Export Development Canada
Export Development Canada (EDC) is Canada's federal export credit agency, a Crown corporation founded in 1944. EDC helps Canadian companies sell and invest abroad, and through its cleantech and growth-capital programs it has backed 4 water companies across 5 deals, from ultrafiltration membranes to wastewater nutrient recovery. As of 2025 it facilitated $135 billion in trade activity.
Compiled by Antoine Walter, (don't) Waste Water, from official filings and direct intelligence in Leviathan.
The take
Export Development Canada is not a water fund, and reading it as one is the first mistake. EDC is Canada's federal export credit agency, a Crown corporation that has existed since 1944 to help Canadian businesses sell and invest beyond their borders, with insurance, loans, and equity. In 2025 alone it facilitated $135 billion in trade activity for roughly 24,000 companies. Water is a thin thread inside an enormous mandate.
Where EDC touches water is through its cleantech and growth-capital work, the corner Guillermo Freire runs. EDC launched a Cleantech Co-Investment Program back in 2018 to put equity directly into promising Canadian clean-technology companies alongside private funds, and water treatment sits inside that strategy next to hydrogen, solar, and storage. The logic is always exports: EDC backs Canadian water firms that have the international growth potential to sell their technology to the world.
The water names in EDC's book share one pattern, Canadian hardware with a global addressable market. Ostara recovers phosphorus and nitrogen from wastewater and sells it back as fertilizer; Fibracast builds immersed ultrafiltration membranes for water treatment; Hortau networks in-field soil sensors to schedule irrigation; Brickeye monitors water and risk on construction sites. Four water companies across five deals, EDC leading one of them, spread from agricultural water to industrial reuse.
Export Development Canada, for a newcomer, does water when water is also an export story, not when you arrive with a pure-water thesis. That said, its 2025 appointment of Alison Nankivell, a career fund-investor who once ran EDC's Asia private-equity book and oversaw a roughly $5 billion portfolio at BDC Capital, puts an investor's eye at the very top. If you are a Canadian water company with ambitions abroad, EDC is one of the largest cheques in the country; if you want a water-only backer, look elsewhere.
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 · 4 water companies
Invests alongside
Highlighted = profiled on (don't) Waste Water.
Frequently asked
- What does Export Development Canada do?
- Export Development Canada is Canada's federal export credit agency, a Crown corporation founded in 1944. EDC helps Canadian companies sell and invest abroad using trade-credit insurance, financing, bonds, and direct equity. In 2025 it facilitated roughly $135 billion in trade activity for about 24,000 businesses.
- Does Export Development Canada invest in water companies?
- Export Development Canada backs water companies through its cleantech and growth-capital programs, not a dedicated water fund. EDC has supported 4 water companies across 5 deals, including Ostara in wastewater nutrient recovery, Fibracast in ultrafiltration membranes, Hortau in irrigation sensing, and Brickeye in construction-site water monitoring.
- Who runs Export Development Canada?
- Export Development Canada has been led by President and CEO Alison Nankivell since February 2025; she is a career fund-investor who previously ran EDC's Asia private-equity strategy and oversaw a multi-billion-dollar portfolio at BDC Capital. Guillermo Freire, Senior Vice-President for the Mid-Market group, leads its cleantech and growth-capital investing.
- Is Export Development Canada a venture capital fund?
- Export Development Canada is not a venture capital fund. EDC is a government export credit agency, a federal Crown corporation whose core tools are insurance and lending. It does co-invest equity in cleantech companies alongside private funds, but it backs them to grow exports, not to chase venture returns.
- What kind of water companies does EDC back?
- Export Development Canada favours Canadian water hardware with export potential, backed mostly at the Series A and Series B stage. Its water portfolio spans wastewater nutrient recovery, ultrafiltration membranes, agricultural irrigation sensing, and construction-site water monitoring, reaching these companies through its cleantech co-investment and growth-capital programs.