Amplify Capital

Amplify Capital, formerly MaRS Catalyst Fund, has closed its second impact venture capital fund at C$30.7 million.

MaRS Catalyst Fund, a Toronto-based early-stage impact fund created in collaboration with MaRS Discovery District, has rebranded as Amplify Capital and launched a new fund. The fund has a target size of $30 million and is seeking an initial close by early 2020. MaRS Catalyst Fund was launched in 2016 with the backing of Virgin Unite, as well as other investors, including Chawkers Foundation, Fondaction, J. W. McConnell Family Foundation and Lino et Mirella Saputo Foundation. It made nine investments in Ontario and Québec.

MaRS Catalyst Fund, which is managed by Toronto-based innovation hub MaRS Discovery District, has begun the process of investing in up to a dozen Canadian early-stage, for-profit companies founded to solve a social or environmental issue. It is currently looking to close two seed-stage investments for $250,000 each in the health and education markets. The fund, launched in late 2014 with the backing of Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Unite Foundation and Mindset Foundation, has so far raised $3 million of a targeted $5 million.

Pathway is a Montreal-based artificial intelligence-enabled medical knowledge platform.

Climate Investment and BDC Capital's Climate Tech Fund led the round.

Founded in 2018, Future Fields built a biomanufacturing platform called the EntoEngine to be the first synthetic biology system to use fruit flies for recombinant protein production.

Montreal-based health technology company Pathway Medical has raised $1.3 million in financing to scale its clinical decision support platform.

Toronto-based biomaterials startup ALT TEX has raised C$1.5 million in a pre-seed financing.

Classcraft, a Sherbrooke, Quebec-based learning technology company, has secured $3.5 million in financing.

Verto Health, a Toronto-based provider of connection and communication software for the healthcare industry, has closed a C$2 million seed-stage financing.