WE’RE ON A MISSION TO TRANSFORM INVESTING
Our management team: traditional investment and corporate experience meets a passion for social finance and social impact through business.
KATHRYN WORTSMAN
Managing Partner
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.
DANIEL ARMALI
Principal
Prior to joining Amplify Capital, Daniel worked for Canada's largest venture capital investor. Daniel started his career working for fortune 500 technology companies including Microsoft, OpenText and comScore, before moving into a capital markets role with the Bank of Canada, spending time working in asset management on the Bank of Canada pension plan as well as the financial markets department of the Bank of Canada that is responsible for the foreign reserves portfolio and domestic debt portfolio. Daniel also spent time doing a consulting mandate at Rio Tinto Alcan during his MBA. Prior to joining Amplify Capital, Daniel spent nearly seven years with the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) supporting venture capital investments in direct companies, as well as Funds, and Funds of Funds. Daniel has held a number of board roles in Canada.
Daniel has an undergraduate degree from Wilfrid Laurier University, an MBA from HEC Montreal, and has successfully completed all three levels of the CFA program.
QHALISA KHAN
Analyst
Qhalisa joins Amplify Capital with a mission to work with entrepreneurs solving social and environmental challenges, and a passion at the intersection of impact and technology.
Qhalisa developed her interest in impact, entrepreneurship and venture capital through both her upbringing in Kenya, and diverse work experiences after moving to Canada. Prior to Amplify Capital, Qhalisa worked on the Strategy & Thesis team at Georgian, and as an analyst at Information Venture Partners, continuing to venture (pun intended) into the Canadian VC ecosystem. Her early career in finance started off at Ontario Teachers Pension Plan in private market valuations, after which her journey in venture capital began as an analyst at iGan Partners and with Front Row Ventures in her last year of university.
Qhalisa has an undergraduate degree in Accounting & Finance from the University of Waterloo and is a CFA Level II candidate.
MEGAN WERY
Sustainability Associate
Megan joins the team as a Sustainability Associate Intern, with an interest in business ventures that can sustain and measure both financial returns and positive social impact in the community.
Prior to Amplify Capital, Megan worked in the San Francisco Bay Area as a civil engineering consultant for six years, primarily on planning and development projects with sustainable solutions in water and resource management. After seeing how thoughtful design could benefit both people and the environment, she built an interest to find more applications of sustainability in other industries.
Megan is originally from Hawai'i and has an undergraduate degree in civil engineering from Loyola Marymount University. She is currently completing her MS in Sustainability Management at the University of Toronto.
“I find the team at Amplify Capital to be incredibly accessible and proactive in doing things to help the business.”