# Leah Lawrence

> Leah Lawrence is a grant investor at Sustainable Development Technology Canada backing CleanTech. See 60 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: Angel Investor
- Fund: [Sustainable Development Technology Canada](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/sustainable-development-technologycanada)
- Location: Ottawa, Canada
- Total investments: 60
- Last investment: Apr 2023
- Lead investor: 93%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leah-lawrence-17016922
- Website: https://www.sdtc.ca/en/about/our-team/

Leah Lawrence is a lifelong advocate for engineering, entrepreneurship and the environment and the president and CEO of Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC). SDTC invests over $100 million a year in entrepreneurs developing new environmental technologies.Over the years, Leah has served on many corporate and non-profit boards,including serving as president of the Ottawa chapter of the International Women’s Forum, the chair of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, and the president of the Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists of Alberta (APEGA), a professional regulator with over 50,000 members. In 2018, she was honoured to receive the Centennial Leadership Award, APEGA’s highest distinction for a member who has achieved exemplary achievements in their career.Leah has her Bachelor of Applied Science from the University of Regina and her Master of Economics from the University of Calgary. She is also a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering and a Fellow of Engineers Canada.

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| CleanTech | 9 | 15% |
| Recycling | 8 | 13% |
| Manufacturing | 8 | 13% |
| Energy | 7 | 12% |
| Information Technology | 7 | 12% |

84 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Grant | 52 | 87% |
| Seed | 4 | 7% |
| Pre-Seed | 1 | 2% |
| Series D | 1 | 2% |

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Canada | 55 | 92% |
| United States | 2 | 3% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Oneka Technologies | Traditional desalination is an expensive, unsustainable, inefficient, and polluting $20bn/yr market. It is essentially a process to transform fossil fuels into potable water. Our company harnesses wave power to produce fresh water with zero GHG, zero land, responsible brine using modular units for water-scarce regions in the world whilereducing their water costs by up to 75% in identified markets. Oneka has already demonstrated its technology in the ocean.The mission of Oneka is to make the oceans the most sustainable and affordable source of drinking water. | $4.9M | Grant | Apr 12, 2023 |  |
| VueReal | VueReal is engineering the next electronic systems by mass integration of high-efficiency nano/micro-devices into large-area substrates (e.g., displays, sensors, system on panel, and more). They have started by making the true-life experience of micro-LED displays affordable for all applications (TV, laptop, smartphone,virtual/augmented reality, etc.). VueReal technology platform is based on the interplay of cutting-edge micro/nano-device processing, sophisticated integration technologies and advanced system design (hardware and software). VueReal technologies can enhance the experience of existing electronic systems and enable new applications by integrating millions of highly efficient micro-devices (micro-LED) into system substrate. As our Solid Printing (TM) technology works across all substrate sizes, it can develop displays ranging from super high ppi (>4000 ppi) to very large. | $10.5M | Grant | Mar 27, 2023 |  |
| Cyclic Materials | Cyclic Materials provides recycling services that recover rare earth elements aiming to reduce the opening of new mines and accelerate the transition to electric mobility and cleaner energy. It operates landfill-bound products and recovering their critical metals that help businesses in supplying wind turbines, electric vehicles, and electronicssegments by reducing CO2 emissions. | $3.6M | Grant | Feb 17, 2023 |  |
| Carbonova | Carbonova turns CO₂ and methane into carbon nanofibers—advanced materials that improve the properties of plastics, batteries, and construction material with significantly lower cost and net-zero emissions. | $2M | Grant | Feb 17, 2023 |  |
| NxLite | 3E Nano has developed and is commercializing a low cost, thermally and optically smart, Diamond-Like Carbon (DLC) coating. This nano thin film applied to glass and other transparent media is targeted toward windows, windshields, greenhouses, and solar module manufacturers. | $5M | Grant | Feb 17, 2023 |  |
| VISUAL DEFENCE \| CITYROVER | Visual Defence is a leading provider of software solutions for the government, transportation and infrastructure sectors. The company, established in 2000, provides solutions which leverage cameras to generate intelligence using fixed cameras and in-vehicle cameras. The company is a leading artificial intelligence software provider and is wellknown for its technology, CityROVER, which automates the detection of incidents in the municipal and transportation sectors. The company is rapidly growing with extensive services provided world-wide. | $4M | Grant | Feb 17, 2023 |  |
| Future Fields | Future Fields is committed to producing sustainable components for science through insect biotechnology. Its EntoEngine™ platform is the first to harness the genetic prowess of fruit flies to produce Earth’s most environmentally and economically sustainable biomolecules. Founded in 2018, Future Fields is headquartered in Edmonton, Canada andproudly backed by marquee venture capital firms and investors from Silicon Valley and beyond. Learn more about how Future Fields is enabling great science at https://futurefields.io/. | $5M | Grant | Feb 17, 2023 |  |
| Next Hydrogen | Next Hydrogen is a designer and manufacturer of hydrogen electrolyzers that use water and electricity as inputs to generate clean hydrogen for use as an energy source. Next Hydrogen Solutions enables high current density operations and superior dynamic response on an infrastructure scale to efficiently convert intermittent renewable electricityinto green hydrogen. Next Hydrogen's goal is to drive a significant reduction in clean hydrogen generation costs from renewable energy sources, allowing for widespread adoption of hydrogen solutions to decarbonize the global economy. | $5M | Grant | Feb 17, 2023 |  |
| Aurora Hydrogen | Aurora Hydrogen is developing the next generation of hydrogen production technology. | $3.9M | Grant | Feb 17, 2023 |  |
| Seneca experts-conseils | Seneca is a private engineering and consulting engineering company that offers professional services for investment projects and introduced new technologies in transformation processes. | $3M | Grant | Feb 17, 2023 |  |

10 of 60 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Creative Destruction Lab](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/creative-destruction-lab) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [ACET Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/acet-capital) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [BDC Capital Corporation](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/bdc-capital-corporation) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Capital régional et cooperatif Desjardins](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/capital-r%C3%A9gional-et-cooperatif-desjardins) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Emissions Reduction Alberta (ERA)](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/emissions-reduction-alberta-era) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Invest Ontario](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/invest-ontario) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

## About Sustainable Development Technology Canada

VC Fund · Ottawa, Canada

At Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), they fund Canadian cleantech projects and coach the companies that lead them as they move their ground-breaking technologies to market.SDTC’s support of cleantech translates into jobs, growth, and export opportunities for Canadian companies, as well as economic, environmental and healthbenefits for all Canadians. They are independent but don’t work alone. A big part of their role is building and sustaining networks of partners and stakeholders from private industry, academia and governments, at home and abroad. They operate at arm’s length and receive funding from the Government of Canada.

5 contacts available at Sustainable Development Technology Canada.

| Name | Title | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Leah Lawrence | President & CEO | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/leah-lawrence |
| George Angus | SVP & COO | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/george-angus |
| Jim Balsillie | Chair | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/jim-balsillie |
| Maria J. Aubrey | SVP, Operations | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/maria-j-aubrey |
| Terence Bowles | Member of Audit Committee | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/terence-bowles |

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## FAQ

### What does Leah Lawrence invest in?

Leah Lawrence invests primarily in CleanTech, Recycling and Manufacturing startups, most often at Grant and Seed stage. Most of the 60 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in Canada. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### When did Leah Lawrence last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Leah Lawrence closed in Apr 2023. Shizune tracks 60 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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