Scaling Private Impact Investing in Canada: Reflections from the Sustainable Finance Summit 2025

Last week at the Sustainable Finance Summit, I had the opportunity to share insights on Amplify Capital’s work and discuss strategies for scaling private impact investing in Canada. This conversation was anchored in the 18 actionable recommendations highlighted in the report, Scaling Impact Investing in Canada Through Mobilizing Asset Owners, published last year by Quinn+Partners in collaboration with the Canadian Impact Investing Working Group. 

Here are some key takeaways from the presentation and the roundtable discussions that ensued. 

Investing in Resilient Sectors

Amplify Capital has been focused on impact investing since 2016, with a clear mandate to back early-stage ventures in climate, health, and education. These are not only critical systems in transition, but sectors that have historically demonstrated resilience during economic downturns. During the pandemic and subsequent market turbulence, businesses in these areas often outperformed or rebounded faster, underscoring their durability and social relevance.

Yet, despite their importance, these sectors remain chronically underfunded - especially in the early stages. Private capital has a critical role to play in closing that gap and that’s what Amplify Capital does.

Scarcity Breeds Efficiency: Canadian Founders Make It Work

Canada’s innovation ecosystem has historically faced limited early-stage capital for impact-oriented ventures. But this constraint has also driven a culture of creativity and discipline. Founders have become exceptionally skilled at securing non-dilutive funding - through grants, partnerships, and government programs - and at deploying capital with precision. 

This creates a strong opportunity for investors to back capital efficient businesses, taking advantage of a milestone-based fundraising approach and leveraging every dollar of private investment to unlock the same amount or more in non-dilutive funding. This structure not only aligns investor and founder expectations but also supports sustainable growth.

Impact Is Not an Asset Class, It’s a Strategy

There is still a misconception that impact investing necessarily involves concessionary returns. That’s simply not the case. Amplify has consistently delivered both market-competitive returns and measurable impact - demonstrating that these outcomes are not mutually exclusive.

The industry needs more education through real examples and post-mortems. We must be candid about what’s worked and what hasn’t. The lessons from Cleantech 1.0 - where capital flowed into science-heavy startups without clear commercialization paths - are crucial as we navigate the next wave of ClimateTech.

ClimateTech 2.0 is different: it is customer-centric, deployment-focused, and often revenue-generating much earlier. Customers are increasingly stepping up, not just as buyers, but as active participants in scaling these technologies. We’re seeing industrial partners, municipalities, and global supply chain leaders offer capital, tools, infrastructure, pilot sites, and in-kind support to accelerate deployment. The urgency is real and customers are ready. They’re not waiting for perfect solutions; they’re ready to co-create and scale what works.

Rethinking Impact: It’s Not Just About Reporting

One of the most important shifts we need is to move impact out of the reporting silo and into the core of how companies operate. Reporting for its own sake can become a box-ticking exercise. True impact is embedded in the way a company sells, hires, retains talent, and builds culture. The best founders understand that impact is a strategic differentiator - not an afterthought.

Impact measurement must be intentional, tied directly to the company’s business model, and valuable to both stakeholders and customers. The success and scale-up of impact investing depends on this level of integration.

Looking Ahead

Canada has a unique opportunity to lead in this space. We have the talent, the policy tailwinds, and a growing community of investors committed to sustainable change. What’s needed now is more catalytic capital, more bold bets at the early stages, and more collaboration across sectors to share insights and scale what works.

At Amplify, we’re proud to be part of this movement - and we remain focused on investing in ventures that prove impact and returns can, and should, go hand in hand.