A Vancouver venture capital firm, Renewal Funds, has raised nearly C$145 million to invest in environmental technology and sustainable consumer products.
The company’s new investment fund, Renewal4, “includes 140 investors, spanning many return investors and institutional investors like BDC Capital and The Co-operators,” BetaKit reports. “The fund received over $40 million in commitments from investors based in the U.S. and Europe, and a $20-million allocation from the Canadian federal government’s Venture Capital Catalyst Initiative’s (VCCI) Clean Technology stream.”
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Renewal Funds Managing Partner Paul Richardson said the successful investor recruitment effort, particularly the VCCI funding, reflected the growing maturity of cleantech and ethical investing. Renewal launched its first fund in 2008, “at a time when few people were focused on the opportunity to both make a significant positive impact for the planet and deliver above-market returns,” he said. “In the intervening decade, impact investing has become an asset class, and many investors are aligning their investments with their values,” enabling Renewal to build a new fund that is four times the size of its original one.
