Toronto, female-led venture capital fund launches its Women’s and Children’s Health Technology Fund

On December 10, 2021, Toronto-based and female-led venture capital fund, Cross-Border Impact Ventures (“CBIV”), announced the launch of its Women’s and Children’s Health Technology Fund. CBIV intends to invest in healthtech companies that address the health needs of women, children, and adolescents, or offer solutions that make health systems more resilient. Its goal is to raise more than US $100 million. 

The managing partners, Annie Thériault and Donna Parr, aim to fill the investment gap present in women’s healthtech. Through the fund, CBIV intends to invest approximately $10 million each in 12 to 17 health technology companies who are focused on developing medical devices, diagnostics and digital health. It plans to invest mainly at the Series B stage, while also putting some capital towards Series A rounds.

CBIV will apply a gender and racial justice-based lens when it considers company leadership and employee composition, as well as how its products are designed and tested. It will use a “dual-market approach”, ensuring that its investment in technologies in high-income market countries will be applicable to lower and middle-income countries.

As an impact-focused healthtech investment fund, CBIV will target, measure, monitor, and report on impact in terms of health outcomes. Its impact target is 500,000 lives saved and improvements in the lives of 10 million underserved women and children in emerging markets.

The fund has already secured commitments of US $30 million and has the support of the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, which provides a guarantee to investors in the fund to encourage private sector participation. CBIV anticipates making its first investments in Q1 of 2022. 

Author: Rebecca Ro, 2021/2022 Articling Student-at-law