The Billion Dollar Fund Launches in Canada

The Billion Dollar Fund for Woman (“TBDF”), a global initiative that aims to increase investment in women-founded companies, has arrived in Canada to recruit local venture firms to join its mission. The launch was recently announced by Lally Rementilla, the fund’s Canada lead, who says that the fund is looking to spread awareness in Canada about the gender financing gap. TBDF’s goal is to mobilize $1 billion dollars in funding into companies founded by women entrepreneurs globally, over the next decade.

TBDF will ask for pledges from VCs ranging from $1 million to $100 million in hopes of reaching their goal of $1 billion by 2020. So far, over $650 million has been pledged to the fund around the world. Pledging investors commit to independently invest the amount pledged to financing women-founded companies. Along with their pledges, TBDF also asks investors to make changes in their deal sourcing and making processes to account for female entrepreneurs. TBDF’s mission addresses the reality that women-founded companies, especially those also led by women, often struggle to raise capital. In Canada, only five percent of companies have a sole female founder, and around 30 percent of Canadian VC firms have a woman as a partner.

Along with Quantius, Canadian VCs such as Cycle Capital Management, Ecofueld Fund, Marigold Capital, Pique Ventures and StandUp Ventures have all agreed to participate in the global initiative to tackle the gender funding gap.

Author: Pearl Lee, 2018/2019 Articling Student-at-law