LiORA Raises $5.1 Million to Expand Soil Remediation in US

LiORA, a soil remediation platform previously known as Environmental Material Sciences (EMS), has successfully secured $5.1 million CAD in seed funding. This investment aims to support the company’s strategy to scale its operations in the United States. The financing round, completed in January 2023, was primarily led by the Conexus Credit Union Venture Fund II and BDC Capital’s Sustainability Venture Fund. Additional contributions came from PIC Investment Group, Golden Opportunities Fund, and WTC Investments.

The funding round signals a significant increase from LiORA’s previous financing of $1.6 million in pre-seed funding. In addition to the equity investment, the firm also secured $1.4 million in venture debt from RBCx. As a result of this funding, Anamika Mukherjee, a partner at BDC SVF, and Alex Shimla, principal at Conexus Venture Capital, will join LiORA’s board. They will be joined by independent director Jeff Dyck, a veteran from Siemens.

In an interview with BetaKit, LiORA’s CEO, Steven Siciliano, emphasized the necessity for innovation in the field of soil remediation following his extensive experience working from Canada’s North to Antarctica. His academic background as a professor of soil toxicology at the University of Saskatchewan has informed his vision for the company, which aims to create effective remediation tools in collaboration with oil and gas companies.

LiORA’s technology includes a sensor capable of analyzing pollutants in contaminated soil and a nutrient mix called BioLodestone that efficiently breaks down hydrocarbons. The company, which spun out of the University of Saskatchewan in 2019, currently assists undisclosed major international oil and gas companies in cleaning up contaminated sites throughout Canada and the United States.

According to a report from the Auditor General, Canada had 24,109 contaminated sites as of March 2023. The report estimated that remediation of the approximately 4,500 sites that have yet to be addressed could exceed $10 billion in costs. Siciliano noted that many companies typically manage only about 10 percent of their contaminated sites at any given time, and LiORA’s goal is to increase that figure to 100 percent through scalable and affordable solutions.

LiORA’s sensor autonomously monitors biological activity and pollution, boasting a battery life of just over two years. By integrating machine learning and artificial intelligence, the platform provides insights that can potentially reduce the cleanup timeline for contaminated sites from twenty years to just five years.

The company has seen over 70 percent revenue growth year-over-year and currently employs approximately 30 people. Siciliano plans to utilize the new funding to enhance LiORA’s development and software engineering teams. Looking ahead, the company is also working on a next-generation sensor designed for salinity spills, expected to launch in the second quarter of 2026.

While LiORA has already established multiple contracts in the United States, Siciliano emphasized that the primary focus of this seed funding is to validate a scalable go-to-market strategy across the US. He remarked, “It’s a major stepping stone for all Canadian startups: to prove that we can sell in that market.”