This chapter presents national-level indicators on green entrepreneurship in OECD countries, including the number and density of green start-ups, fundraising volumes, regional dispersion of green start-up activity, and the share of women founders in green start-ups.
Driving the Growth of Green Start‑ups in Canada
Abstract
This chapter presents national-level indicators on green entrepreneurship across OECD countries, examining the number, density and share of green start-ups in different countries, the fundraising outcomes of green start-ups, the share of early-stage entrepreneurs taking steps to minimise their environmental impacts, as well as the regional dispersion of green entrepreneurial activity and the share of women founders in green start-ups internationally. Data are also presented on wider societal attitudes towards environmental sustainability, which impacts green entrepreneurship by affecting demand for green goods and services.
Crunchbase indicators
Many of the indicators in this chapter leverage data from Crunchbase – a dataset with firm-level information on the founding date, location, sector of operation, funding details, workforce and founder characteristics of more than 1 million companies. These are typically companies that are seeking or have already received venture capital funding.1 These data form part of the OECD Start-ups Database (OECD, 2026[1]). Companies in the dataset are grouped into 744 possible sectors. For the indicators presented in the chapter, green companies are defined as those that operate in at least one of the following areas:
Battery
Biofuel
Biomass energy
Clean energy
CleanTech
Electric vehicle
Energy efficiency
Energy storage
Environmental engineering
Green building
Green consumer goods
GreenTech
Organic food
Pollution control
Recycling
Renewable energy
Sharing economy
Solar
Sustainability
Waste management
Water purification
Wind energy
The list of sectors has been constructed such that it includes only those sectors where reducing environmental impacts is a core consideration and feature of the goods or services being developed. A limitation of classifying companies with this approach is that each sector includes a wide range of activities, products and services, some of which are green and others of which may not be. To address this, a fairly conservative approach has been adopted in selecting the sectors included in the list of green sectors.2
Although the overall sample in the Crunchbase dataset is very large, deconstructing the data by sector and country leads to sample size constraints becoming a factor. In order to mitigate this, green start-up data for each country have been pooled over a 10-year period.3 The indicators have only been developed for OECD countries that have had more than 100 green start-ups registered in the Crunchbase dataset over the past 10-years. This boosts the reliability of the inferences drawn from the data but limits the analysis to 20 out of the 38 OECD countries.4
Global Entrepreneurship Monitor indicators
This chapter also presents indicators based on the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM). GEM is an international initiative that measures entrepreneurship activities and attitudes around the world through annual surveys of the adult population (ages 18 and older) in participating countries. Unlike business enterprise surveys, GEM surveys people so it can identify those involved in different phases of entrepreneurship, providing individual-level data on entrepreneurial motivations and aspirations among other characteristics. The GEM survey covered 56 economies in 2024, the most recent year for which data are available. GEM’s 2024 survey asked early-stage entrepreneurs whether they consider the environment when making decisions on the future of their business. Responses to this survey question are used as a proxy for determining whether an entrepreneur is operating an “environmentally conscious start-up”.
Green start-ups
With 907 green start-ups in the Crunchbase dataset founded between July 2014 and July 2024, Canada has the fourth highest number of green start-ups in the OECD, behind the United States (6 037 green start-ups), the United Kingdom (1 632 green start-ups) and Germany (921 green start-ups) (see Panel A of Figure 2.1). After adjusting for the size of the population, the density of green start-ups in Canada, as measured by the number of green start-ups per million people, is also higher than the OECD average, at 23 green start-ups per million capita (see Panel B of Figure 2.1). This represents the highest density of green start-ups outside of Europe. Switzerland and the Netherlands have the highest density of green start-ups in the OECD. In Switzerland, there are 36 green start-ups per million people, which is more than double the average figure across the 21 countries (17 green start-ups per million people). The country with the largest share of green start-ups is Norway, where 9% of start-ups in the Crunchbase dataset founded in the 10-years to July 2024 were green start-ups. Canada’s green start-up share of 5% is broadly in line with the OECD average.5 Meanwhile, the US has a considerably lower share of green start-ups (3%), pointing to a start-up ecosystem that is relatively less oriented towards green sectors.
Note: Figures refer to the total number of green start-ups in the Crunchbase dataset that were founded in the 10-years to July 2024
Source: Crunchbase, 2024
Environmentally-conscious start-ups
Panel A of Figure 2.2 shows that the environment is a mainstream consideration across the OECD. In Canada, nearly two-thirds (64%) of early-stage entrepreneurs (defined by GEM as individuals who have actively devoted resources to starting a business but have not yet paid wages for a period of three months, or new business owners who have started a business and have been paying wages for 3 to 42 months) working-age adults who are either early-stage entrepreneurs in 2024 reported taking steps to minimise the environmental impact of their business (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, 2025[2]). This is the second highest share among OECD countries covered by the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor’s Adult Population Survey in 2024. Meanwhile, more than three-quarters (76%) of Canadian early-stage entrepreneurs always consider environmental implications when making decisions about the future of their business, slightly above the OECD average figure of 73% (see Panel B of Figure 2.2)
Source: Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, 2024
Another relevant consideration is overall levels of environmental interest or concern among different populations. This affects not only the demand for green entrepreneurs’ products and services but also the pipeline of new green enterprises, since the motivation for founding a large proportion of cleantech companies comes from the entrepreneurs’ desire to protect the environment (Bjornali and Ellingsen, 2014[3]; Parrish, 2010[4]). OECD survey data from 2022 show that the majority of people in OECD countries consider climate change to be an important problem and agree that their country should take measures to fight it (see Figure 2.3). In Canada, 84% of respondents agreed that climate change is an important problem, slightly below the average across OECD countries of 85%.
