New Years Resolution: Drop 1M Tonnes
Happy new year! We always enjoy the experience of taking time to look back at what happened last year — it's amazing what you can pack into just 12 months. Following a year of building our team and growing our assets under management by 7X, in 2022 we hit the accelerator with nine new portfolio companies, nine follow-on investments, exit number two, over 50 final pitches to our investment committee and hundreds of other companies evaluated. But the list of transactions only tells half the story.
We focus our post-investment support on the three areas where we see the greatest need: sales, talent and fundraising. Since our initial investment, our Fund I companies have grown their revenue an average of 9.8X and across both funds we’ve seen an average 20% quarter over quarter sales growth. In 2022, we helped our portfolio companies raise $126M in addition to our investment capital. We built out our recruiting and talent function and have now placed a total of 14 key hires across our portfolio companies, and are proud that 64% of those are female and 36% are sales leaders. We look for ways to put our founders first at every step from screening to support to exit, which is why we're proud that they gave us a 9.6 (out of 10) satisfaction score.
In 2022, global markets were humbling to put it lightly. Every quarter we present an update to our investors and each time we take a sober look at what’s going on at the macro level. This lead to an action plan to help prepare for an expected rough year so we were pleased that each quarter we had multiple up-rounds underway and every one of the 28 companies we’ve invested in is still operating. The positive outlook isn’t just due to us of course, or even the incredible founders that comprise our portfolio — it’s also largely because the world is finally waking up to both the crisis and opportunity posed by climate change. Climate tech has been one of, if not the most insulated sector in this recession with policy tailwinds like the USA's $374B Inflation Reduction Act and the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism. But the excitement of the opportunity is only outweighed by the seriousness of the crisis as shown by the extreme flooding in Pakistan and prolonged, extreme heat and drought in China. So, the accelerator stays pressed and our ambitions stay high — in 2023 our goal is for our portfolio companies to mitigate 1M tonnes of CO2 and equivalents.
Here’s our annual round up of major events:
January
Fund II invests in Tengiva
GoJava follow-on investment
Kelley joins as Operations Coordinator
February
Fund II invests in Optiwatt (lead)
Manifest Climate follow-on investment
Alana joins as Principal
March
Awarded Foresight Canada’s “Cleantech Innovation Funder of the Year”
Therma Bridge to Series A
Sametrica Bridge round
April
Named the “Public’s Favourite VC” on the global Climate50 list
Fund II invests in Sustain.Life
Fund II invests in Flair (lead)
SWTCH follow-on investment
Carbon America follow-on investment
May
Fund II invests in Future
June
Solstice follow-on investment
Aquacycl follow-on investment
July
B Corp recertification with top 10% overall global score
Fund II invests in Metafold (lead)
August
Audette follow-on investment
Keela Bridge round
Therma Series A
September
Fund II invests in King Energy
Sale of Solstice to MyPower Corp.
October
Awarded Canada Clean50 status
Fund II invests in Agrology (lead)
RailVision follow-on investment
November
Clean Crop follow-on investment
ChopValue Series A
December
Fund II makes investment #13 (lead, to be disclosed soon)
Aquacycl Series A