Ask any Canadian cleantech company: Securing access to capital is still one of the number-one challenges they face as they grow. We spoke with Dani Lipkin, Managing Director, Global Innovation Sector at Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) and TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV), to learn more about how TSX and TSXV help small Canadian cleantech companies gain access to the funds they need to prove their technologies, build out product lines and facilities, grow their businesses, and, ultimately, contribute to the clean economy.

Describe your core offering. How is your organization contributing to a cleaner, greener future?

Toronto Stock Exchange and TSX Venture Exchange operate at the heart of Canadian capital markets. Our purpose is to help small-to-medium enterprises and large companies in Canada, and throughout the world, gain access to capital that can help advance earlier stage projects, expand facilities, and build out renewable power projects. TSX Venture Exchange focuses on SMEs and earlier-stage projects and advancing the world toward a greener economy. As of November 30, 2022, TSX has listed close to 100 cleantech companies. These companies have raised more than $600 million of equity capital in 2022 alone.

Other than coffee, what gets you out of bed in the morning? How does this work connect with your core beliefs and values?

I’m passionate about reducing food waste and carbon emissions, and I believe we should all walk, run, or bike to work as often as we can. Through my role at TSX, I get to work directly with many companies that are working on these challenges. For example, Cubic Farms is improving food efficiency through its proprietary indoor farming technologies and automated solutions to make commercial scale indoor growing profitable. Or, in the case of many of our mining or tech companies that are looking to reduce emissions by advancing the electrification of vehicles, we have a listed company that makes electric school buses. We even have a company that makes electric snowmobiles!

Tell us about a recent win (or wins) or your organization.

For us, a “win” is seeing a cleantech company gain access to capital to grow its business. Eddy Smart Home Solutions, a company that makes residential/commercial smart water metering products, listed with TSXV this year. They were able to raise money and advance their own commercialization of the products, which help significantly reduce water use in buildings. In a tough climate for raising funds, it’s incredible to see Eddy Solutions among an incredible group of cleantech companies collectively raising more than $600M in one year.

A recent initiative that we’re proud to support is Joule, a digital platform designed by our colleagues at Trayport. Joule allows companies to trade voluntary carbon offsets following standards set out by the International Carbon Reduction and Offset Alliance.

What’s next for your organization?

We recognize that we have a central position in the Canadian capital markets and can play a role in empowering our stakeholders, which includes more than 2,300 companies, to become ESG leaders. For us, this means providing issuers with education, programming, resources, etc. to better understand what investors are looking for. We’ve developed a Learning Academy to help prepare companies and support their ESG journey. 

Finally, what’s on your team’s wish list for Ontario’s cleantech sector?

Whether it’s a smaller company at the prototype stage or a multi-billion-dollar company, the number-one priority from every issuer listed with us is more and better access to capital. Companies need more efficient and friendlier access to help them grow, advance projects, and build facilities. Usually, it’s the companies at the earlier stages of growth that face the biggest hardships when it comes to fundraising – but every company at every stage will tell you that there’s never enough capital.

We’re also interested in the concept of fairness for growth. This means treating private and public companies the same when it comes to SR&ED, tax incentives, and other government programs and policies.

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