On April 18, Toronto-based VC fund, iGan Partners, announced it had raised CAD $100M for its first fund, iGan Fund I; surpassing its initial goal of CAD $50M. The fund is focused on the health technology sector which includes digital health, medical devices, healthcare IT and AI. The fund will also provide diversified exposure to
Photo (left to right): inovia capital General Partners, Patrick Pichette, Dennis Kavelman and Chris Arsenault On February 19, Montreal-based inovia capital announced it had raised a fourth USD $200M early-stage fund and a new USD $400M growth-stage fund. The firm also announced that it is expanding to core markets in Canada and Silicon Valley and opened a
Photo: Bold Commerce Founders – (Left to right) Jason Myers, Yvan Boisjoli, Stefan Maynard, Eric Boisjoli. On January 16, Winnipeg-based Bold Commerce announced the successful close of a CAD $22M Round A financing from Whitecap Venture Partners and Round13 Capital. Bold Commerce provides a range of e-commerce applications to 86,000+ wholesale and business-to-business merchants worldwide.
Photo: (Left) Andrew D’Souza, Co-founder and CEO, Clearbanc and (Right) Michele Romanow, Co-founder and President, Clearbanc. On Nov. 12, Toronto-based Clearbanc announced it had successfully raised USD $70M from a syndicate that included, inovia capital, Real Ventures, Portag3 Ventures, Emergence Capital Partners, 8VC, Social Capital, CoVenture, Founders Fund, Precursor, WTI, Berggruen, and FJ Labs. Clearbanc
On Oct. 31, Montreal and Toronto-based private equity firm, Persistence Capital Partners announced the acquisition of their portfolio company, EnvironeX Group Inc. by Eurofins Scientific (EUFI.PA), a global scientific leader in bioanalytical testing. Québec-based EnvironeX Group is one of the largest analytical laboratories in Québec, with over 250 specialists and technicians, managers and professionals in
I often find myself in various conversations where I hear a very similar statement. It’s normally something along the lines of, “Sure, we have plenty of interest in the seed and early stage venture rounds. What we’re missing in Canada is support for the later stage venture rounds.” While I don’t aim to disprove this
Photo: Sophie Forest, Managing Partner, Brightspark Ventures & Fred Lalonde, Founder & CEO, Hopper. On October 3, Montreal-based Hopper announced it had successfully completed a USD $100M Series D round, led by OMERS Ventures and included participation from CVCA members Brightspark Ventures, BDC Capital and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ). Other participating firms
On Sept. 12, new Toronto-based VC, Ripple Ventures, announced the closing of their new CAD $10M early stage focused Fund I. The fund will focus on early-stage companies in Toronto, Waterloo, Montreal, and Boston with preference given to software companies in healthcare and enterprise, as well as companies in industrial services, real estate, blockchain and
On May 9, #paid, a Toronto-based company that connects marketers with influencers for campaigns and content creation, announced that it had closed CAD $9M in Series A financing from a syndicate of investors. The CVCA members involved in the deal included Good News Ventures, ScaleUP Ventures and Freycinet Ventures. #paid was founded in 2014 and
On June 20, publicly-traded marijuana stocks in Canada picked up steam after the bill to legalize recreational marijuana passed the Canadian senate, the last major hurdle in Canadian parliament. That wasn’t the first time cannabis stocks have surged in the country; when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau won the Federal General Election in 2015, stocks rose
Impact investing is on the rise, as more and more private equity (PE) investors look to achieve solid financial returns while also helping to solve some of the biggest social and environmental challenges we face. As the impact investing opportunity continues to grow, Canadian PE firms should take steps to get ahead of the curve
As merger and acquisition (M&A) transactions continue to grow in scale and complexity, so have the associated transaction costs. Consequently, it makes the tax treatment of these outlays of greater importance to all parties. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) has long challenged taxpayers on the deductibility of fees incurred as part of a transaction, making
The CVCA was proud to award Yaletown Partners with the 2017 Venture Capital Deal of the Year Award on June 7th, during the Invest Canada ’17 conference in Montreal. Yaletown Partners is a Vancouver-headquartered firm that invests in emerging-growth technology companies in Canada. Yaletown invested CAD $7.5 million in BitStew Systems, and realized proceeds of