Investor Darren Clifford sees the strongest market signals coming from global warming.
While the pace of investment has adjusted this year, underlying demand for Canadian clean technology innovation remains strong.
“In ten years, people will break through the AI bubble and start wanting assets that generate cash flow.”
Latest data The Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association showed that in the first three quarters of 2025, investment in clean technology reached its lowest level since the pandemic.
But investor Darren Clifford models his investing approach based on larger trends.
“I think there is no better time to invest in adaptation than today,” he said. “You're early. Valuations are low. In ten years, people will break through the AI bubble and start wanting assets that produce cash flow.”
Adaptation technologies are a category of tools and systems that address the impacts of climate change, including things like flood protection, heat resilience, and infrastructure built for harsher conditions.
If markets reward solutions that solve real problems under real pressures, Clifford believes climate-driven demand is strong enough to disrupt entire industries.
He's not surprised to see investment in clean tech fall this year as AI dominates the field. And he is not aware of any records with a mandate to send them specifically for adaptation.
But Clifford worked at McKinsey for more than a decade, advising founders on sustainability issues and helping expand its green business practices.
His work has taken him to boardrooms in more than 100 countries grappling with growing climate impacts, as well as to early-stage teams seeking to build tools for a world under increasing pressure. The pattern he observed became difficult to ignore.
Clifford left McKinsey and founded Adapt[us] Capital committed to supporting the technologies that people will turn to as the climate crisis intensifies.
This is a global market that is emerging in real time, still underserved by traditional cleantech funds and undervalued by mainstream investors.
But Clifford has long been following news about cleantech innovation and cleantech accelerator Foresight Canada, an organization he sees as an important pillar for companies pursuing adaptation.
Foresight provides investors like Clifford with access to carefully selected opportunities through its Investor Program. Dating programand engages these investors to help shine a spotlight on Canada's top investment businesses through the annual Presentation “Foresight 50”.
This year they also launched a free nine-month acceleration program called Earth Technologies: Adaptationspecifically designed to accelerate the adoption of climate change adaptation technologies across all sectors. The program is delivered in partnership with SI Canada and supports companies developing solutions in critical areas including flood mitigation, wildfire prevention, water management and bioremediation.
Clifford noted Foresight's role in building key relationships in Canada's clean technology sector, offering strategic guidance and connecting founders with early adopters across the country and the world.
Climate risk is driven by geography, not borders. Wildfire's technology, created in British Columbia, should also serve California and Australia. Coastal solutions tested in the Atlantic provinces are relevant in Southeast Asia and Europe.
“There are opportunities in Canada, but that's where Canada faces these real risks that will increase incentives,” he said.
Clifford also spends a lot of time thinking about why onboarding companies face commercial challenges early on. Many founders come with strong technical knowledge and less experience in commercial markets.
They must also try to convince executives to buy technology that may not pay for itself immediately.
“Commercializing loss prevention business cases is really difficult,” he noted.
Cleantech founders also often target groups with the greatest theoretical growth potential rather than buyers with the greatest propensity, which often results in lower sales.
According to him, these problems are solved in part with the help of accelerators such as Foresight, which also offer technology verification servicesand climate-focused technology networks.
“About five percent of all capital in the world is invested in climate. Another five percent of climate capital goes towards adaptation,” he said. “There is a huge gap in the innovation space to find the next disruptive technologies.”
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Foresight is building a more competitive, innovative and sustainable economy. This work includes supporting the development of adaptation technologies across Canada. Find out more.
Image courtesy of Unsplash. Photo by the author Directly Mendes.
