# Thistledown Foundation

> Thistledown Foundation is a VC fund in Ottawa backing Energy and Environmental Engineering. See 6 investments, check sizes, portfolio. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Ottawa, Canada
- Total investments: 6
- Last investment: Feb 2022
- Lead investor: 17%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thistledownfoundation/
- Website: https://thistledown.ca/

Thistledown Foundation is a private charitable foundation.

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Series A | $30M–$40M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Energy | 3 | 50% |
| Environmental Engineering | 2 | 33% |
| Laser | 1 | 17% |
| Water | 1 | 17% |
| AgTech | 1 | 17% |

15 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Series A | 2 | 33% |
| Seed | 1 | 17% |
| Funding Round | 1 | 17% |
| Venture - Series Unknown | 1 | 17% |

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Canada | 2 | 33% |
| Germany | 1 | 17% |
| Australia | 1 | 17% |
| United States | 1 | 17% |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Marvel Fusion | Marvel Fusion is a developer of fusion energy technology used to offer environment-friendly and safe energy. Its reactor is based on the short pulse, high energy, and electrically efficient laser that is suited for commercializing baseload fusion electrical power helping consumers to access clean, safe, and reliable energy sources.The company wasfounded in 2019 and is headquartered in Munich, Bayern. | $40M | Series A | Feb 03, 2022 |  |
| Avnos | Avnos is commercializing technology to capture CO2 without consuming water, producing water for every ton. The company uses water to capture CO2, eliminating heat consumption and reducing costs. |  | Seed | Jan 01, 2022 |  |
| Loam Bio | Loam Bio is a developer of microbial carbon sequestration technology for soil carbon restoration. Crops can be inoculated with symbiotic microorganisms that live in a mutualistic relationship with crops and build organic carbon in the soil, allowing farmers to improve the host plant's fertility and disease resistance while also assisting thesoil around the plant's roots to store carbon more effectively, resulting in proper quality soil for future planting. Loam Bio was established in 2019 by Guy Hudson. | $30.1M | Series A | Oct 28, 2021 |  |
| Loam Bio | Loam Bio is a developer of microbial carbon sequestration technology for soil carbon restoration. Crops can be inoculated with symbiotic microorganisms that live in a mutualistic relationship with crops and build organic carbon in the soil, allowing farmers to improve the host plant's fertility and disease resistance while also assisting thesoil around the plant's roots to store carbon more effectively, resulting in proper quality soil for future planting. Loam Bio was established in 2019 by Guy Hudson. | $30.1M | Series A | Oct 28, 2021 |  |
| General Fusion | General Fusion pursues a commercially oriented path toward fusion energy by developing a magnetized target fusion (MTF) technology. The company applies advances in plasma physics, modern electronics, materials, and compression mechanisms to generate fusion-relevant conditions. It operates a demonstration system, Lawson Machine 26 (LM26), thatinjects magnetized plasma into a liquid metal liner and compresses it using coordinated mechanical pistons to reach high temperatures and pressures. The technology serves as a practical stepping stone toward building a fusion demonstration facility and ultimately delivering fusion-derived electricity to the grid. The approach focuses on closing the gap between demonstration milestones and a deployable power-plant system. |  | Venture - Series Unknown | Jan 14, 2021 |  |
| CarbonCure Technologies | CarbonCure Technologies creates, develops, and licenses solutions that consume waste CO2 to make better concrete. It spurs the market shift towards affordable green concrete, by enabling concrete manufacturers to convert waste CO2 into solid minerals, locked away as a solid within concrete during manufacturing. It is a green building technologycompany currently serving concrete product manufacturers in the US and Canada. It offers concrete producers the ability to manufacture green concrete products without compromising on either quality or price.CarbonCure is a retrofit innovation that repurposes CO2 gas from large final emitters as a feedstock in concrete plants. The gas is permanently converted into embedded solid mineral carbonates that yield material, environmental, and production advantages. By enabling concrete manufacturers to consume CO2 into concrete products during manufacturing, the technology differentiates an otherwise traditional commodity concrete product, while achieving superior material performance characteristics. In addition to technology, CarbonCure provides demand-pull marketing and environmental reporting/certification services to reinforce its customers’ exclusive competitive positioning. The technology is licensed at a very low-CAPEX to concrete producers, generating a recurring revenue stream.CarbonCure Technologies was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Halifax, Nova Scotia. |  |  | Sep 17, 2020 |  |

6 of 6 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Thistledown Foundation](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/thistledown-capital) — VC Fund, 6 deals together
- [Clean Energy Finance Corporation](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/clean-energy-finance-corp) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [Horizons Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/horizons-ventures) — VC Fund, 4 deals together
- [Acre Venture Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/acre-venture-partners) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Grok Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/grok-ventures) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Lowercarbon Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/lowercarbon-capital) — VC Fund, 2 deals together

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## FAQ

### What does Thistledown Foundation invest in?

Thistledown Foundation invests primarily in Energy, Environmental Engineering and Laser startups, most often at Series A and Seed stage. Most of the 6 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in Canada. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### What is Thistledown Foundation's check size?

Thistledown Foundation typically joins rounds of $30M–$40M at Series A. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Thistledown Foundation participates in.

### When did Thistledown Foundation last invest?

The most recent investment recorded for Thistledown Foundation closed in Feb 2022. Shizune tracks 6 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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