Efforts to accelerate positive social and environmental impact in Canada have been given a boost by Realize Capital Partners. Today it announces its second set of investments for Realize Fund I: seven investments, totalling a commitment of capital of $32.5 million.
Today’s announced investments support the firm’s efforts to construct a portfolio that tackles inequity through multifaceted, positively reinforcing investments, while targeting competitive risk-adjusted returns. Realize Fund I ends 2024 with 16 investments, at a committed value of $67.7 million.
“These new investments are setting the stage for deep, broad positive impact across the country for years to come,” says Lars Boggild, portfolio manager of Realize Fund I. “They will help to enrich the social finance market, diversifying social finance intermediaries, extending capital to underrepresented areas, and deepening the access equity-deserving groups have to social finance.”
“As we build out the portfolio, it is demonstrating that it’s possible to secure risk-adjusted returns alongside strong positive impact. These new investments bring the portfolio differentiated investment strategies in real assets and real estate as well as more private equity strategies, maintaining focus on financial return goals as well as impact performance goals,” he added.
“Realize Capital Partners have made significant progress with the Social Finance Fund since its implementation,” shares Jenna Sudds, Minister of Families, Children and Social Development. “The Social Finance Fund is tackling persistent social and environmental problems and supporting critical progress in social equity and gender equality for the social finance market in Canada. As we build an inclusive economy that leaves nobody behind, the Social Finance Fund will continue to play a positive role in this.”
Second Set of Investments
- Amplify Capital is a female-led, established fund manager investing in impactful Canadian companies. Its Amplify Capital Fund III is investing in scalable technologies working to address urgent and significant health, education and climate challenges.
- Area One Farms is a female-led, established fund manager. Its Area One Farms Fund V intends to invest in farmland in partnership with farmers in Manitoba, Alberta and Ontario in order to enable farmers to expand their operations in line with sustainable agricultural practices in a way that supports the long-term viability of family farms.
- Flowing River Capital Partners is a first-time fund manager, which is majority Indigenous owned. Its Flowing River Capital Fund I intends to own and manage a portfolio of mostly Prairies-based companies, bringing an Indigenous lens of stewardship, values and policies to them, as part of efforts to spur economic reconciliation.
- Heartwood Trust is a first-time fund manager that has partnered with Kindred Works, a socially minded developer and property manager. Together, through the Heartwood Trust impact fund, they are creating rental properties in perpetuity for low-, moderate- and median-income households, built to low-emissions standards, in order to tackle climate change and creative more inclusive towns and cities across Canada.
- Misfit Ventures is a first-time fund manager, founded and led by members of the 2SLGBTQI+ community. Misfit Ventures Fund I intends to invest in ventures led and founded by individuals who identify as members of the 2SLGBTQI+ community.
- Regenerative Capital Group is a first-time fund manager. Regenerative Capital Group Fund I recruits, train and fund CEOs-in-residence to acquire Canadian businesses as platforms for meaningful impact, embedding environmental and social regeneration practices in the core of these businesses. Regenerative practices are characterized by a focus on contributing positively to the natural, cultural and economic systems in which a business operates.
- Thrive Impact Fund is a female-led, emerging community investment fund manager. Its place-based Thrive Impact Fund provides loans to social enterprises in small and rural communities in British Columbia. It aims to strengthen organizations so they can have greater positive social, cultural or environmental impact.
About Realize Capital Partners and the Social Finance Fund
Realize Capital Partners is one of three fund-of-fund managers selected by the Government of Canada for its Social Finance Fund (SFF). Realize Capital Partners is a joint venture between Rally Assets and Relay Ventures. The SFF is a Government of Canada initiative that aims to strengthen social purpose organizations and accelerate the growth of Canada’s social finance market. Through Realize Fund I, and alongside the other fund-of-funds managers of the SFF we are investing in positively impactful initiatives that accelerate social equity in Canada.
About Realize Fund I
- Pan-Canadian impact investing fund-of funds
- Anchored by $135 million of Government of Canada concessionary capital
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A portfolio construction approach to deliver:
- An interconnected approach to tackling society inequity
- Competitive risk-adjusted returns including multiple layers of risk protection and return enhancement
- Diversification across private asset classes and sectors
- Demonstrable impact through measurement and management
Holdings, as of December 2024
- Amplify Capital Fund III
- Area One Farms Fund V
- Flowing River Capital Fund I
- Heartwood Trust
- Idealist Climate Impact Fund I
- Jubilee Fund
- Maple Bridge Ventures Fund I
- Misfit Ventures Fund I
- New Market Funds’ Rental Housing Fund II
- PaceZero Sustainable Credit Fund II
- Raven Indigenous Opportunities Fund I
- Regenerative Capital Group Fund I
- Relentless Health Pursuit Fund
- The51 Food and Agtech Fund I
- Thrive Impact Fund
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Windmill Microlending Community Bonds
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