The Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario) has agreed to commit up to $9 million to an Ontario seed fund. Launched by the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE), the SmartStart Seed Fund provides seed financing to help young entrepreneurs grow their startups and make them investment and customer ready. The program was first piloted with FedDev Ontario funding in 2012 and was renewed with Ontario government funding in April 2014.
3 min read · 21 January 2015
Zymeworks Inc has partnered with U.S.-based Celgene Corp on the research, development, and commercialization of bi-specific antibody therapeutics enabled by Zymeworks' product platform. Celgene will have the option to advance the resulting therapeutic candidates, while Zymeworks will receive an undisclosed initial upfront payment. According to a U.S. regulatory filing, Celgene has also invested $10 million in the company. The entire transaction may give Zymeworks up to US$164 million per therapeutic candidate, as well as royalties on net sales. The Vancouver-based company is backed by CTI Life Sciences, Advanced Biotechnologies Venture Fund and the Fonds de solidarité FTQ.
3 min read · 21 January 2015
Poka Inc, a startup that has developed a social platform for manufacturers, has received $2.5 million in financing. The round was led by Canadian venture capital firm iNovia Capital with the participation of U.S. firm SoftTech VC. Based in Québec City, Poka's technology is focused on facilitating skills training, knowledge retention and real-time information in the manufacturing industry. It said investment proceeds will be used to accelerate product development, grow the engineering team, and expand into new markets in North America and Europe. Poka was co-founded in 2013 by CEO Alexandre Leclerc and CTO Antoine Bisson.
3 min read · 21 January 2015
The Next 36 has chosen its fifth cohort of young Canadian entrepreneurs from a pool of over 630 applicants. The successful individuals will spend the next seven months building their companies with the support of mentors, including Janet Bannister, general partner at Canadian venture capital firm Real Ventures. The companies will also receive seed capital from a fund that includes Canadian venture capital firm Relay Ventures as a partner. A non-profit organization focused on developing young innovators, The Next 36 also sponsors The Next Founders program, which helps companies scale rapidly.
4 min read · 20 January 2015
Fruition Partners has bought Manta Group Ltd, a Toronto-based management consulting business specializing in organizational change, process design and service design for enterprise customers in Canada. The financial details of the transaction were not released. Fruition Partners, a Chicago-based provider of technology-enabled solutions for the service management sector, said the acquisition supports its expansion in cloud professional services. Founded in 2003, the company is a portfolio investment of U.S. venture capital and growth equity firm Trident Capital.
4 min read · 20 January 2015
Trustatom Inc, a Bitcoin blockchain-powered contracts provider, has raised seed-stage financing from a group of angel investors, including entrepreneurs Brian Cartmell and Vinny Lingham. The round's value was not published. Trustatom said funding proceeds will help it strengthen its team and support the forthcoming launch of CredyCo, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) product for automating document-based investment due diligence processes. Headquartered in Vancouver, the company was founded by Yurii Rashkovskii in 2014.
2 min read · 19 January 2015
Rubikloud Technologies Inc has secured $7 million in Series A financing. The round was led by Chinese media business TOM Group and affiliate Ule, and was joined by Access Industries and other private investors. As a result of the deal, TOM Group CEO Ken Yeung will join the company's board of directors. Based in Toronto, Rubikloud is a data analytics startup that is focused on turning retail intelligence into revenue and insights. It said funding will be used to grow the company's engineering and data science team and expand its customer reach in North America and China. Rubikloud obtained seed financing in 2013 from Horizons Ventures and MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund.
4 min read · 19 January 2015
Kensington Venture Fund, which last November raised $160 million in its initial close, has completed its first round of investments. The fund made undisclosed commitments to Georgian Partners Growth Fund II, the second applied analytics fund of Georgian Partners; Novacap TMT IV LP, the fourth technology, media and telecommunications fund of Novacap; and Walden Venture Capital VIII, the latest digital media and cloud services fund of U.S.-based Walden Venture Capital. It also made a direct investment in Blue Ant Media Inc, a media company with headquarters in Toronto. A venture fund of funds targeted to raise $300 million in total, the Kensington fund is managed by Kensington Capital Partners.
4 min read · 19 January 2015
U.S. venture capitalists invested US$48.39 billion last year, the biggest total since 2000, according to new data from the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA), PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Thomson Reuters, Reuters reported. Despite the eye popping numbers that hark back to the dotcom era, most venture capitalists say last year's investments should not be confused with a bubble.
2 min read · 16 January 2015
Sylvain Paré has been appointed the new executive vice president, finance, at Canadian private equity and venture capital firm Fonds de solidarité FTQ. He replaces Michel Pontbriand, who has retired. Paré joined the Fonds de solidarité FTQ in 2006. He previously worked in senior positions at the Fédération des caisses Desjardins, Desjardins Financial Corp and Netgraphe, a subsidiary of Québecor Média Inc. Based in Montréal, Fonds de solidarité FTQ manages net assets of $10.5 billion.
2 min read · 16 January 2015
