More and more investors are looking to participate in and accelerate the transition to a low-carbon economy, yet most don’t venture beyond high-profile stocks like Tesla or Beyond Meat. The B2B cleantech world, however, provides a number of intriguing business models.
Offering synergies across many different industries, Pond Technologies is a unique member of this group and an example of Canadian innovation with global potential.
There are more than 10,000 large emitters in North America alone, every one of them a potential partner for Pond. Some projections have the carbon capture and sequestration (CSS) market size growing to more than USD 15 billion by 2023, with a CAGR of 15.7% per year. Pond Technologies is now public (TSX.V: POND) and its revenue-focused carbon capture technology, along with its commercialization of the algae byproduct, position Pond as the only public member of a strong Canadian cohort emerging at the global level. Others include Carbon Engineering, CarbonCure, and Inventys, all of which have received investments from major players like Breakthrough Ventures, Bill Gates, and Chevron.
Pond has pilot sequestration installations underway in Ontario and has been granted patents in the U.S., Europe, China, and the Gulf Region. Pond is also the commercial partner of the Canadian National Research Council’s Algae Carbon Conversion project, designed to reduce CO2 emissions from Canadian oil sands operations.
While Pond is at its core a technology company, it does have a wider, and ambitious, commercial vision. The dual-verticals of carbon capture and algae production are the primary production activities, but aware of the commercialization potential, Pond has moved to position itself as a vertically-integrated player in tomorrow’s green economy.
Clean animal feed, bioplastics, fertilizers, natural ingredients for cosmetics and food dyes, and a range of valuable nutraceuticals are among the many algae-derived natural products that can be produced from Pond’s systems.
Aware of algae’s vast market potential, Pond has joined forces with two strategic players at various levels of the commercial chain.
1. Pond partnered with RFI, a leading North American distributor of Spirulina, Chlorella, and over 100 other natural ingredients, acquiring the distribution rights from RFI Canada. is. This move provides Pond with a vertical integration channel to move high-end algae and related products. RFI Canada now operates under the Pond umbrella as Pond Naturals, and is a key player in the company’s commercial strategy.
2. Pond (through Pond Naturals) has also joined forces with Regenurex Health. As Canada’s only commercial producer of Astaxanthin supplement pills – one of the most valuable algae-derived products and a rising star in the nutritional supplement industry – the amalgamation of Regenurex with Pond Naturals is a significant move in turing Pond into a vertically-integrated manufacturer, distributor, and retailer of bulk and branded nutraceutical products.
One tonne of algae sequesters nearly two tonnes of CO2,the equivalent of burning 4.5 barrels of oil. Algae produced from a large facility could sequester 2,700 tonnes of CO2, the equivalent of taking 600 cars off the road for a year.
These emission reductions from existing industry are a crucial part of tomorrow’s energy portfolio, and the resultant algae byproduct is a valuable and clean raw material that will help businesses transition towards more sustainable operations.
By growing its own algae and owning several key commercialization channels, Pond is poitioning itself to become a cleantech leader, helping to establish algae as a foundational product for tomorrow’s low-carbon economy.
As part of a new generation of companies with truly sustainable models at every stage of the value chain, Pond is helping bridge the gap between doing well and doing good.