Active Impact Investments announced this week that it has closed its third fund at $110 million.
This makes Vancouver-based Active Impact Canada’s largest climate tech seed fund with total assets under management to over $180 million.
At nearly twice the size of Active’s previous fund, the new fund is “doubling down on the Canadian market opportunity, where conditions are aligning to support climate innovation,” according to a statement from the firm.
“Thanks to our amazing investors, we get the privilege to support 25 more insanely talented founders so they can build the future of climate,” stated Mike Winterfield, Founder and Managing Partner of Active.
Fund III has thus far invested in Canadian-based companies Jetson, Skyward, RIPTK, and ThinkLabs AI. It has also invested in US-based C.Scale, Lumo, and Zeno.
This latest fund was co-anchored by Northleaf Capital Partners through its Canadian venture capital strategy and Fondaction alongside support from Boann, Co-operators Corporate Venture Capital Fund, Deloitte Ventures, and InBC.
The VC firm intends to add 18 more companies to Fund III, for a total of 25, with the startups being “primarily in Canada with some allocation in the US.”
The B.C. company perceives the nation as a major opportunity.
“There is a massive difference between the divisive rhetoric from both sides on climate and the reality that exists in the middle,” Winterfield believes. “Sadly this has led some investors to leave the space at exactly the time when the data has us most excited about huge financial outcomes.”
Winterfield sees Canada “quickly emerging as a top destination for building climate tech companies with world-class affordable talent, strong public support, effective policies like IRAP and SR&ED, and globally respected and stable leadership.”
He cites the 2024 Global Cleantech 100 list by the Cleantech Group, which saw 13 of the world’s top private companies based in Canada, second only to the US and “an outsized representation” considering Canada’s much smaller population.
“We’re investing in companies that deliver cost savings for their customers while achieving meaningful emissions reduction or advancing more efficient clean technology with no sacrifice in quality,” says Tom Boddez, General Partner at Active Impact Investments. “Fund III has already made seven investments with very strong early traction.”
Jetson, an innovator based in Vancouver, “is a fully integrated heat pump solution that has grown rapidly and is now expanding into new markets,” for example.
Active was founded in 2018, and has so far invested in nearly 40 companies with seven exits. Fund II closed at $54M in 2021.