Amplify Capital (Mars Canada)

WHO WE ARE

Amplify Capital investing in mission-driven, double-bottom-line disruptors in health, education and clean tech. Our thesis is simple. We believe if we use: best business practices, best community, environmental and social practices, and good governance to solve large societal challenges we will deliver top-tier venture results. To prove this thesis, MaRS Catalyst Fund was launched in 2016 as an initiative between MaRS Discovery District and Virgin Unite Foundation. The goal was to build the impact investment marketplace in Canada and we closed the fund in 2017 with 100% private foundation, family office and pension fund LP’s. Amplify Capital is the evolution of that original fund.

$30,000,000

TARGET SIZE OF FUNDS

Sector

Healthcare, Cleantech

Stage

Seed, Series A

Region

North America

Countries

Canada

Founder(s)

Kathryn Wortsman

Kathryn leads Amplify Capital (formerly MaRS Catalyst Fund) where she focuses on generating outsize returns from early stage impact venture investing in Canadian ventures solving social and environmental challenges through technology and business. She is known for her passion for social finance and deep involvement and support for the companies in which she invests. That passion was born a decade ago when she joined Social Venture Partners NYC and then subsequently founded Social Venture Partners Toronto. Prior to her time in the social investing space, Kathryn worked in a traditional banking and venture capital background. She started her career in investment banking at RBC Dominion Securities and has spent most of her 20-year career investing and managing venture capital and private equity in small and medium-sized businesses, both in Toronto and New York. In Toronto, Kathryn spent time at CIBC Capital Partners, BMO Capital and Lynx Equity, a succession fund. In New York, Kathryn actively invested and managed a portfolio of early stage media technology companies with Constellation Ventures, a Bear Stearns-sponsored venture capital fund. Kathryn also actively invested and managed strategic insurance technology investments for MetLife, the largest life insurer in the United States. She has held a number of board roles in the both the US and Canada. Kathryn was born and raised in Toronto and has an undergraduate degree from the University of Western Ontario and an MBA from Columbia University in New York.