Startups with UCalgary ties secure clean tech funding

In a shift towards cleaner energy and sustainable construction, innovators are rethinking how we power and build our communities, with some solutions from UCalgary alumni startups gaining traction. 

NorthX Climate Tech (formerly the BC Centre for Innovation and Clean Energy), a Canadian non-profit funding clean energy innovations, has awarded Ayrton Energy and EnviCore Inc. a share of its $2.46M Women in Climate Tech fund. Both companies were previously supported by University of Calgary programs.

“We’re honoured to be one of the recipients,” says Dr. Milana Trifkovic, PhD, a UCalgary Schulich School of Engineering professor and EnviCore’s co-founder and scientific director. “This funding supports detailed engineering and planning for our commercial-scale facility in Savona, B.C., the first of its kind in Western Canada.” 

Working to create low-carbon materials and hydrogen integration 

EnviCore turns industrial mineral waste into low-carbon cement alternatives, helping to cut construction-related carbon dioxide emissions without sacrificing performance. 

“We transform underutilized mineral residues including shales, recycled concrete, and metallurgical slags into high-performance supplementary cementitious materials,” Trifkovic says, adding the process can reduce associated emissions up to 85 per cent.  

Ayrton Energy, meanwhile, enables safer, more efficient hydrogen storage and distribution using liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs). The goal is to overcome the cost and infrastructure barriers limiting  adoption of hydrogen across diverse industries and regions.  

“What we do is we enable hydrogen to be stored as a room-temperature, room-pressure liquid that can use the existing infrastructure we already have for liquid fuels,” says Schulich alum and business co-founder Natasha Kostenuk, BSc (Eng)’02.  

She says their solution allows hydrogen to be transported using the same tanks, trucks, pipelines and rail cars designed for diesel.  

The funding, she adds, will help Ayrton leverage B.C.’s strong electrochemical production industry to boost development. 

“Being able to tap into that network and use the industry partners there is going to help us accelerate our technology towards commercialization,” Kostenuk says. 

UCalgary roots and support made a difference 

Both companies credit the university and its business-incubating networks for playing vital roles in their early growth. 

Beyond a 2019 GreenSTEM fellowship awarded to EnviCore co-founder Shahrukh Shamim, MSc’19, Trifkovic says Innovate Calgary, the university’s central innovation hub, provided the company with early stage support with intellectual-property strategy and business development.  

In addition, an entrepreneurial stream of the Haskayne School of Business program, CDL-Rockies,  provided EnviCore with mentors, several whom became their first angel investors. 

“This end-to-end ecosystem, from lab discovery to commercialization, has been critical to accelerating our growth,” says Trifkovic. 

Kostenuk says a small lab space on campus was a huge milestone for Ayrton Energy, along with help from UCeed, another UCalgary-based program that funds, trains and mentors startup companies. 

“They were hands-on support, which is what we really needed at the time,” says Kostenuk. UCeed’s energy group invested in Ayrton Energy in 2024.  

Another UCalgary connection for the company is co-founder Dr. Brandy Kinkead, PhD, who did postdoctoral research at UCalgary from 2015 to 2022. 

Ayrton has grown from a four-person startup to a 20-person team with a dedicated lab in Calgary. 

For Kostenuk, Ayrton Energy’s success reflects the power of UCalgary’s innovation ecosystem in helping researchers and alumni turn solutions into market-ready products. 

"It’s not about creating something novel and then finding a market for it,” she says. “It’s about solving a problem ... and I think that’s one of the things I really learned at UCalgary and have leaned into in my career.”  

For EnviCore, some early UCalgary supporters still play a role in their mission to deliver sustainable, inclusive solutions toward Canada’s net-zero goals, says Trifkovic. 

“I want to leave a better planet for my daughter and future generations. Reducing carbon intensity and minimizing our environmental footprint isn’t just a professional pursuit, it’s a personal responsibility,” she says.