Over $50M for climate tech!
After several months, a lot of hard work and incredible support from our community, we’re thrilled to announce (before any official press release) that the close of Fund II is imminent. While the first close of $41M consisted of family offices, corporations, foundations and individual investors -- this second and final close brings us well beyond our target of $50M with a diverse mix of institutional investors. The University of Victoria, Toronto Atmospheric Fund, Hamilton Community Foundation and several clients of Genus Capital Management and Rally Assets will soon be joined by two significant partners (names will be announced at the time of closing).
As you’ve no doubt heard in the news, there’s a lot of money flooding into climate technology right now, with over $17B USD pledged in the last 18 months alone. While this is great news for more mature companies, only a tiny fraction goes toward seed and early stage businesses. This creates a funding paradox where the vast majority of traditional funding goes to investing in ventures that are more mature and have higher valuations ... but how can early stage businesses mature without funding? Thankfully it also creates an opportunity for us to come in and fill the gap by providing the funding and operational expertise in the first three to five years to help start-ups mature to the stage where they qualify for late-stage financing.
We are grateful for the tremendous support for our oversubscribed fund and we will work hard finding exceptional companies led by incredible founders that are ready to grow in one of our four focus areas: clean energy & transportation, sustainable food & water, circular & sharing economy and smart infrastructure. In addition to supporting the new entries to the Active Impact portfolio of companies, our expanded team will continue to support the ventures of Fund I as they mature.
Now that our second fund is a reality, we believe we have the scale and resources to really make a difference. We are immensely grateful to the 15 companies in Fund I and the investors who have helped lay the foundation for this milestone moment in Active Impact’s journey!