The primary goal of investing is to build enough wealth and secure your retirement. Most Canadians believe that creating a $1 million portfolio should help them lead a comfortable life in retirement.
While the $1 million retirement target might seem daunting at first, it’s essential to have a long-term investment horizon to benefit from the power of compounding. For instance, if you invest $1,000 every month and earn 8% annually, you will earn $1 million in 26 years. If you double your investment to $2,000 a month, you can retire with $1 million in the bank within 19 years.
The best strategy to build long-term wealth is to focus on diversification and gain exposure to multiple asset classes, including stocks, bonds, gold, and even cryptocurrency.
Moreover, those with a high-risk appetite should consider investing in a portfolio of undervalued growth stocks positioned to deliver outsized returns over time.
One such cheap Canadian stock is Aduro Clean Technologies (CNSX:ACT), which could deliver 1,000% returns in the next decade. Let’s see why.
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Is this Canadian stock a good buy?
Valued at a market cap of $600 million, Aduro Clean Technologies is positioning itself as the next-generation alternative to pyrolysis in chemical recycling, with a water-based platform that CEO Ofer Vicus claims addresses critical problems plaguing competitors such as Honeywell, Dow Chemical, and SABIC.
The Canadian company emerged from stealth mode in April 2021 after operating in complete secrecy since 2011, developing what Vicus calls a chemical technology platform that breaks down molecules without requiring molecular hydrogen.
That distinction matters because established players in the $120 billion advanced chemical recycling market depend on hydrogen, creating capital-intensive operations that can handle only the cleanest feedstock at a massive scale. Typical commercial operations process 100,000 tons annually, while Aduro targets 25,000-ton facilities.
The technology discovered by co-founder Marc Trygstad uses metals already embedded in materials like heavy oil as catalysts under specific conditions. The path-breaking process eliminates the need for hydrogen when combined with additives such as glycerol or ethanol.
Aduro operates at lower temperatures than pyrolysis competitors and tolerates higher levels of contamination, allowing it to process waste plastics that others reject at purity thresholds below 85%.
Vicus emphasized that current chemical recycling approaches control just 1% of the 400 million tons of plastic waste society produces annually, with mechanical recycling capturing another 9%. Aduro sees its addressable market in the remaining 90% destined for landfills, an opportunity enhanced by the ability to deploy smaller-scale modular systems rather than centralized megafacilities.
The clean-tech company is commissioning its 10-kilogram-per-hour pilot plant now, after committing to complete it in September 2025. Management expects to finish designing a one-ton-per-hour demonstration unit by year-end, with construction scheduled to be completed within the next 15 months.
The business model tilts 90% toward licensing, with some build-own-operate projects for simple applications, such as agricultural waste and synthetic turf recycling.
Aduro has attracted attention from Fortune 500 companies, including TotalEnergies, which has progressed from a technology evaluation to a collaboration agreement. Shell announced plans to process 1 million tons of complex plastic waste annually by 2030, representing the type of low-value feedstock Aduro targets.
Is this Canadian stock undervalued?
Aduro is a pre-revenue company but is forecast to end fiscal 2030 with sales of $147 million. With $15 million in cash and a burn rate of $9 million a year, Aduro has enough runway till the end of 2026.
Aduro will need to raise additional capital, which will dilute existing shareholders. However, armed with a debt-free balance sheet and 38% insider ownership, the small-cap Canadian stock should benefit from exponential growth in the upcoming decade.
Management projects a five-to-seven-year return on investment for commercial facilities, significantly faster than industry norms. It also holds 10 patents covering technology dating back to initial discoveries in 2011.
If the Canadian stock is priced at 10 times forward sales, which is not too expensive, it should more than double from current levels within the next four years.
