Amorchem Selected for Investment by the Venture Capital Catalyst Initiative

AmorChem was built through the vision and leadership of its two founders, Elizabeth Douville and Inès Holzbaur, making it one of the rare venture capital funds led by two women. At AmorChem, we share the federal government’s enthusiasm for the support of diversity and believe that our well-balanced team is a key factor in our success and our selection in the VCCI process. With this team, we fully accept the challenge that comes from being the group through which the federal government has decided to support early-stage life sciences investing, an under-served sector.

“The capital pledged by VCCI in our fund will allow us to spark the creation of the next generation of promising biotechnology companies from academic research beyond the borders of the province of Quebec. Indeed, since 2011 we have invested in over 20 research programs emerging from different research institutions, have entered into three pharma transactions and spun out seven start-up companies. We have identified a need for our unique investment model across Canada and federal support will ignite our capacity to deploy it, starting in Ontario, where we look forward to playing a distinctive role in a stimulating ecosystem” says Elizabeth Douville, managing partner and co-founder of AmorChem.

“The capital provided by VCCI will be incorporated in the fund’s existing structure, launched in 2017. Our current limited partners have shown their steadfast support of our emerging fund over the years and the announcement today confirms their belief in our ability to invest at such an early-stage while still generating returns that impact the ecosystem positively” says Inès Holzbaur, managing partner and co-founder of AmorChem.

“We have been successful in harnessing the expertise and experience of a new generation of scientific entrepreneurs and believe that seeking diversity, in gender and otherwise, is critical when you want to benefit from the full scope of talent the country has to offer” adds Maxime Ranger, general partner at AmorChem.

About AmorChem

AmorChem (www.amorchem.com) is an early-stage, venture capital fund located in Montreal focused on creating promising life science companies from technologies originating primarily from Canadian universities and research centres. Launched in 2011, the AmorChem fund model combines access to financial resources with a virtual incubator structure that enables the rapid development and commercialization of its technologies. The first fund (41.2M$) has built a portfolio of 24 technologies and successfully transacted three pharma exits as well as spun-out seven companies. The attractiveness of this seed fund model and the role it plays in the investment ecosystem were highlighted in September 2017 with the launch of the AmorChem II Fund, which now totals $53.7M.

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