At the annual meeting of Anges Québec, Cycle Capital Management (CCM) Inc. announced the new Launch Pad Program, as part of the Cycle-C3E Seed Fund’s activities. This measure allows Cycle-C3E to invest, under certain conditions, an initial amount of up to $ 75,000 in a business that has submitted a Cleantech project demonstrating commercial potential but does not yet qualify for a more significant investment. The program’s main objective is to support third party validation of the technology and intellectual property. In some situations, this approach could enable Cycle Capital to participate in angel investor rounds which are commonplace for businesses at this stage.
“By investing smaller amounts prior to more exhaustive analysis, this new approach allows Cycle Capital to shorten the time to complete an investment in promising files and increase the supply of readily available capital. For a seed stage company, the due diligence process is often too long for both entrepreneurs and angel investors who support them” said Andrée-Lise Méthot, Founder and Managing partner of Cycle Capital Management (CCM) inc.
Because angel investors play an active role in helping entrepreneurs launch and grow their businesses, Mr. François Gilbert, President of Anges Québec, welcomed this news. “Cleantech is a very important sector for our angel investors to participate in and this initiative will make it easier to position ourselves for the future.’
The Cycle-C3E Cleantech fund began its operations in January 2011. The fund’s mandate is to invest in companies at the seed stage, i.e. that are not yet generating significant revenues from their technology, and require funding to complete development and commercial roll-out of their products and services.
About Cycle Capital Management (CCM) Inc.
Cycle Capital is a pioneer among Canadian venture capital funds focused on the cleantech sector. The fund invests in companies developing and commercializing clean technologies and projects in renewable energy generation that are focused on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, optimizing resources use, and decreasing impacts over their entire life cycle.
With nearly $125 million under management, Cycle Capital invests primarily in Northeastern North America. The fund has assembled a team of investment professionals, advisors and strategic partners, internationally respected for their combined experience in building, nurturing and growing world-class companies. Cycle Capital benefits from a privileged relationship with its strategic partners including Brookfield Renewable Power, Rio Tinto Alcan, Cascades, The Master Group L.P, Lonza, Gaz Métro, Systemex Energies and the Centre d’excellence en efficacité énergétique C3E
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Information : Andrée-Lise Méthot, 514 495-1022, [email protected]