The federal government’s Sustainable Development Technology Canada, or SDTC, has announced that it will give $52.3 million in grants to a slate of companies whose technology could help the country meet its climate goals, with Atlantic startups receiving a total of $3.7 million.

The four Atlantic companies receiving funding are Kraken Sense, Chinova Bioworks, ReelData and Rayleigh Solar Tech. Kraken Sense is based in Mississauga but is a resident of Cape Breton’s Verschuren Centre, which provides laboratory and industrial fermentation facilities to biotech startups. Chinova operates out of Fredericton, and ReelData and Rayleigh are headquartered in Halifax.

Kraken Sense has developed a culture-based test to identify pathogens in food products and bottled water. Fredericton-based Chinova Bioworks has developed an all-natural food preservative made from white button mushrooms. ReelData sells artificial intelligence and computer vision technology for the on-land aquaculture industry. And Rayleigh makes thin, flexible solar panels that derive their unusual properties from a material called perovskite.

“For an economy to be truly transformational all sectors must be highly innovative,” said SDTC Chief Executive Leah Lawrence in a press release. “We are proud of the diversity of the technologies we fund in solving some of the world’s pressing environmental challenges.”

Rayleigh Solar is receiving $1.2 million, Chinova is receiving $1.5 million, and ReelData and Kraken Sense are receiving $500,000 each.

Last summer, ReelData also raised $2.5 million from Chicago-based S2G Ventures' Ocean and Seafood Fund. S2G was an early investor in artificial meat startup Beyond Food, whose market cap is now US$8.6 billion.