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
On Feb. 5, Vancouver-headquartered Regimen Equity Partners announced it had acquired, in partnership, Radial Engineering Limited, a lower mainland-based world-renowned manufacturer of pro-audio accessories and acoustical treatment products. As part of our “Behind The Deal” series, the CVCA caught up with two of Regimen Equity Partners’ Managing Directors, David Eisler and Cooper Seeman, to discuss
On May 7, Kitchener-based Miovision announced that McRock Capital led a CAD $15M in financing along with participation from existing investor, MacKinnon, Bennett & Co. (MKB), and new investors BDC Capital and HarbourVest Partners. As part of the financing, McRock co-founder, Whitney Rockley, has joined the Board of Directors. Founded in 2005, Miovision is a leader
On Mar. 20, Vancouver and San Francisco-based Axiom Zen, the maker of CryptoKitties announced that it had raised CAD $12M in Seed/Series A funding. The syndicate of investors on this deal included Andreessen Horowitz, Union Square Ventures, CAA Ventures, Digital Currency Group, Rising Tide Fund, YesVC, Hex Capital and CVCA member firm, Version One Ventures.
On Mar. 6, CVCA released its 2017 Year-In-Review data which demonstrated the attractiveness of ICT investing in Canada. Canadian ICT companies received the majority (71%) of total venture capital dollars invested ($2.5B over 375 deals) while life science companies received a fifth of the dollars invested ($696M over 105 deals). Almost a fifth (19%) of
It has almost been a year since the United States triggered NAFTA renegotiations. The historic free trade agreement was officially implemented on Jan. 1, 1994 after almost two decades of negotiations and amendments. Since 1994, Canadians have enjoyed a wider-selection of goods, increased trade volume, increased foreign direct investment and the development of new jobs.
