpoint the critical moment where the potential is immense, but the capital is scarce,” Ashley Callister, investment lead at NorthX, told TECHNX. “We fill that very prevalent and difficult to overcome gap.”

NorthX is an independent, not‑for‑profit organization founded in 2021, with support from the governments of Canada and British Columbia, and Shell Canada. The company has provided $45 million in funding for 74 projects and helped secure an additional $480 million in investments for the projects.

In 2025, NorthX announced support for five ventures from B.C. universities and post-secondary institutions: Carbonyx, CURA, Green Manganese, Narval Energy and Phyco. Each received $100,000 to strengthen early product development and validate their core technologies.

In early February, NorthX announced it will invest up to $3 million in women-lead climate-tech ventures for this year. Expressions of interest for this Women in Climate Tech initiative are open until March 13, with final funding decisions to be made in early July.

Focus on “hard” climate tech

Callister said NorthX’s support is different from other technology support where the focus now seems very much on AI and software.

“Typically, the most direct climate impact comes from hard technology,” Callister explained. “It also happens to be one of the most expensive pathways to decarbonization and therefore less supported within the funding realm. We are the ones who will take the risk to validate that technology, get it out into the field, prove it, and then attract future investment.”

Those seeking this new funding need to demonstrate their technologies and research have a climate impact, show a real path to commercialization and have secured or be able to secure at least 50 per cent of project funding.

Mentoring and support

Callister said NorthX's goal is to go beyond just providing funding for women-led climate technology entrepreneurs. NorthX now also offers mentorship support to those chosen, with an advisory network of over 20 industry experts available to provide needed mentoring and business support.

Callister added the underrepresentation of women-lead in climate technologies is reinforced by this limited access to mentorship, investor networks and early‑stage capital. “It becomes discouraging or more difficult to get that face time with investors.”

When more women-led climate ventures get that support, the benefits to Canada are enormous. 

In November 2021, a MaRS Women in Cleantech report: The new leaders in climate impact cited a Boston Consulting Group study that found “gender equality among entrepreneurs could increase the global GDP by up to six per cent, adding between US$2.5 trillion to US$5 trillion to the global economy. In Canada, research shows that an increase of women-owned SMEs by only 10 per cent could add $198 billion to our GDP.”

“We’re doing more than just [writing] a cheque,” Callister continued. “It’s really understanding the entire journey and where the pain points are and how we can be that catalyst.”