Active Impact Investments announced it closed an oversubscribed second fund of $54 million. The close includes a diverse group of institutional investors including Fondaction pension fund, Vancity, the University of Victoria’s working capital fund, Hamilton Community Foundation and several clients of Genus Capital Management.

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Why it matters: The new fund, and its size, make Active Impact one of the fastest-growing environmental impact venture capital companies in Canada. The firm went from zero to over $64 million in assets under management in less than four years. With the new fund, the firm said it plans to add at least 14 companies to its portfolio. 

Details: The firm has already made its first Fund II investment in Encycle, a software technology company focused on helping commercial and industrial customers dramatically improve the efficiency of their HVAC systems using artificial intelligence-based services.

Mike Winterfield and Tom Boddez are the firm's partners, both of whom left lucrative executive careers a few years ago so they could focus on solving the world's most pressing environmental challenges.

“Funding these early-stage innovations is not only critical to mitigating climate change, but we firmly believe that it’s also the largest growth investment opportunity of the next decade,” said Winterfield, managing partner of Active Impact. “Over the past couple of years, billions of dollars have flooded into the climate tech sector, but very little of that money is going into the seed stage which means there are incredible innovations that aren’t receiving funding.

“This is where we come in. Thanks to our investors, we have the opportunity to address this gap in the market by providing funding and operational expertise to the next wave of innovators across North America to accelerate climate solutions. With our second fund, we now have the scale and resources to really make a difference – and we’re just getting started.”

The firm’s portfolio already includes companies like Audette, ChopValue, Clir Renewables, Keela and Social Nature.

“Vancity knows that making money and having a positive impact on people and planet are not mutually exclusive,” said Heather Conradi, Director of Impact Investing at Vancity, one of the fund's limited partners. “Capital for clean technologies that are focused on reducing emissions is critical to commercializing the innovation needed to make a net zero future a reality, and we look forward to seeing Active’s climate tech fund grow.”

“We selected Active Impact as one of our earliest venture investments because their focus on addressing the climate crisis aligns well with our strategic goal to promote sustainable futures. As part of UVic’s assessment process, UVic MBA students were given the opportunity to assess how this fund and other impact investment opportunities fit with our values and priorities while still meeting our financial goals,” said Andrew Coward, Treasurer at the University of Victoria.

TMI: Active Impact is a Certified B Corp and provides funds and talent to accelerate the growth of early-stage climate tech companies with $200K to $3 million in revenue and significant growth potential.

Active Impact is planning to invest in start-ups that have developed technology that meaningfully reduces greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and improves society’s sustainability in the areas of: circular and shared economy, clean energy and transportation, smart infrastructure, and sustainable food and water.

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