News release

Innovacorp Sees 35 Times Return on Investment in Nova Scotia Start-up

Innovacorp

Innovacorp’s investment in Meta Materials Inc. (META) (NASDAQ:MMAT) resulted in a $104 million return after the Nova Scotia start-up began publicly trading its shares on the Nasdaq stock exchange.

“What an amazing outcome for META, the start-up community, Innovacorp and Nova Scotia,” said Susan Corkum-Greek, Minister of Economic Development. “META has taken a giant leap ahead in its development and I congratulate them on their success. We are proud to support them and other world-class technology companies, innovators and teams here in Nova Scotia.”

Innovacorp invested about $3 million in Dartmouth-based META over the last six years. When META merged with a Nasdaq-listed company in June 2021, Innovacorp elected to sell its META shares in July.

Innovacorp is working with government to determine what happens to gains resulting from the sale of META shares.

Quotes:

“The Innovacorp team has a track record investing in disruptive technologies. With Innovacorp’s support, including incubation facilities, META was able to scale and launch its first metamaterial application. META is growing. We will soon move into our state-of-the-art 6,300-square-metre (68,000-sq.-ft.) facility in Dartmouth, and we appreciate the support from Innovacorp during the transition.”

– George Palikaras, president and CEO, META

“Innovacorp continues to believe in META’s technology, market opportunities and team. We can’t wait to see the company moves forward, and we can’t wait to help build other start-up success stories like this one.”

– Malcolm Fraser, president and CEO, Innovacorp

Quick Facts:

  • established in 2011, META is a developer of high-performance functional materials and nanocomposites
  • the technology has applications in aerospace and defence, health care, the automotive industry and clean technology
  • META is headquartered at Innovacorp’s clean technology incubation facility in Dartmouth, The Bays at Innovacorp
  • META is Atlantic Canada’s first publicly traded ‘unicorn,’ a start-up valued at more than $1 billion

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