MaRS partners with leading Japanese consortium to accelerate Canada's carbon removal industry

The collaboration provides startups with critical funding, validating Canada's carbon removal industry.

TORONTO, April 3, 2025 /CNW/ - Scaling carbon removal solutions is essential to meeting net-zero goals, yet early-stage companies struggle to find buyers for their credits.  

To bridge this gap, MaRS Discovery District (MaRS), Canada's largest urban innovation hub, pre-purchased carbon removal credits from six Canadian ventures, helping these early-stage companies gain market traction and attract future investment. 

Over the past six months, MaRS led a carbon dioxide removal (CDR) credit purchase and educational program with participation from M-Lab, a Japanese consortium, which includes Mitsubishi Corporation (Americas), ENEOS Americas Inc., Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc., Tokio Marine Holdings Inc., and Yazaki Innovations, Inc.

For carbon removal to succeed at scale, we need more corporate buyers, but many companies don't know where to start. Through the educational program, MaRS was able to equip M-Lab members with strategies, knowledge, and tools to begin making their own carbon credit purchases, aligning with Japan's commitment to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.

MaRS is one of the first Canadian charitable organizations to purchase carbon removal credits, building on its initial commitment in April 2024, when it pre-purchased credits from five Canadian ventures through its Mission from MaRS program. By continuing to support early-stage carbon removal companies, MaRS is helping to validate the market and encourage broader corporate participation.

"Investing in carbon removal technology is no longer an option, it is now essential and without early adopters, the industry won't be able to scale fast enough and drive down cost," says Tyler Hamilton, senior director of climate at MaRS. "MaRS is well-equipped to educate and collaborate with corporations to ensure they make informed, impactful investments that will drive real climate action." 

"For the M-Lab companies, this is an early step in their corporate journey to meet net-zero goals through Canadian carbon removal technology," says Reina Ozaki, manager, strategic partnership and business development at Mitsubishi Corporation (Americas)' Silicon Valley Branch. "We've emerged from this partnership with MaRS with the know-how to begin making our own purchases in the future." 

To identify promising early-stage carbon removal ventures, MaRS with the support of M-Lab, launched a national call for applications. The selected companies will provide carbon removal credits over a period of up to three years, allowing them to demonstrate market traction and attract future buyers.

MaRS pre-purchased 120,000 CAD in carbon credits from six Canadian companies. These companies represent a range of cutting-edge carbon removal technologies, including direct air capture (DAC), biomass carbon removal and storage, and ex-situ mineralization. The selected companies are: 

• NULIFE GreenTech, located in Saskatoon, uses a process called hydrothermal liquefaction to efficiently transform wet waste biomass into bio-oil, which is injected into underground geological storage for permanent carbon removal.
• Sherbrooke, Québec-based startup Skyrenu, is combining a direct air capture (DAC) system with a rock carbonation process through treated asbestos mine tailings. 
• Exterra Carbon Solutions, based in Québec, is a carbon storage company that specializes in accelerated carbon mineralization using mineral residues. 
• Ottawa-based TerraFixing has developed an adsorption-based DAC technology. The company's solution is designed to work in cold remote locations where competing DAC systems find it difficult and less efficient to operate.
• Halifax company, CarbonRun, restores polluted rivers while combating climate change through the safe and responsible addition of natural limestone.
• Vancouver-based cleantech venture, Arca, re-processes tailings from nickel mines to make them reactive to carbon dioxide, which radically accelerates a natural geochemical process called carbon mineralization.

The Mission from MaRS: Carbon Management program is focused on supporting the commercialization of early-stage ventures with negative-emission solutions. Through partnerships with organizations and corporations aiming to enable the Canadian carbon dioxide removal industry, MaRS will build awareness, educate customers, and develop the marketplace for carbon removal in Canada. If you are interested in learning more or partnering with us, contact [email protected] 

About MaRS
MaRS Discovery District is a charitable organization and North America's largest urban innovation hub, dedicated to helping Canadian technology companies succeed. With a focus on climate, health sciences and other emerging technologies, MaRS supports startups tackling some of the world's most pressing issues. Founded in 2000, MaRS features more than 1.5 million square feet of cutting-edge office, lab, meeting and event space in downtown Toronto at two locations — the MaRS Centre and MaRS Waterfront. Since 2010, MaRS has helped ventures generate $11.5 billion in cumulative revenue, raise $19 billion in funding, and create and maintain more than 33,000 jobs. The MaRS platform also includes MaRS IAF, one of Canada's top seed-stage venture funds. Through its world-class facilities, strategic programs and partnerships, MaRS accelerates the adoption of groundbreaking Canadian technology and bolsters a globally competitive innovation ecosystem.

About M-Lab
M-Lab is an open innovation platform based in Silicon Valley, leading the next generation of innovation by leveraging members' business capabilities and access to resources across industries and organizations since 2016. Focused on common initiatives to form co-innovations in mobility, healthcare, climate-tech, materials, and other sectors, M-Lab tackles complex issues by aligning commercial interests and societal needs through multi-stakeholder involvement, including local partners and the startup ecosystem.

The M-Lab consortium includes but is not limited to Mitsubishi Corporation (Americas), Tokio Marine Holdings Inc., ENEOS Americas, Yazaki Innovations, Mitsubishi Research Institute, Mitsubishi HC Capital, Mazda USA, Takenaka, and Nitto Innovation.

SOURCE MaRS Discovery District

Media Contacts: MaRS Discovery District, [email protected]; M-Lab, Joseph Reganato, Mitsubishi Corporation (Americas), [email protected]