QUEBEC CITY--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 26, 2024--
H 2 O Innovation Inc. (“H 2 O Innovation” or the “Corporation”) and Cycle Capital announce the initial close of Cycle H2O Fund, a watertech venture capital fund with a targeted size of C$30 million fund dedicated to investing in innovative water technologies. The Government of Québec, through Investissement Québec, acted as anchor investor and was joined by Boann Capital, Fonds Climat du Grand Montréal, The Atmospheric Fund, a number of family offices, and private investors as limited partners.
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The fund aims to support the development and commercialization of seed and early stage innovative watertech companies from Québec and Eastern Canada (in sustainable agriculture, green chemistry and water treatment digital technologies related to industrial water processes and water conservation) to meet the growing need for market-ready solutions.
Managed by Cycle Capital and H 2 O Innovation, and led by Cycle Capital’s Senior Partner Simon Olivier, the Cycle H2O fund will capitalize on Cycle Capital’s more than a decade-long experience of ClimateTech venture investing globally, and H 2 O Innovation’s expertise in developing and commercializing water treatment solutions internationally.
“To build a green and sustainable economy, we need to accelerate the development and marketing of clean technology. With our investment in the Cycle H2O Fund, our government is providing the Québec of tomorrow with innovative solutions for the intelligent use of its water,” Pierre Fitzgibbon, Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy, Minister Responsible for Regional Economic Development and Minister Responsible for the Metropolis and the Montréal Region.
"We need innovative technologies that will help us adapt our way of life and combat climate change effectively. This is particularly true of water, a shared resource that Québec is actively seeking to preserve. We have announced record sums for ensuring there is adequate, predictable and sustained funding of initiatives that will protect, restore and enhance water, by means of the Fonds bleu. And the investment we have announced today will support the creation of the Cycle H2O Fund. This new fund is another example of our government’s firm commitment to water and of Québec’s desire to actively contribute to global efforts that will protect and sustainably manage this precious resource,” added Benoit Charette, Minister of the Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks and Minister responsible for the Laurentides region.
“Cycle Capital’s experience in the ClimateTech sector has shown us the transformative power of specialized venture funds to tackle some of the most pressing environmental challenges. With the Cycle H2O Fund, we are expanding our focus to include water, a sector ripe for disruption to tackle water scarcity. We look forward to collaborating with our partner H 2 O Innovation and seeing the impact this fund will have on the global water landscape,” said Andrée-Lise Méthot, Founder and Managing Partner at Cycle Capital.
“Since our founding in 2000, our vision to address growing and complex water issues has been clear: provide state-of-the-art technologies and solutions to municipal and industrial customers across Canada and abroad. However, the lack of awareness from the public and from the investment community in general, as well as the absence of specialized water investment platforms in Canada made us struggle in our early days. Today we want to give back and share our knowledge and experience with new “water entrepreneurs” willing to develop technologies and grow businesses in a sector that will never slow down: water. The opportunity to combine capital and experience in this fund fits perfectly with our desire to support companies in their seed and growing phases,” stated Frédéric Dugré, President and Chief Executive Officer of H 2 O Innovation.
About H 2 O Innovation
Innovation is in our name, and it is what drives the organization. H 2 O Innovation is a water solutions company focused on providing best-in-class technologies and services to its customers. The Corporation’s activities rely on three pillars: (i) Water Technologies & Services (WTS) applies membrane technologies and engineering expertise to deliver equipment and services to municipal and industrial water, wastewater, and water reuse customers, (ii) Specialty Products (SP) is a set of businesses that manufacture and supply a complete line of specialty chemicals, consumables and components for the global water treatment industry, and (iii) Operation & Maintenance (O&M) provides contract operations and associated services for water and wastewater treatment systems. Through innovation, we strive to simplify water. For more information, visit H 2 O Innovation.
Cycle Capital
Cycle Capital is a leading ClimateTech venture capital platform scaling impactful sustainable innovation. Founded in 2009, Cycle Capital invests across North America, Europe and Asia in growing companies commercializing solutions to the major ecological challenges and contributing to a net-zero transition. Cycle Capital is the founder of Cycle Momentum Accelerator + Innovation Engine. Cycle Capital has developed an ESG and impact assessment methodology integrated into the investment workflow from the pre-investment phase to the exit of the portfolio company. For more information on CycleH2O, visit: CycleH2O – Cycle Capital
Source:
H 2 O Innovation Inc.
www.h2oinnovation.com
Cycle Capital
www.cyclecapital.com
(Graphic: Business Wire)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran announced Saturday it will hold a runoff presidential election to replace the late hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi after an initial vote saw the top candidates not securing an outright win in the lowest turnout poll ever held in the Islamic Republic.
The election this coming Friday will pit reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian against the hard-line former nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili.
Mohsen Eslami, an election spokesman, announced the result in a news conference carried by Iranian state television. He said of 24.5 million votes cast, Pezeshkian got 10.4 million while Jalili received 9.4 million.
Parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf got 3.3 million. Shiite cleric Mostafa Pourmohammadi had over 206,000 votes.
Iranian law requires that a winner gets more than 50% of all votes cast. If not, the race’s top two candidates advance to a runoff a week later. There’s been only one runoff presidential election in Iran’s history: in 2005, when hard-liner Mahmoud Ahmadinejad bested former President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.
Eslami acknowledged the country's Guardian Council would need to offer formal approval, but the result did not draw any immediate challenge from contenders in the race.
As has been the case since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, women and those calling for radical change have been barred from running, while the vote itself will have no oversight from internationally recognized monitors.
