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Canadian impact venture fund Cross-Border Impact Ventures has secured $58 million USD, or $81 million CAD, so far for its second fund, marking a significant milestone for the CBIV Women’s Children’s Health Fund II, which will invest in companies improving health outcomes for women and children.
The Scale and Target of the CBIV Women’s Children’s Health Fund II
The Toronto-based firm announced Thursday that it closed the first tranche of funding for its Women’s and Children’s Health Technology Fund II. CBIV is targeting $125 million USD for the fund, and it hopes to secure it by the second half of 2027.
Who Is Backing This Fund
Limited partners include German national development bank KfW, the Skoll Foundation, Capricorn Investment Group, Ceniarth, Equality Fund, RockCreek Group, and Wire Group, as well as unnamed family offices and high-net-worth investors. KfW is returning as a concessionary capital investor, which means that it allows other LPs to earn higher internal rates of return and provides them with downside protection.
CBIV’s Investment Strategy Behind This Fund II
Launched in 2021 by managing partners Annie Thériault and Donna Parr, CBIV invests in women and youth-focused healthtech companies with strong global commercial potential, including in emerging markets. With the second fund, CBIV will continue to write Series A and Series B cheques between $2 million and $5 million USD into roughly a dozen companies making biotech, medical device, diagnostics, and other healthtech plays with a global lens.
What CBIV Looks for in Target Companies
Ideally, Thériault said in an interview with BetaKit, target companies will have a “good line of sight to commercialization and regulatory approval,” a criterion that reflects the fund’s focus on later-stage validation rather than earlier, higher-risk research-phase ventures.
Fund I’s Track Record Behind This CBIV Women’s Children’s Health Fund II Launch
CBIV’s Fund I, which is now mostly deployed, backed 11 companies worldwide, with one exit so far in France’s Sonio, a fetal ultrasound software company acquired by Samsung Medison for a reported $92 million USD, though CBIV would not confirm the amount. Other highlights from its portfolio include UK-based Daye, a company that makes tampons to reduce menstrual pain and screen for vaginal health.
A Continued Search for Canadian Deals
The Toronto-based impact fund hasn’t yet invested in a Canadian company, but is hoping to find Canadian ventures to support with the new fund. The partners say a sparse early-stage landscape for medtech, and women’s health diagnostics and devices in particular, has made it difficult to find deals at the early growth stages, where they invest.
The Broader Funding Landscape Facing the CBIV Women’s Children’s Health Fund II
Despite recent activity among VCs investing in femtech, studies have indicated a women’s health funding gap in both research and industry. In addition, a recent report from the Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association indicated that life sciences saw a 39% year-over-year drop in funding activity this past quarter.
Thériault’s Outlook on Investor Sentiment
More globally, Thériault is optimistic about the interest from investors in impact-driven healthtech ventures. Fundraising is still a slog, she said, but “those that deeply care about women’s health are twice as motivated.” “A couple of years ago, there was negative talk around impact investing,” Thériault said, referencing a global slowdown in environmental, social, and governance investing. But she added that many women investors and women-led foundations doubled down, but were just quieter about their support. “There is movement,” she said. “We’re seeing less in Canada than in the US or in Europe, but I’m hopeful that the tide might turn here in the coming years.”
What This CBIV Women’s Children’s Health Fund II Means Going Forward
With $58 million already secured toward a $125 million target and a track record that includes a $92 million exit from Fund I, CBIV’s continued fundraising success suggests sustained investor appetite for women’s and children’s health-focused venture capital despite the broader 39% year-over-year decline in Canadian life sciences funding. Given the fund’s stated difficulty finding early-growth-stage Canadian medtech deals specifically in women’s health diagnostics and devices, this second fund may serve as a test of whether increased capital availability alone can help close that domestic pipeline gap.
What to Watch Going Forward
As CBIV works toward its second-half 2027 target of $125 million, industry observers will likely watch whether the fund succeeds in backing its first Canadian portfolio company, a stated goal the firm has yet to achieve despite operating since 2021. Given Thériault’s observation that Canada is seeing less impact investment activity than the U.S. or Europe, the trajectory of this CBIV Women’s Children’s Health Fund II raise could offer a useful signal for whether investor interest in women’s and children’s healthtech is beginning to shift more meaningfully into the Canadian market in the years ahead.
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