The Billion Dollar Fund For Women™/Canada launches to tackle the gender funding gap

Six Canadian venture funds have already pledged
as part of the global campaign to mobilize $1B

Wednesday, February 20th, 2019 (Toronto and Montreal) – Cycle Capital, Canada’s largest clean technology venture capital investment platform, announced the first close of its new Fund, Cycle Capital Fund IV, LP. The announcement was made by Andrée-Lise Méthot, Founder and Managing Partner of Cycle Capital, alongside Pierre Fitzgibbon, Quebec’s Minister of Economy and Innovation and the fund’s sponsors.

The Billion Dollar Fund For Women launches its Canadian campaign to mobilize a consortium of Canadian venture funds to pledge to increase their investment in women-founded companies. While the gender pay gap is well documented in Canada, what is not is the gender funding gap of venture capital in companies. To address this, The Billion Dollar Fund for Women (“TBDF”) was established to tackle the gender funding gap. A founding group of Canadian venture capital funds are proud to bring the TBDF to the country and to receive an initial set of pledges from Canadian venture capital firms as part of a global $650M pledged toward a $1B goal.

“The Billion Dollar Fund for Women is a simple and elegant way for venture capital firms to show their support for female-founded companies. If you say that you support female entrepreneurs, you make a pledge and join the consortium. We are mobilizing existing funds to work together towards a common global goal, to empower female entrepreneurs. We are thrilled with the support and commitment given by the first set of Canadian funds and we look forward to continuing the conversation with other funds to support this initiative and meet our $1B global goal,” said Lally Rementilla, Canada Lead of TBDF and President of Qantius Inc.

The fund was inspired by a desire to mobilize and connect these venture funds with institutional and other investors to create larger pools of capital for venture investments into women founded companies. TBDF’s Co-Founders are eager to expand their global reach of venture funds. As importantly, they hope to inspire larger investors to see these funds as a key opportunity to gender diversify their portfolios and to meet the growing push for ESG (environment/social/governance) requirements.

“We are thrilled to welcome our Canadian partners pledged to increasing their investments in women. Nothing has excited us more than our partnership with some of Canada’s leading venture funds. And no country has shown more commitment to its female founders than Canada. It is clear that Canada is on the threshold of major breakthroughs in innovation led by some of its great women entrepreneurs. With Canada’s goal of doubling the number of women entrepreneurs by 2025, the investments made by our partner funds will be more important than ever to ensure the success of these early-stage ventures,” said Shelly Porges, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of TBDF.

According to Pitchbook, women-founded companies have received just 2% of the total of venture capital investment last year[1]. Beyond this, venture funds committed to investing in women founded companies often struggle to expand their capital base and to increase their capacity to invest. Yet, research shows that companies with women founders bring in 20% more revenue with 50% less invested. [2]

For venture funds that make a pledge, TBDF provides greater exposure to institutional funders, sovereign funds, wealth managers, family offices and high net worth investors. While more city leads will be announced soon, the current city Leads of TBDF Canada are Cycle Capital (Montreal) and Marigold Capital (Toronto).

Interested individuals who would like to learn more about The Billion Dollar Fund for Women are welcome to head to http://thebilliondollarfund.org/ for participation opportunities.

The Billion Dollar Fund For Women™/Canada

Canada Lead: Lally Rementilla, President, Quantius Inc.

[email protected]

Montreal Lead: Andrée-Lise Méthot, Founder and Managing Partner, Cycle Capital Management

[email protected]

Toronto Lead:

Jonathan Hera, Founder and Managing Partner, Marigold Capital

[email protected]

List of TBDF’s Canadian Supporters:

Cycle Capital

Ecofuel Fund

Marigold Capital