NVCF fully invested with $15M commitment to Lumira Capital IV

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By Ted Liu

Northleaf Venture Catalyst Fund (NVCF) has made a $15 million lead commitment to Lumira Capital IV, a late-stage venture capital fund investing in high-potential biopharmaceutical and medical device companies. With the closing of this investment, Northleaf has completed the NVCF investment program, with a total of $300 million committed to a portfolio of 13 fund investments and 11 direct investments.

“We are very pleased to be an anchor institutional investor in one of Canada’s top life sciences venture capital funds,” said Ian Carew, Director of Northleaf Capital Partners, which manages NVCF. “The commitment to Lumira represents NVCF’s final fund commitment and completes NVCF’s strategy of investing in best-in-class Canadian venture capital and growth equity funds, which in turn support the country’s most promising companies.”

“We are thrilled to have Northleaf as one of the lead investors in our fund and look forward to continuing our successful, long-term partnership,” said Peter van der Velden, Managing General Partner, Lumira Capital. “NVCF’s strong support will allow us to continue our successful strategy of investing in leading health and life science companies – all while delivering strong returns for our investors.”

NVCF has committed to the fund mangers including XPV Water Partners, Golden Venture Partners, Georgian Partners (Fund II & III), Versant Ventures (III & IV), Version One Ventures, Relay Ventures, iNovia Capital, Information Venture Partners, Lumira Capital. It also co-invested in the following disclosed companies: Wattpad, Silanis, eSentire, Vision Critical, FreshBooks, Scribble Technologies, Zymeworks, ClearPath Robotics, ecobee, Medgate.

Building on the success of Ontario Venture Capital Fund (OVCF) launched in 2008, Northleaf was the first fund manager selected under the Government of Canada’s Venture Capital Action Plan (VCAP) and NVCF was launched in early 2014.

NVCF reached its hard cap of $300 million in capital commitments, of which $50 million came from each of the Governments of Canada and Ontario. Northleaf manages the Fund on behalf of the investors, which include Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, OpenText™ Corporation, Ontario Pension Board, BMO Financial Group, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, National Bank of Canada, RBC, Scotiabank, TD Bank Group, SunLife Financial, a number of high net worth and family office investors, and the Government of Canada and the Government of Ontario.

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