Source: (Dechezleprêtre et al., 2022[5])
Regional dispersion
The geographical distribution of green entrepreneurship activity within a country provides insights on top-performing regions and regional laggards, helping to inform policy decisions on where to direct public support and whether targeted regional interventions are appropriate. To measure the geographical concentration of green start-ups in a country, the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) has been computed using the share of green start-ups located in each city (city-shares). The HHI is the sum of the squared city-shares. The regional dispersion of green start-ups increases as the HHI moves from 0 towards 1, with a value of 1 indicating that all green start-ups are located in a single city.
The regional dispersion of green start-ups varies significantly across countries. Scandinavian countries, as well as the United Kingdom and Japan, have an extremely high concentration of green start-ups in their capital cities. In Denmark, for example, 51% of green start-ups are situated in Copenhagen, while Finland’s capital city Helsinki accounts for 49% of the country’s green start-ups. The distribution of green start-ups in Canada is comparatively balanced. The three cities of Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary together account for 48% of Canada’s green start-up population, though none of these cities individually accounts for more than a fifth of the country’s green start-ups.
The US stands out as having a very widely dispersed population of green start-ups. Indeed, the five US cities with the highest number of green start-ups (New York, San Francisco, Houston, Los Angeles and Austin) are very widely dispersed geographically. Moreover, New York, the US city with the largest population of green start-ups, accounts for just 6% of the country’s total.
Note: Data includes green companies that were formed between July 2014 and July 2024. Regional concentration figures correspond to the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) for each country, based on the share of a countries’ green start-ups located within each of the countries’ cities.
Source: Crunchbase, 2024
Women entrepreneurship
Figure 2.5 shows that women are significantly under-represented both in business creation and in occupying senior positions within new green businesses. In all 21 OECD countries analysed, there are fewer women than men with founding or senior positions within green start-ups. However, Figure 2.5 also shows that there are clear differences between countries in the green entrepreneurship gender gap. Canada has the fourth highest share (17%) of women founders and senior staff in green start-ups, behind Israel (19%), the United States (18%) and Mexico (17%).
Source: Crunchbase, 2024
Financing
Panel A of Figure 2.6. shows that the share of green start-ups with funding deals recorded varies widely between countries, from as much as 43% in Norway to as little as 13% in Mexico.6 In Canada, 38% of green start-ups in the Crunchbase dataset have received funding, which ranks among the highest shares in the OECD. In Canada, green start-ups account for 21% of the total start-up funding amount registered in Crunchbase (see Panel B of Figure 2.6). This is significantly higher than green start-ups’ share of the total start-up population in Canada, showing that many green start-ups are having success in obtaining funding in Canada. However, this result is also a likely reflection of the higher capital requirements of green start-ups compared to other types of start-ups. Indeed, green start-ups’ share of total start-up funding is higher than their share of the total start-up population in all 21 of the OECD countries analysed.
The median amount of funding received by green start-ups ranges from as much as USD 3.6 million in Denmark to as little as USD 500 000 in Türkiye. Canada lies towards the middle of the distribution, with a median total funding amount for green start-ups of USD 1.6 million.7 It takes nearly twice as long for green start-ups in France to receive their first funding round (914 days) than it does for green start-ups in Switzerland (469 days). This is illustrated in Panel D of Figure 2.6. Cross-country differences in funding times and values likely reflect differences in the types of funding available to green start-ups in the national start-up ecosystems. For example, in Switzerland, many of the green start-ups first funding appears to be in form of pre-seed grants, which are typically delivered in smaller amounts at an earlier stage of a business’ development.
Source: Crunchbase, 2024
References
[3] Bjornali, E. and A. Ellingsen (2014), Factors Affecting the Development of Clean-tech Start-ups: A Literature Review, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2014.10.407.
[5] Dechezleprêtre, A. et al. (2022), “Fighting Climate Change: International Attitudes Toward Climate Policies”, SSRN Electronic Journal, https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4165337.
[2] Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (2025), GEM 2024/2025 Global Report Entrepreneurship Reality Check.
[1] OECD (2026), The OECD Start‑ups Database.
[4] Parrish, B. (2010), “Sustainability-driven entrepreneurship: Principles of organization design”, Journal of Business Venturing, Vol. 25/5, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2009.05.005.
← 1. It is important to note that the Crunchbase dataset is not a census of global start-ups and the sample may overrepresent or underrepresent certain geographies or sectors. The company data are collected through a network of venture capital firms, which submit monthly portfolio updates. Crunchbase also has a community of executives, entrepreneurs and investors, who update or revise company information.
← 2. This approach means that some start-ups that produce green goods or services will be omitted from the sample if they are assigned to sectors where reducing environmental impacts is not a core consideration.
← 3. Crunchbase data are more reliable for more recent years and for the subset of firms with funding rounds. However, to obtain large enough samples of green start-ups, data are pooled over a 10-year period and also include non-funded firms. Hence caution is needed in interpreting the results.
← 4. The countries included are: Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, The Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Türkiye, United Kingdom, United States
← 5. The share of start-ups founded in Canada that are classed as green start-ups has been on a small upward trajectory, with the green start-up share increasing from an average of 4.1% between 2014 and 2016 to an average of 5.6% between 2021 and 2024.
← 6. Funding deals recorded in the Crunchbase dataset are primarily equity-based investments (e.g. venture capital, angel investment) but non-equity financing (e.g. grants and debt) is also included.
← 7. The distribution of funding received is highly skewed and dominated by a small number of very large funding rounds. Across the 20 countries analysed, the mean funding amount received by green start-ups is on average 19 times higher than the median.