CPE News (7/21/2020) – Amplitude Holdco Inc. has held a second close for its inaugural fund, Amplitude Ventures Fund I, securing over $50 million in commitments from 7 new limited partners (LP) investors and additional commitments from first close LPs. The new close brings total committed capital to over $150 million.
Fondaction, Ontario Capital Growth Corporation, and Vancity joined Fonds de solidarité FTQ, Investissement Québec (IQ), Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), and BDC Capital as disclosed institutional LP investors.
Nancy Harrison, formerly GP of Ventures West, has joined Amplitude as a venture partner.
Led by GPs Jean-François Pariseau and Dion Madsen, formerly of BDC Capital healthcare investment team, Amplitude entities were launched in 2019 with BDC Capital as the cornerstone investor, raising $100 million for the fund.
Amplitude will focus on early-stage and emerging Canadian precision medicine companies.
photo credit: kalhh via pixabay
News Release
AMPLITUDE ADDS $50+MM, SEVEN NEW INVESTORS IN SECOND CLOSE
Record-setting Repare Therapeutics IPO proves model, Harrison joins as Venture Partner
Amplitude Venture Capital today announced a second close, signalling it has raised more than 75 per cent of the target $200 million for its first fund, focused on precision medicine.
Amplitude, founded by the former healthcare investing team at BDC Capital, is led by partners Jean-François Pariseau and Dion Madsen. The precision medicine fund was officially launched in November 2019 in a close led by Le Fonds de solidarité FTQ, cornerstone investor BDC Capital, and other leading Canadian institutional investors.
Amplitude’s focus is on precision medicine where world-class Canadian innovators are driving the future of healthcare. The Fund invests in early-stage and emerging Canadian companies, like Repare Therapeutics and Deep Genomics, and is creating new companies in collaboration with leading academic institutions.
“Canada is home to world-leading academic and research centres inventing new approaches to precision medicine,” said Mr. Madsen. “We founded Amplitude to invest acceleration capital behind this innovation to build break-out companies and our strategy is resonating with investors across Canada.”
The timing of the second close allows Amplitude to highlight the momentum of the fund through a number of milestones:
• $50+MM in new capital, more than 75 per cent of target raised to date;
• Seven new investment partners, including significant capital from Fondaction, Ontario Capital Growth Corporation, and Vancity, marking Amplitude’s national reach;
• Substantial additional investments from launch partners Le Fonds de solidarité FTQ, Investissement Québec, and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec;
• The addition of experienced Canadian life sciences executive Nancy Harrison (bio attached) as Venture Partner, adding deep leadership experience to the Amplitude team;
• Amplitude portfolio company Repare Therapeutics’ recent NASDAQ IPO became the largest ever for a Canadian biotech company, validating Amplitude’s investment strategy.
The recent Repare IPO builds on Amplitude’s track record of successfully growing billion-dollar Canadian public biotech success stories, making it the third investment to reach this milestone since 2017.
“The market is clearly responding to our investment strategy of fostering Canadian precision medicine innovation and building globally competitive Canadian healthcare companies,” said Mr. Pariseau. “The success of Repare, rapidly growing to a billion-dollar valuation shows the growth potential of the sector in Canada.”
“Fondaction is very happy to participate in the Amplitude Fund. Our choice to participate was clear, as we share the same vision of a sustainable economic development. We aim to develop and assist innovative life science companies that are building for the future and strengthening the solid economic fabric in Québec and Canada to the benefit of the communities,” said Marc-André Binette, Deputy Chief Investment Officer at Fondaction.
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For more information, contact:
Jeff Mann, Amplitude Media Relations
+1-403-464-1702
jeff@jeffmanncommunications.com
ABOUT AMPLITUDE:
Amplitude Venture Capital deploys a growth model that has successfully been used to build Canadian companies with world-class management teams and scale companies to breakout potential. Amplitude, with offices in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver, launched its first private capital fund in November 2019, a $200-million fund that applies a proven, evidence-based approach to investing in leading Canadian precision medicine companies. Visit amplitudevc.com.
ABOUT FONDACTION:
A precursor for the past 25 years, Fondaction is the investment fund for those who are actively fostering the positive transformation of Québec’s economy, making it more productive, equitable, inclusive and green. As a labour-sponsored fund, Fondaction represents tens of thousands of investors and hundreds of businesses committed to stimulating Québec’s progress. It manages assets of more than 2.2 billion dollars invested in hundreds of businesses and on the financial markets, favouring investments that generate positive economic, social and environmental spinoffs in addition to a financial return. Fondaction helps create and maintain jobs and reduce inequalities while contributing to the fight against climate change. For more information, visit fondaction.com or our LinkedIn page.
ABOUT ONTARIO CAPITAL GROWTH CORPORATION:
OCGC, the venture capital agency of the government of Ontario, was created to promote and develop the venture capital sector in Ontario. OCGC has committed over $300M to high potential life sciences, information communications and technology, and clean tech companies, providing access to the capital they need to grow.”
ABOUT VANCITY:
Vancity is a values-based financial co-operative serving the needs of its more than 543,000 member-owners and their communities, with offices and 60 branches located in Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, Victoria, Squamish and Alert Bay, within the unceded territories of the Coast Salish and Kwakwaka’wakw people. With $28.2 billion in assets plus assets under administration, Vancity is Canada’s largest community credit union. Vancity uses its assets to help improve the financial well-being of its members while at the same time helping to develop healthy communities that are socially, economically and environmentally sustainable. Vancity has committed to investing $70 million in impact-focused funds across Canada that focus on areas important to Vancity and its members. Tweet us @vancity and connect with us on facebook.com/vancity.
Nancy Harrison, Life sciences investor and executive board member
Nancy has nearly 30 years of professional and leadership achievement in life sciences in Canada. As a partner at Ventures West, she was one of the early life science investors in Canada, making key and strategic investments in companies such as Angiotech, AnorMed, Celator, Caprion, Xenon and many others, impacting the sector’s long-term growth across the country. She is co-founder and former president of MSI Methylation Sciences, a private company with a unique treatment of depression in Phase 2. Nancy is a true innovator and demonstrates her dedication to Canadian biotech in mentoring the next generation of companies and leaders through roles that include Creative Destruction Lab, adMare BioInnovations, Canada’s Digital Technology Supercluster, Genome BC and Variational AI. Nancy is a recent winner of the Miton Wong Leadership Award from Life Sciences BC, Excellence in Industry from Women in Finance, and previously Canada’s Top 40 under 40. She has a Bachelor of Engineering from
Queen’s University and an MBA from McGill.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/nancy-harrison-9136335/