LiORA, a soil remediation startup spun out of the University of Saskatchewan, has raised $5.1 million CAD in seed funding to expand across the United States.
The round was led by Conexus Venture Capital Fund II and BDC Capital’s Sustainability Venture Fund, with participation from PIC Investment Group, Golden Opportunities Fund, WTC Investments, and internal investors including CEO Steven Siciliano and Chairman Kerry Brown.
From Arctic field research to a scalable environmental platform
Originally founded as Environmental Material Sciences (EMS), the Calgary- and Saskatoon-based startup combines hardware, data analytics, and bioremediation chemistry to accelerate the cleanup of toxic industrial sites — from oil refineries and gas stations to waste transfer facilities.
CEO Steven Siciliano, a professor of soil toxicology, developed the platform after decades of work in contaminated environments across Canada’s North, Antarctica, and beyond. The LiORA stack now includes:
BioLodestone, a nutrient mix that breaks down hydrocarbons in polluted soil the national grid as more intermittent energy sources like wind and solar come online..
- A proprietary soil sensor that autonomously tracks pollution and biological activity for up to 2+ years
- A machine learning platform for real-time remediation insights
- BioLodestone, a nutrient mix that breaks down hydrocarbons in polluted soil
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LiORA claims to cut cleanup time by 75%
Traditional remediation projects often span 15–20 years due to the cost and complexity of legacy methods. Siciliano says LiORA can reduce that timeline to five years using automated monitoring, AI-powered reporting, and scalable field deployment.
“The average company is only remediating 10% of its contaminated sites at once,” said Siciliano. “We want to make it viable to address 100% of them.”
The company has already partnered with major international oil and gas firms across North America, helping them reduce long-term liability and meet ESG goals.
Growth, new product pipeline, and U.S. expansion
LiORA also secured an additional $1.4 million in venture debt from RBCx. Following the round, BDC’s Anamika Mukherjee, Conexus’s Alex Shimla, and former Siemens executive Jeff Dyck have joined the board.
The company now has a team of 30 employees and reports 70%+ YoY revenue growth. Seed funding will be used to:
- Expand the U.S. go-to-market strategy
- Grow the software and developer team
- Launch a new salinity spill sensor (Q2 2026)
While U.S. contracts are already active, Siciliano says the goal is to prove repeatable sales motion in the world’s largest remediation market.
“It’s a major milestone for any Canadian cleantech startup — to show we can scale in the U.S.,” he said.
