With humanity facing enormous environmental challenges such as rising temperatures and pollution from micro-plastics, cleantech is an increasingly important sector globally.

Atlantic Canada is no different, and the region has been nurturing some fine companies. As we celebrate Earth Day, we want to shine a spotlight on the founders of five up-and-coming Atlantic Canadian cleantech companies, who

Zorbit’s Math, a St. John’s-based provider of educational software, has been acquired by Carnegie Learning of Pittsburgh for an undisclosed price.

Under the deal, which the parties announced Tuesday, Zorbit will become Carnegie’s Canadian office and its St. John’s-based team will continue with development and sales activities. None of the 34 Zorbit employees is being laid off.

Having developed

Seven early-stage New Brunswick startups that use technology for social good have made the province's Venn Garage incubator program. Problems addressed range from reducing the impact of Covid on local businesses to bringing safe and reliable drinking water to communities. 

The startups were chosen after pitching at Venn’s virtual Open Pitch competition. Participating benefits include mentorship,

Cape Privacy, which provides machine learning solutions for encrypted data, has raised US$20 million (C$25 million) to help develop its platform and find more clients in financial services and other markets.

The broadly subscribed funding round was led by Evolution Equity Partners, which is headquartered in New York and Palo Alto.

Cape Privacy, which booked a US$5 million seed round last year,

Planet Hatch and the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation have opened applications for the Breakthru-Newcomer competition for startups founded by recent immigrants and international students.

The competition will comprise two streams – newcomer entrepreneurs and international students. The winner of each stream will receive $25,000 and access to the Planet Hatch newcomer or international student

Millennia Tea has expanded its relationship with Sobeys so its frozen tea product, which is rich in antioxidants, is now available in the supermarket chain’s outlets across the country.

The Saint John company began selling in 10 Sobeys stores in New Brunswick last year, as part of the supermarket chain’s Support Local program. The product proved so popular that it is now available at Sobeys and

TechImpact is expanding its Digital Boost program, which helps New Brunswick companies upgrade their digital capabilities so they can compete more effectively.

The information technology association, which is based in New Brunswick, announced last week that it has received a grant worth $3.7 million for “Digital Boost 2.0” from the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency. Last summer, ACOA put up

Halifax’s CarbonCure Technologies is a co-winner of the US$20 million NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE, a five-year competition to find the world’s best products that use carbon dioxide.

As one of two winners, CarbonCure will receive a prize of US$7.5 million (C$9.4 million). The Halifax company was also one of the 10 finalists in 2018 and thus already received a US$500,000 interim prize. The other

Halifax-based ReelData has closed a $2.5 million funding round provided by S2G Ventures' Ocean and Seafood Fund, which will help it scale its artificial intelligence product for land-based aquaculture.

Land-based aquaculture is an embryonic form of fish-farming, but it’s also fast growing, and ReelData plans to have an essential product for the industry as it becomes mainstream.

In linking up

Amit Virmani, Founder and CEO of Fredericton-based Naveco Power, along with Ryan Mitchell, Vice-President and CDO of Saint John Energy, have made Canada’s Clean50 leaders for 2021.

The Clean50 awards are announced annually by Delta Management Group and the Clean50 organization, They celebrate individuals or small teams across 16 categories who have excelled at advancing the cause of