Bioindustrial Innovation Canada
Bioindustrial Innovation Canada (BIC) is a Sarnia, Ontario not-for-profit accelerator that invests in clean and sustainable chemistry startups, deploying capital through its Sustainable Chemistry Alliance fund. Water is not its headline theme but reaches it through membrane and water-treatment companies. As of 2026 BIC has backed 2 water companies across 2 deals since 2008.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Bioindustrial Innovation Canada was set up in 2008 in Sarnia, Ontario, the heart of Canada's petrochemical 'Chemical Valley,' with a deliberately contrarian job: help a region built on fossil chemistry pivot toward clean and bio-based chemistry. BIC is a not-for-profit accelerator, not a conventional venture fund, so its money tends to arrive as a first, patient cheque into companies most investors find too early or too technical.
Bioindustrial Innovation Canada does its investing through the Sustainable Chemistry Alliance, a roughly $30 million fund it manages, alongside the lab space, advice and grant matchmaking it offers at the seed stage. The matchmaking is for non-dilutive money, a startup's term for funding it takes without giving up ownership, usually a government grant, and BIC's real edge is stitching that public money together with its own cheque. Its lens is sustainable chemistry, and water is a category that keeps falling out of that lens.
Bioindustrial Innovation Canada's two water names both come down to membranes. Forward Water Technologies is commercialising a low-pressure forward osmosis process that pulls clean water back out of heavily contaminated industrial wastewater, the kind oil and gas, mining and agriculture struggle to treat. Evercloak makes ultra-thin graphene oxide membranes that strip moisture from air to cut air-conditioning energy, the same separation science aimed at a different stream. The through-line is membrane technology that recovers water or pulls it out of where it is not wanted.
As of 2026, Bioindustrial Innovation Canada is led by Executive Director Meaghan Seagrave, who also heads the Sustainable Chemistry Alliance, and it keeps recruiting from the same sustainable-chemistry pipeline that produced its water bets. For anyone tracking water, the honest read is that BIC is a chemistry and bioeconomy accelerator whose water exposure is a by-product of its membrane and clean-process bets, not a dedicated water investor. The companies to watch are the ones where chemistry meets the water cycle.
Water Commitment Score
Compiled from official filings, third-party records, and direct intelligence from investors and founders, in Leviathan · recomputed monthly · as of Jun 2026.
How they invest
Portfolio · 2 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does Bioindustrial Innovation Canada invest in?
- Bioindustrial Innovation Canada invests in clean, green and sustainable chemistry and bio-based startups, usually at the seed stage and often as one of the first institutional backers. It deploys capital through the Sustainable Chemistry Alliance fund. Its water exposure comes through membrane and water-treatment companies such as Forward Water Technologies and Evercloak.
- Who runs Bioindustrial Innovation Canada?
- Bioindustrial Innovation Canada is led by Executive Director Meaghan Seagrave, who joined in 2022 and also serves as CEO of the Sustainable Chemistry Alliance. She succeeded Sandy Marshall, who ran BIC for seven years; founding Executive Director Murray McLaughlin established the organisation in Sarnia and now advises it.
- Is Bioindustrial Innovation Canada a water fund?
- Bioindustrial Innovation Canada is not a water fund. It is a not-for-profit sustainable-chemistry accelerator whose water exposure is a by-product of its membrane and clean-process bets. (don't) Waste Water counts 2 water companies across 2 deals in its portfolio and rates its water commitment Committed.
- Where is Bioindustrial Innovation Canada based?
- Bioindustrial Innovation Canada is based in Sarnia, Ontario, Canada, the petrochemical hub known as Chemical Valley, where it has operated since 2008. From there it works nationally, helping Canadian clean-chemistry and bio-based companies commercialise and connect with capital.
- What stage does Bioindustrial Innovation Canada invest at?
- Bioindustrial Innovation Canada invests mainly at the seed stage, frequently writing one of the first cheques a sustainable-chemistry company raises. It pairs that capital with non-dilutive grant matchmaking, lab access and commercialisation support, and deploys investment through the Sustainable Chemistry Alliance, a roughly $30 million fund it manages.