Mike Winterfield

Mike Winterfield is the Founder and Managing Partner of Active Impact Investments, a Vancouver-area climate tech venture firm. Active Impact describes its work as providing capital and talent to early-stage climate tech ventures that accelerate the transition from finite to infinite sources of energy, food, water, and products. The firm has positioned itself as Canada’s largest climate tech seed fund and closed its third fund at $110M CAD in May 2025, bringing total AUM to more than $180M.

Before founding Active Impact in 2017, Winterfield held senior operating roles in software and professional services. Active Impact’s team page says he was COO at Traction on Demand and President of Traction Rec, and previously President of Randstad Professionals, where he ran $300M in revenue and helped place thousands of people in key roles. His investing edge is therefore heavily tied to enterprise sales, hiring, and scaling teams.

Winterfield studied biology and psychology at Queen’s University, receiving a BSc in 1997, and has also been reported to have completed executive education at INSEAD and board training through the University of Toronto Rotman / Beedie Directors Education Program. He has been affiliated with several startup and climate-support organizations, including Creative Destruction Lab Vancouver Climate and Spring Activator, and Active Impact says he serves as a board director for portfolio companies RailVision, Future, Agrology, Othersphere, and Lumo.

In 2023, Winterfield was named to Canada’s Clean50 in the “Angels: Investors & Eco System Support” category. Clean50 highlighted Active Impact’s 2020 pivot to focus exclusively and “unapologetically” on climate technology, and noted that the firm had raised more than $70M at the time from institutions including Export Development Canada, Fondaction, Vancity Credit Union, and the Toronto Atmospheric Fund.

• Active Impact’s stated thesis is to “provide capital and talent to accelerate the growth of early-stage climate tech ventures” that catalyze a transition from finite to infinite sources of energy, food, water, and products.
• The firm focuses on four categories: clean energy and transportation; infrastructure and carbon solutions; sustainable food and water; and circular/sharing economy.
• Active Impact looks for founders building companies that can generate strong customer ROI from day one by either optimizing existing sustainable technologies or accelerating adoption of new technology more affordably.
• The firm’s founder criteria emphasize early-stage climate tech, exceptional leadership, revenue or readiness to sell, large growth ambition, and openness to outside help.
• Reported investment pattern: mostly seed, some pre-seed and Series A; lead at seed and follow at Series A; typical check of $1.5M CAD.
• Active Impact screens first for meaningful climate impact: The Impact’s profile says the company must be able, at scale, to “move the needle” on emissions and climate change.
• Portfolio support is a major differentiator. The Impact reported that Active Impact helps with sales and marketing, finance, technology, and HR, and that founders interact with the team frequently after investment.