Stacking the federal clean-tech capital stack.

How the capital stack works for clean tech & sustainability

Clean tech & sustainability, in practice.

Common stacks for this vertical

The combinations a CPA usually assembles for clean tech & sustainability.

A stack combines two or more of the programs above into a single capital-structuring answer — equipment + working capital, non-dilutive R&D, grant + debt. Each card names the programs AND the role each one plays.

• 3 layers

  SR&ED + IRAP

  SR&ED and IRAP are the two workhorses of Canadian R&D funding. They cover overlapping eligible expenditures but work through fundamentally different mechanisms — SR&ED is a refundable tax credit claimed in arrears against the corporate return; IRAP is a contribution program with pre-approval and draw-down funding. Run together on the same project, the two programs fund a meaningful share of a Canadian tech company’s technical labour. The trap is double-claiming the same hours: IRAP cannot pay for time also claimed as SR&ED, and the timesheet discipline matters.

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• 6 layers

  Clean-tech grant stack

  Canada has built one of the deepest federal funding stacks in the world for clean technology, but the programs don’t self-orchestrate — each has its own application, eligibility, and matching-capital rule. The skill is layering them coherently so the project carries the lowest blended cost of capital without disqualifying itself from any individual program by stacking-rule conflict. Done well, a Canadian clean-tech project can pull 40–60% of total project cost as non-repayable contributions plus refundable tax credits, with the balance covered by senior debt or strategic equity.

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• 5 layers

  Exporter stack

  Exporters face two distinct capital gaps simultaneously: the up-front cost of entering a new market (research, travel, trade shows, IP protection, translation) and the working-capital cycle of fulfilling export orders (longer DSO, currency exposure, foreign-buyer credit risk). Different instruments cover each gap; the right structure layers two or three of them together rather than picking one. The CPA designs the financing plan and the FX hedge against the same set of assumptions so the export plan and the capital plan don’t drift apart.

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• 8 layers

  Manufacturer growth stack

  Manufacturers carry hard assets, long working-capital cycles, and a programmatic R&D spend — three traits that open distinct funding pools in the Canadian system. The default growth-stage stack layers equipment finance (the asset side), ABL or senior revolvers (the working-capital cycle), and the non-dilutive R&D layer (SR&ED + IRAP + Clean Tech ITC where applicable). Each piece is independently underwritten but designed against a single business case so the lenders and the grant programs see a coherent overall plan.

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Other industries

Different industry, different stack.

Each vertical has its own structuring conversation. A manufacturer’s balance sheet drives a different mix than a SaaS company’s payroll-heavy R&D — the programs that fit each shouldn’t be the same.

• 6 programs

  Construction & trades

  Construction and trades businesses share a tough working-capital profile: equipment-heavy balance sheets, long holdbacks on completed projects, and lumpy payment cycles tied to the general contractor's release schedule. The right capital stack matches the structure of those cash flows — equipment finance on the asset side, factoring or ABL on the receivables side, and CSBFP underneath both when the business qualifies.

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• 6 programs

  Professional services

  Professional-services firms — accounting, law, engineering, consulting, design, healthcare practices, agencies — share a hard underwriting profile from a conventional lender's perspective: low hard-asset coverage, payroll-heavy fixed cost, lumpy project economics. The right capital stack works around that profile rather than against it: leasehold financing where the asset is the office build-out, equipment finance for tech and infrastructure, and structures that underwrite on cash flow rather than collateral.

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• 12 programs

  Manufacturing

  Manufacturers carry hard assets, long working-capital cycles, and a programmatic R&D spend — three traits that open distinct funding pools in the Canadian system. The hard assets unlock equipment finance and asset-based revolvers; the working-capital cycle drives the ABL or factoring conversation; the R&D spend pulls SR&ED, IRAP, SIF, and Clean Tech ITC into the stack.

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