In the race to net zero, Calgary is the place to build our new energy future.
Avatar Innovations is a corporate venture studio that’s helping professionals inside the oil and gas sector invent, build and market decarbonization technologies that will help bridge the gap in the energy innovation ecosystem.
In 2022, the Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund (OCIF) announced it would provide up to $500,000 to support Avatar Innovations in the creation, development and growth of local companies that will drive the energy transition.
“We're optimistic we've unearthed a new model of global industrial decarbonization born right here in Calgary that we are now exporting to the world,” says Kevin Krausert, co-founder and CEO of Avatar Innovations.
Pitching and prototyping decarbonization technology
Avatar Innovations runs a three-part program where energy sector professionals form teams to develop a technology concept and pitch it to Avatar’s corporate sponsors. The most promising of those early-stage concepts are selected to develop investor-ready business opportunities, and a further sub-set ultimately pitch to receive venture capital funding.
“Through our partnerships with the University of Calgary, SAIT, and the University of Alberta, we give them a little bit of pre-seed capital, and they go and see if they can prototype,” Krausert says.
Avatar’s venture capital fund, anchored by a $750,000 lead investment from Cenovus Energy Inc., offers one-of-a-kind access to early-stage risk capital to support the scaling of decarbonizing technologies.
Avatar’s model helps de-risk and scale what’s an inherently risky process of energy innovation, Krausert says.
Many clean tech innovations must be built with steel in the ground, and a physical component, unlike software, which could theoretically be built over a weekend. Krausert observes that many decarbonization technology concepts will face challenges.
“But because these technologies have been built inside the industry capable of scaling them, they've been reaching market at record pace,” he says.
Avatar has received applications from more than 4,000 industry participants who want to go through the program, and they have a portfolio of 56 technologies that have been sponsored by the energy sector at some stage of development. Seven of them have become startup companies: MissionNet, CO2Brew, Ethox Energy, Duat Energy, ViVent and Waste2H2.
Carbon capture technology for breweries
One of Avatar’s success stories is the capture and reuse of carbon dioxide (CO2) at beer breweries.
Chemical engineer Kent Swanlund entered the Avatar program in 2022 with no idea what technology he and his team would create.
Now, he’s the CEO and co-founder of CO2Brew, which makes engineered CO2 recovery systems for small, craft-sized breweries to reduce their emissions. Breweries produce CO2 during the fermentation process but must also purchase and use CO2 to carbonate their beers.
The system will cut down on CO2 purchasing costs for breweries, while cutting down emissions, Swanlund says. The company will soon install a demo system at Cold Garden, a microbrewery in Calgary.
“Avatar taught us how to pitch our product properly. You practice over and over and over,” Swanlund says. “They essentially teach you every aspect of a business, what you need to understand and how to make the business successful.”
Kevin Krausert, Avatar CEO & Co-founder, presenting the Avatar program
Going forward, part of the focus should be on keeping these startup companies in Calgary, Swanlund says.
“Programs like these are necessary in order to generate the jobs and generate the types of industries we need here—100% we need more programs like this.”
Enthusiasm from Calgary’s young changemakers
Ninety-four per cent of Avatar participants say they’ve increased their passion to drive innovation in the energy industry, Krausert says.
“Calgary used to [have] a stereotype that the energy transition and the oil and gas industry were at odds,” he says. “I think we've just proven that we can have a thriving economic engine of oil and gas that supports and adopts new clean technologies that we can export to the world.”
To date, Avatar’s program has partnered with over 30 traditional oil and gas firms with a total market capitalization of over $1 trillion.
The global energy transition could create 170,000 cleantech sector jobs in Alberta and contribute $61 billion to GDP by 2050, according to the 2021 Alberta Energy Transition study.
The study also found that Alberta will need to invest more than $2.1 billion a year in cleantech by 2030, increasing to $5.5 billion by 2040.
“As we evolve, I think that Calgary is getting itself connected with like-minded energy innovation hubs and really building out an energy innovation ecosystem across North America — of which Calgary will be a key leader,” says Krausert.
Visit the Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund page for more information on the City’s investments to drive innovation and spur transformative economic development in Calgary.
