Active Impact Investments Makes First Three Investments from $120M Third Fund
Vancouver, British Columbia (May 23, 2024) - Active Impact Investments, Canada’s largest climate tech seed fund that invests in Canadian and U.S. early-stage climate tech companies, has announced it has made its first Fund III investments: Lumo, ThinkLabs AI, and a third Canadian investment that is currently in stealth. The firm has raised more than $70M in commitments for its third fund to date - moving towards the ultimate fund goal of $120M. With over $140M in assets under management, Active Impact Investments has mitigated over one million tonnes of CO2e through its portfolio companies and aims to see its third fund mitigate 10 million tonnes of CO2e on its own.
“We’re grateful to work with founders who are relentless in their pursuits to improve the health of our planet and reduce greenhouse gas emissions”, said Mike Winterfield, Founder and Managing Partner, Active Impact Investments. “We’re committed to energizing the climate tech sector and are excited to collaborate with these North American founders to accelerate their growth and create real, collective climate progress. Our third investment will be announced soon, but I can share that it is run by a successful past founder and team that sold their prior company to Google. They offer a solution that many homeowners in British Columbia and across North America will be interested in, from an energy and cost saving perspective.”
ThinkLabs AI is a physics-informed AI copilot for electrical grid operations. ThinkLabs’ autonomous energy system enables utility planners and control room operators to effectively manage complex modern grids in increasingly challenging contexts, ensuring reliability as territories modernize to incorporate new, distributed sources of renewable energy, navigate network congestion from the growing number of electric vehicles, appliances and data centers, as well as climate-related adverse weather events. ThinkLabs was founded by Ontario native Josh Wong, who previously worked for Toronto Hydro before launching his first grid management company Opus One Solutions, which he sold to GE in 2022.
“Our mission is to empower critical industries and infrastructure with trustworthy AI towards global energy sustainability,” said Josh Wong, Founder and CEO, ThinkLabs AI. “We’re grateful to have Active Impact’s support as we drive towards transforming the electrical grid and pave the way for the next critical decade of the energy transition.”
Lumo’s smart irrigation valve is the first smart irrigation valve in the world, and allows growers to precisely control and measure how much water is applied to their crops at all times, reducing excess water usage and eliminating the irrigation guesswork that creates wasted water, time, and profits. Lumo was founded by Ontario native Devon Wright who sold his prior company to Yelp.
“Today, agriculture consumes 70 per cent of the world’s freshwater and 3 billion people are affected by water shortages across the planet,” said Devon Wright, CEO & Founder, Lumo. “At Lumo, we are committed to radically reducing the amount of freshwater used in agriculture and our technology optimizes productivity and profitability, while supporting growers as stewards of the planet. We’re excited to work with Active Impact investments, a VC firm that aligns so strongly with our own values and one that deeply appreciates and understands the importance behind our work.”
Fund III includes a diverse group of institutional investors, including new co-anchor Northleaf Capital Partners through its Canadian venture capital strategy, returning co-anchor Fondaction Labour-Sponsored Fund, Co-operators Corporate Venture Capital Fund, Deloitte Ventures and the University of Victoria.
The firm plans to add 17 more companies to its Fund III portfolio. All 35 companies that Active Impact Investments has invested in are still operating.
For more information about Active Impact Investments, visit www.activeimpactinvestments.com.
About Active Impact Investments
Active Impact Investments is a Certified B Corp based in Vancouver, B.C., whose mission is to support environmental sustainability through profitable investment by providing money and talent to accelerate the growth of early-stage climate tech companies with early revenue and significant growth potential. Their portfolio includes and is seeking some of the most successful startups in North America that are capable of achieving venture scale and becoming extremely profitable while solving the most urgent environmental issues.
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