Canada Week. Pangaea Announces Final Close of Fourth Fund at $95 Million CAD

By Isabella Kirkwood

Pangaea Ventures which invests in advanced materials, announced it has completed the final close of Pangaea Ventures Fund IV, with commitments of $95 million CAD from organizations like VanCity and the BC Tech Fund.

Fund IV has made six investments to date, in materials-driven companies addressing a variety of market applications. The fund’s advanced materials portfolio is not specifically tech-focused but is looking to invest in startups with products in display materials, medical devices, 5G data electronics, and the 3D printing of human tissue.

“We are pleased to have completed the fundraising for Fund IV, and to see growth over our third fund,” said Chris Erickson, general partner of Pangaea Ventures. “We have a good mix of LPs that include managed by Kensington Capital Partners.”

The fourth fund aims to bring together a dozen multinational corporations as strategic LPs. The fund saw renewed commitments from partners of Fund III, including CoorsTek, JSR, and Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings. Fund IV has also brought in commitments from Doosan, GC Ventures, Henkel, Lam Research, Sekisui, Severstal, Shin-Etsu, TOSOH, and Adidas, bringing Pangaea’s total LP count to 25. Fund III closed in 2012 at $100 million USD.

Pangea was first established in 2000 and has an office in Vancouver. The firm built a portfolio addressing multi-billion dollar markets in energy, electronics, health, and sustainability. Pangaea led a $7.9 million CAD investment in AEPONYX, a Montreal-based micro-optical switch provider, to accelerate the commercial production of the startup’s planar micro-optical switch chips.

“The BC Tech Fund was established to invest in emerging technology across multiple sectors, including cleantech,” said Gerri Sinclair, managing director of Kensington Capital Partners. “Pangaea’s record for helping advanced materials reach global success made them an attractive fund through which we could support the cleantech start-up ecosystem.”

Pangea said it expects Fund IV to make six to eight more investments.

Source. Betakit, Isabella Kirkwood, May 2, 2019

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Montreal based AEPONYX closes $7.9 million CAD funding

By Isabelle  Kirkwood


AEPONYX a Montreal-based micro-optical switch provider, has closed a Series A financing of $7.9 million CAD, led by Pangaea Ventures. The round includes current investors Fonds InnovExport and Ecofuel Fund, as well as private investors.

“We can now accelerate the commercialization of technology driving energy efficient innovation and positive environmental impact.”
-Philippe Babin

This funding will be used by AEPONYX to accelerate the commercial production of its planar micro-optical switch chips which combines silicon photonics with Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems (MEMS). This Series A round brings its total funds raised to $18 million.

“With the support of round leader Pangaea and previous investors, we can now accelerate the commercialization of technology driving energy efficient innovation and positive environmental impact,” said Philippe Babin, CEO of AEPONYX.

Founded in 2011, AEPONYX designs and manufacturers fabless micro-optical switch semiconductor chips for fibre optic access to the cloud. AEPONYX is an alumnus of Silicon Catalyst, the world’s first incubator focused exclusively on semiconductors.

AEPONYX is currently part of the CenTech incubator, a Montreal accelerator with a primary focus on hardware and deep tech. In 2016, it graduated from Ecofuel, a Cycle Capital Management-founded accelerator dedicated to growing cleantech startups. In 2016, the company was selected by Sustainable Technology Development Canada as part of $45 million investment to support 17 cleantech startups across Canada.

The company aims to build the fastest, most affordable, and smallest micro-optical switches in order to promote reduced energy consumption. The company says its developments could create new opportunities for optical circuit switching and a new generation of tunable transceivers, increasing the capacity on both ends of the optical fibre while lowering power consumption.

“This funding, combined with the deep expertise of our partners pave[s] the way for us to redefine switching technology for next-generation fibre optic telecommunications access networks, data centers, and 5G mobile networks which, combined, represent a multibillion-dollar opportunity,” said Babin.

Source. Betakeit, Isabelle Kirkwood, March 15, 2019