Sustainable Technology Development Canada (SDTC) announced that it’s investing $52.3 million in sixteen companies working on innovations to combat climate change. Four of the companies are based in British Columbia. They include:

Semios, a Vancouver-based firm using data and machine learning to improve agricultural yields and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, is receiving $17 million to scale up its operations.

READ MORE: Semios, now $100M richer, has gone from greenhouse to powerhouse to unicorn

Vicinity Motor, an Aldergrove-based company, is receiving an undisclosed amount of scale-up funding to expand its operations and grow its customer base.

Metaspectral, a Vancouver-founded startup, is receiving startup funding to bring its AI-based hyperspectral data management product to market.

READ MORE: With $300k from CleanBC, Metaspectral plans to build AI tech to recycle plastics

Intelligent City, another Vancouver firm, is receiving start-up funding to develop its urban housing development platform to build green buildings.

SDTC says these investments in particular will diversify its portfolio of companies and serve its mandate to get more sustainable solutions to market.

“We are relentlessly focused on supporting our companies to grow and scale in an increasingly competitive marketplace,” says SDTC president and CEO Leah Lawrence. “For an economy to be truly transformational, all sectors must be highly innovative. We are proud of the diversity of the technologies we fund in solving some of the world’s pressing environmental challenges.”

As previously reported, the federal government has a keen interest in B.C.’s cleantech chops, as SDTC recently announced funding for eight B.C. firms, including Audette, Ava Technologies and Bioform Solutions. The funds came as part of its Seed Fund Program, which supports promising early-stage Canadian cleantech entrepreneurs by providing grants of $50,000 to $100,000.

READ MORE: 8 B.C. cleantech firms secure seed funding from Sustainable Development Technology Canada

B.C.’s most recent provincial budget earmarked funding focused on climate solutions, clean transportation and clean energy innovation, which included $60 million in funding for a Centre for Innovation and Clean Energy.

Vancouver recently placed 16th out of 35 cities in Startup Genome’s ranking of global cleantech ecosystems. The B.C. cleantech sector is one of the fastest-growing segments of the provincial economy. It’s made up of nearly 300 companies that employ more than 16,300 people and generate annual revenues of around $2.4 billion, up from $1.8 billion in 2016, according to the latest BC Cleantech Report Card from the BC Cleantech CEO Alliance.