Andrée-Lise Méthot, founder and managing partner of Cycle Capital.Kellyann Petry /The Globe and Mail
Montreal-based cleantech investor Cycle Capital and its French partner have raised US$108-million to back companies and funds focused on the circular economy in an initiative that was spearheaded by the cosmetics giant L’Oréal SA.
In the circular economy, products and services are designed to eliminate waste and extend life cycles, while minimizing carbon emissions and other environmental impacts. As a global personal care product company, L’Oréal must contend with those issues in its packaging and distribution.
The proceeds are from the initial fundraising phase of the Circular Innovation Fund (CIF), a 50-50 joint venture of Cycle and Demeter, a venture-capital manager headquartered in Paris. L’Oréal is the anchor investor, having put US$58-million into the fund.
Ultimately, the partners aim to raise US$160-million for the fund, which will be managed by Cycle’s Benoit Forcier in North America and Demeter’s Mathieu Goudot in Europe.
CIF will seek out companies and funds in numerous industries around the world that concentrate on technology for such things as packaging, bio-source product ingredients, replacements for microplastic beads, recycling as well as reducing carbon emissions in supply chains.
Cycle currently invests in cleantech companies developing technology to cut greenhouse-gas emissions, such as Montreal’s Enerkem, the biofuel and renewable-fuel producer that recently completed a $255-million financing round. Cycle has $600-million under management.
Cycle and Demeter jointly submitted plans when France-based L’Oréal held a request for proposals for a circular-economy fund, said Andrée-Lise Méthot, Cycle’s founder and managing partner. Cycle has had a long relationship with Demeter, having previously teamed up in cleantech funds. The two have focused on venture, private equity and infrastructure investments.
“We were in competition with big guys. We were the tiny ones in the crowd. But we won,” Ms. Méthot said. L’Oréal, which had revenue of €32.3-billion ($44-billion) in 2021, was won over by the partners’ previous success with circular technology – “turning brown molecules into green molecules,” she said.
Besides the funding, L’Oréal is also providing its own experts to work with CIF, Ms. Méthot said.
Other initial investors in the fund include France’s Axens, the fuel-conversion technology company, and family investors including Haltra and Claridge.
CIF will target companies that are in the later stages of requiring venture capital as their products and services come to market.
“We will do 12 to 15 direct investments in companies. The average size of investment will be US$10-million, considering, of course, the initial investments plus the following investments, which are quite common in venture-type deals,” said Stéphane Villecroze, Demeter’s managing partner.
On Thursday, the partners announced investments in two funds: New York-based Closed Loop Venture Fund II and European Circular Bioeconomy Fund.
CIF is set up to comply with Article 9 criteria under the European Union’s sustainable-finance disclosure regulation. That means it will measure its impact, and continually monitor non-financial performance, including greenhouse-gas emissions, use of natural resources and gender diversity among companies in its portfolio. Managers’ compensation is also tied to these measures.
“You have a lot of people speaking about sustainability, and it’s more branding than real,” Ms. Méthot said. “I can say it’s really real when it can affect your pocket as a manager, and I think it’s great thing to do.”
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TORONTO – Strength in the base metal and technology sectors helped Canada’s main stock index gain almost 100 points on Friday, while U.S. stock markets also climbed higher.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 93.51 points at 23,568.65.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 297.01 points at 41,393.78. The S&P 500 index was up 30.26 points at 5,626.02, while the Nasdaq composite was up 114.30 points at 17,683.98.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.61 cents US compared with 73.58 cents US on Thursday.
The October crude oil contract was down 32 cents at US$68.65 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was down five cents at US$2.31 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$30.10 at US$2,610.70 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents US$4.24 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
OTTAWA – Statistics Canada says wholesale sales, excluding petroleum, petroleum products, and other hydrocarbons and excluding oilseed and grain, rose 0.4 per cent to $82.7 billion in July.
The increase came as sales in the miscellaneous subsector gained three per cent to reach $10.5 billion in July, helped by strength in the agriculture supplies industry group, which rose 9.2 per cent.
The food, beverage and tobacco subsector added 1.7 per cent to total $15 billion in July.
The personal and household goods subsector fell 2.5 per cent to $12.1 billion.
In volume terms, overall wholesale sales rose 0.5 per cent in July.
Statistics Canada started including oilseed and grain as well as the petroleum and petroleum products subsector as part of wholesale trade last year, but is excluding the data from monthly analysis until there is enough historical data.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was up more than 150 points in late-morning trading, helped by strength in the base metal and energy sectors, while U.S. stock markets were mixed.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 172.18 points at 23,383.35.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 34.99 points at 40,826.72. The S&P 500 index was up 10.56 points at 5,564.69, while the Nasdaq composite was up 74.84 points at 17,470.37.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.55 cents US compared with 73.59 cents US on Wednesday.
The October crude oil contract was up $2.00 at US$69.31 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was up five cents at US$2.32 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$40.00 at US$2,582.40 an ounce and the December copper contract was up six cents at US$4.20 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
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