The $115 million CAD ($85 million USD) impact fund of Vancouver and Phoenix, AZ-based venture capital firm Pangaea Ventures closed today. The fund will be used to invest in HardTech solutions that the company believes will improve the planet’s health.
In an interview with BetaKit, Bryce Fantini, the vice president of investments at Pangaea, said this is the largest fund so far and the fifth edition of the company’s investment vehicles. This fund has a five-year investment period; during that time, the fund has already invested in five ventures. Among its targeted Canadian tech startups, one of them is pH7 Technologies, a Vancouver-based firm.
The spokesperson of Pangaea admitted that half of it has already been allocated.
Established in 2000, this business specializes in finding and investing in promising HardTech ventures. In its portfolio, the company has some of Canada’s biggest names in innovation, such as Vancouver-based Aspect Biosystems and Halifax-based CarbonCure.
Investments for Pangaea is in the space of HardTech businesses in biosciences, sustainable agriculture, and renewable energy.
Pangaea’s spokesperson disclosed to BetaKit that it invested at the Series A stage. The fund will deploy between $3 million and $5 million in rounds, typically as a lead or co-lead. Pangaea started raising for its fifth fund in July 2022 and later sealed all capitals in April 2024. The fund plans to make a total of between 10 and 12 investments.
The fund, according to the company’s spokesperson, is “backed by corporate limited partners from Asia, Australia, Europe, and North America.” While the company representative declined to name specific names, there were at least mixed new and follow-on investors, including financial investors, family offices, and foundations.
A related first Canadian investment for the fund is pH7. The company invents environment-friendly solutions for metal extraction. pH7 works on clean, low-impact methods for recovering critical metals used in renewable energy technologies, including solar panels and electric vehicles, often causing environmental harm associated with traditional mining and metal extraction. Pangaea participated in the $16-million USD Series A financing round by pH7 that closed its books in March 2023.
In addition to ph7, American businesses Ardent Process Technologies, Versogen, Kanvas Biosciences, and Biodel AG were also invested in by Pangaea’s most recent fund.
The spokesperson for Pangaea said, though there is no set allocation for Canadian companies, the fund will mostly invest in Canada and the United States, with half of the $85 million USD being saved for follow-on investments.