There were signs of the wider disenchantment of the public with the vote. More than 1 million votes were voided, according to the results, typically a sign of people feeling obligated to cast a ballot but not wanting to select any of the candidates.
The overall turnout was 39.9%, according to the results. The 2021 presidential election that elected Raisi saw a 48.8% turnout, while the March parliamentary election saw a 40.6% turnout.
Despite the low turnout, Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi praised the public for turning out to a vote conducted without any internationally recognized observers.
He thanked the people who voted for their “very valuable presence,” adding that the election was held in “complete safety” and “with very serious competition.”
There had been calls for a boycott, including from imprisoned Nobel Peace Prize laureate Narges Mohammadi. Mir Hossein Mousavi, one of the leaders of the 2009 Green Movement protests who remains under house arrest, has also refused to vote along with his wife, his daughter said.
There’s also been criticism that Pezeshkian represents just another government-approved candidate. In a documentary on the reformist candidate aired by state TV, one woman said her generation was “moving toward the same level” of animosity with the government that Pezeshkian’s generation had in the 1979 revolution.
Jalili, once described by CIA director Bill Burns as “stupefyingly opaque” in negotiations, likely would have won outright had the three hard-liners not split Friday's vote.
Qalibaf, a former general in Iran's paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, had been thought to have a wider power base, despiting being plagued by corruption allegations. He is also known for launching a violent crackdown on Iranian university students in 1999 and reportedly ordering live fire to be used against students in 2003 while serving as the country’s police chief.
Now the question becomes whether Pezeshkian will be able to draw voters into his campaign. On Election Day, he offered comments on outreach to the West after voting seemingly aimed at drumming up turnout for his campaign — even after being targeted by a veiled warning from Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
“Though he has received notable endorsements from major reformist figures, including former Presidents (Hassan) Rouhani and Mohammad Khatami, Pezeshkian has been a generally underwhelming candidate,” the geopolitical consultancy Eurasia Group said in an analysis before the vote. “Should he qualify for a runoff, his position would weaken as the conservative voting bloc unites behind a single candidate.”
Raisi, 63, died in the May 19 helicopter crash that also killed the country’s foreign minister and others. He was seen as a protégé of Khamenei and a potential successor. Still, many knew him for his involvement in the mass executions that Iran conducted in 1988, and for his role in the bloody crackdowns on dissent that followed protests over the death of Mahsa Amini, a young woman detained by police over allegedly improperly wearing the mandatory headscarf, or hijab.
The voting came as wider tensions have gripped the Middle East over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip.
In April, Iran launched its first-ever direct attack on Israel over the war in Gaza, while militia groups that Tehran arms in the region — such as the Lebanese Hezbollah and Yemen’s Houthi rebels — are engaged in the fighting and have escalated their attacks.
Meanwhile, the Islamic Republic continues to enrich uranium at near weapons-grade levels and maintains a stockpile large enough to build — should it choose to do so — several nuclear weapons.
Despite the recent unrest, there was only one reported attack around the election. Gunmen opened fire on a van transporting ballot boxes in the restive southeastern province of Sistan and Baluchestan, killing two police officers and wounding others, the state-run IRNA news agency reported. The province regularly sees violence between security forces and the militant group Jaish al-Adl, as well as drug traffickers.
Vahdat reported from Tehran, Iran. Nasser Karimi in Tehran, Iran, contributed to this report.
In this photo provided by Iranian Students' News Agency, ISNA, reformist candidate for the Iranian presidential election Masoud Pezeshkian casts his ballot as he waves to media in a polling station, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 28, 2024. Iranians are voting in a snap election to replace the late hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi. (Majid Khahi, ISNA via AP)
A man casts his ballot during the presidential election as he holds a picture of the late President Ebrahim Raisi in a polling station, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 28, 2024. Iranians were voting Friday in a snap election to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi, killed in a helicopter crash last month, as public apathy has become pervasive in the Islamic Republic after years of economic woes, mass protests and tensions in the Middle East. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A woman fills out her ballot during the Iranian presidential election in a polling station at the shrine of Saint Saleh in northern Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 28, 2024. Iranians were voting Friday in a snap election to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi, killed in a helicopter crash last month, as public apathy has become pervasive in the Islamic Republic after years of economic woes, mass protests and tensions in the Middle East. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei waves to media after casting his vote during the presidential election in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 28, 2024. Iranians were voting Friday in a snap election to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi, killed in a helicopter crash last month, as public apathy has become pervasive in the Islamic Republic after years of economic woes, mass protests and tensions in the Middle East. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A woman prepares to casts her ballot during the presidential election at a polling station inside the Iranian embassy in Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, June 28, 2024. Iranians are voting in a presidential election to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi, killed in a helicopter crash in May along with the country's foreign minister and several other officials. (AP Photo/Hadi Mizban)
Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei arrives to vote for the presidential election, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 28, 2024. Iranians voted Friday in a snap election to replace the late hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi, with the race's sole reformist candidate vowing to seek "friendly relations" with the West in an effort to boost his campaign. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)
A woman prepares to casts her ballot during the presidential election at the Iranian consulate in Basra southeast of Baghdad, Iraq, Friday, June 28, 2024. Iranians are voting in a presidential election to replace the late President Ebrahim Raisi, killed in a helicopter crash in May along with the country's foreign minister and several other officials. (AP Photo/Nabil al-Jourani)
In this photo provided by Iranian Students' News Agency, ISNA, hard-line former Iranian senior nuclear negotiator and candidate for the presidential election Saeed Jalili casts his ballot in a polling station, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, June 28, 2024. Iranians are voting in a snap election to replace the late hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi. (Alireza Sotakabr, ISNA via AP)
