Corporates including Sun Life, Manulife and Bank of Montreal are among the limited partners that have helped Canada-based investment firm Northleaf Capital Partners close its latest fund at its C$300m ($223m) hard cap.
Northleaf Venture Catalyst Fund II reached its final close following LP commitments from insurance provider Manulife and BMO Capital Partners, the private equity arm of the Bank of Montreal, as well as high net worth individuals and undisclosed family offices.
The new capital added to a December 2018 initial close that featured insurance and asset management group Sun Life, financial services firm Toronto-Dominion Bank, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and BDC Capital, the VC investment arm of the state-backed Business Development Bank of Canada.
Founded in 2009, Northleaf manages more than $12bn in venture capital, private equity, private credit and infrastructure commitments.
A minimum of 80% of the fund’s capital will be invested in Canada-based VC and growth-oriented funds, with up to 20% mandated to funds based outside the country. Up to 25% will be set aside for direct investments, of which 80% will be allocated to Canada-based companies.
The fund, which forms part of the Government of Canada’s Venture Capital Catalyst Initiative, has already made contributions to vehicles managed by iNovia Capital, StandUp Ventures and Versant Ventures.
Northleaf’s previous investments include narrative entertainment platform developer Wattpad, cybersecurity services provider eSentire and biopharmaceutical company Zymeworks.