Canadian start-ups are invited to take up the global water challenge, a competition to gain access to up to €3 million (CAD $4 million) in venture capital for smart technologies that can automate and optimize processes within water utilities and business-to-business scenarios. The Spanish investment fund, GoHub Ventures, is sponsoring the challenge, and joining forces with the Toronto Region Board of Trade, the Quebec government and the Canadian embassy in Spain to encourage participation in Canada.

“We’re excited to be collaborating with GoHub to develop more sustainable infrastructure innovation through Canadian businesses as part of our commitment to fostering a sustainable climate economy,” says Leigh Smout, president of World Trade Centre-Toronto, the Board of Trade’s trade services arm.

To qualify, start-ups must already be in the process of raising capital for an initiative that uses agnostic technology — such as applied artificial intelligence, industrial IoT, no-code, edge computing, augmented and virtual reality, synthetic data, cybersecurity, 5G, digital twins or quantum computing — and have established business dealings as a provider of software-as-a-service (SaaS) with annual earnings of at least $200,000. They’ll have until October 12, 2022 to register for the challenge.

Selection of five finalists will be made prior to the Smart City Expo World Congress in Barcelona, November 15-17, where the winner is to be announced. Meanwhile, Canada is seen as an obvious place to recruit contestants.

“Canada is one of the most powerful ecosystems in the world in AI solutions and has become one of the most important clusters in water technologies,” reports GoHub’s managing director, Patricia Pastor. “It is, therefore, a very attractive country for entrepreneurs where GoHub must be present.”