New faces lead Canada's 2026 Foresight 50. Green Manganese, CURA, and CarbonRun are among the newcomers to the 2026 Foresight 50, adding national investment recognition to three ventures named among CleanEnergy.ca's 10 Canadian Clean Energy Startups to Watch in 2026. The annual program spotlights Canada's most investible cleantech ventures, connecting companies developing climate solutions with investors and industry partners. This year's final cohort includes 49 companies following one venture's withdrawal. Of those companies, 32 are first-time honourees, representing nearly two-thirds of the list. Several have spent the past year advancing technologies that connect emissions reduction with industrial priorities: recovering valuable metals, producing cleaner cement, protecting electricity infrastructure, and removing carbon. Vancouver's Green Manganese is developing a water-based process to recover manganese and other critical minerals from low-grade ores, tailings, and industrial waste. Its inclusion follows a year of commercial and technical milestones including a letter of intent with Scandinavian Steel covering potential supply of up to 50,000 tonnes annually of metallized manganese pellets and reports of initial test results showing more than 90% recovery of manganese, nickel, cobalt, and copper from polymetallic nodules through a single integrated process. Calgary's CURA is pursuing a similar industrial opportunity in cement. CURA's approach aims to replace the carbon-intensive limestone-decomposition part of cement production with a proprietary electrified process that uses renewable power instead of high-temperature combustion. CURA's technology produces cement with up to 85% less CO2 emissions. CURA recently raised $14M to support the buildout of a 100-tonnes-per-year pilot plant in Alberta alongside strategic partner Grand Forks Concrete. CarbonRun brings a different approach to the newcomer group. The Dartmouth, Nova Scotia company is developing river alkalinity enhancement to remove carbon dioxide while helping restore acidified waterways. Its process increases alkalinity so rivers can transport captured carbon to the ocean for long-term storage. Its appearance alongside CURA and Green Manganese highlights the range of technologies advancing through Canada's cleantech sector - from changes to industrial chemistry to approaches that work with natural systems. Other first-time honourees have also been featured in CleanEnergy.ca's coverage over the past year. Kelowna's CRWN.ai is developing technology to detect electrical faults on power lines before they ignite wildfires. In April, NorthX announced funding to support deployment of up to 500 monitoring devices across British Columbia transmission corridors, helping move its technology toward larger-scale field operations. Carbonyx was among five university spinouts receiving $100,000 each from NorthX last November, while Kitchener's H2nanO was recognized as a finalist in Wheaton Precious Metals' Future of Mining Challenge, which focused on sustainable water management. The newcomers join returning honourees including Arca, Ayrton Energy, Dispersa, Mangrove Lithium, and Maia Farms. Together, the cohort reflects a cleantech investment opportunity extending well beyond renewable power generation. For this year's new entrants, the next test is translating recognition into the financing, customer relationships, and deployments needed to bring their technologies to scale.

Clean tech firm's emissions plan includes cement production pilot near Taber. By Patrick Wachter Southern Alberta Newspapers on September 19, 2026. A clean tech company out of Calgary has raised millions toward an initiative that aims to reduce cement-making emissions.-SUPPLIED PHOTO Calgary-based clean tech company CURA Climate Inc. has raised US$10 million to advance technology aimed at reducing emissions from cement production, including a pilot project planned for the Taber area. Financing was led by Zacua Ventures, with participation from Sandpiper Ventures, Amplify Capital and Vantage Futures. CURA said Thursday funding will support the construction and commissioning of a 100-tonnes-per-year pilot plant being developed with Grand Forks Concrete. The company has completed engineering for the pilot and expects to have it on site in the Taber area in January. CURA co-founder and CEO Erin Bobicki said the company began discussions with Grand Forks Concrete in October after meeting the company at an emissions reduction event in Calgary. Grand Forks Concrete was looking for lower-carbon cement for its projects and identified an agricultural waste feedstock that CURA could potentially use instead of raw limestone. "We got to talking and they identified this unique agricultural waste feedstock that they have there that we could potentially use instead of raw limestone," Bobicki said in an interview. CURA has since been working with the company to develop the pilot project. Bobicki said Grand Forks Concrete was selected as a partner because of its interest in moving toward commercial production. "They came forward as a partner who really wanted to execute because they want to get to a commercial plant sooner rather than later," she said. The pilot is expected to provide engineering data needed for CURA's planned commercial demonstration facility. The company is also planning a 30,000-tonnes-per-year commercial demonstration facility in the Taber area with Grand Forks Concrete. About half of the new financing will go toward engineering for that facility, Bobicki said. Cement is a major source of industrial carbon emissions. More than 4.5 billion tonnes of cement are produced globally each year, and the sector accounts for about eight per cent of global carbon dioxide emissions, according to CURA. A significant portion of those emissions comes from the chemical process used to produce cement, which involves breaking down limestone at high temperatures. CURA is developing an electrochemical process to electricity instead of high-temperature combustion for that step. The company says its technology could reduce cement emissions by up to 85 per cent. The process produces a low-carbon calcium product for cement manufacturing and a concentrated stream of carbon dioxide that can be transported for storage or use. CURA says its technology is designed to work with a range of calcium-rich materials, including lower-purity limestone and industrial waste streams. The Taber project will also involve local participation from the Torrey family, which owns Grand Forks Concrete. David, Tyler, Eric and Kevin Torrey are involved in the project and will oversee site preparation. Grand Forks Concrete is expected to operate the pilot once it is built. Engineering for the commercial facility is being led by BBA, an engineering and consulting firm. Bobicki says the project also involves many professionals based in Calgary. She says CURA is pleased to be developing and building its technology in Alberta. "As a tech company developing here, you do not always get to develop and build in your backyard, as it were," she said. The company has also signed memorandums of understanding with companies including ACCIONA, Aecon and Titan Cement as it works toward commercial deployment. CURA says the latest financing will allow it to continue development of its pilot and commercial demonstration projects while expanding its technical and business teams.