Coveo, a Québec City-based provider of intelligent search apps, has raised $35 million in a Series D financing. The round was led by IQ Venture Capital and was joined by the company's existing investors Tandem Expansion Fund, BDC Capital, Propulsion Ventures and Fonds de solidarité FTQ. Coveo’s chief executive Louis Têtu also invested.
3 min read · 05 November 2015
Canadian marketing intelligence platform Affinio Inc has raised $4 million in Series A financing. Canadian venture capital firm Whitecap Venture Partners led the round, with participation from other backers, including Build Ventures, Affinio's seed investor, as well as Social Starts, BRaVe Ventures and several angel investors. As a result of the deal, Whitecap Partner Joe Catalfamo will join the company's board of directors. Halifax-based Affinio has developed social and content affinity technology that helps enterprises obtain strategic insights about their customers. It plans to use the new investment's proceeds to fund global expansion and continued development of its platform.
3 min read · 03 November 2015
SweetIQ has raised $4.2 million in a Series A financing. The round was led by Canadian venture capital firm Plaza Ventures, with participation from Rothenberg Ventures, Desjardins-Innovatech, Otimo Retail Group and Real Ventures, which led the company's seed funding in 2011. Montréal-based SweetIQ has developed an analytics and automation platform that helps brands and marketing agencies understand the impact of local marketing on in-store visitors and sales. It said the capital infusion will fuel growth in the United States, a doubling of its team, and the launch of partnerships with directories and offline data providers. Plaza Ventures' Matthew Leibowitz will join SweetIQ's board of directors.
3 min read · 03 November 2015
Canadian specialty finance firm Wellington Financial has closed Wellington Financial Fund V, reaching its hard-cap target of $300 million of re-circulating equity commitments. As reported by PE Hub Canada, the firm secured $285 million, or nearly all of Fund V's target, in an initial close held in October. The largest innovation-focused private debt fund raised to date by Wellington, it was backed by Canadian institutional investors and family offices, the majority of which were repeat limited partners. Fund V will continue to provide term, venture and amortizing loans to North American and U.K.-based companies, most of them technology-focused, with deals ranging from $2 million to $40 million in size.
3 min read · 02 November 2015
Canadian fund-of-funds manager Alberta Enterprise Corp (AEC) has obtained $50 million from the provincial government. The commitment, which will be deployed in two tranches over the next two years, will be used to support venture capital investment in Alberta-based startup and early-stage technology companies. Founded in 2008, AEC previously committed $100 million to eight venture funds and the Accelerate Fund LP. By partnering with other investor groups, it estimates that every $1 committed by AEC leverages about $4 of investments into Alberta companies. AEC is led by President and CEO Kristina Williams.
3 min read · 02 November 2015
MidOcean Partners has completed its sale of Noranco Inc to Precision Castparts Corp (NYSE: PCP). No financial terms were disclosed; however, as reported by PE Hub Canada in July, Precision said it had agreed to pay US$560 million for the business. Lazard advised Noranco on the transaction. Based in Toronto, Noranco is a supplier of complex machined components and assemblies for the international commercial and military aerospace sectors. Its sale also provided an exit to Canadian pension fund manager PSP Investments, which partnered with MidOcean in acquiring Noranco in April 2013.
2 min read · 02 November 2015
Mark Sturrock has been hired by Monroe Capital to help expand its presence in the Canadian market. Based in Toronto, Sturrock will lead origination efforts in Canada on behalf of Monroe, a U.S. provider of senior and junior debt and equity co-investments to mid-market companies across North America. Before joining Monroe, Sturrock worked at Salus Capital Partners as a senior managing director. He has nearly 30 years of experience in the Canadian debt market, asset-based lending, commercial lending and international trade.
2 min read · 29 October 2015
Qvella, a Canadian molecular diagnostics company, has secured US$20 million in Series A financing. The round was co-led by U.S. healthcare investor RA Capital Management and Canadian venture capital firm Whitecap Venture Partners, and was joined by Hatteras Venture Partners and Sands Capital Ventures. Toronto-based Qvella is a developer of pathogen detection technology that obtains more time-efficient diagnostic results. Led by President and CEO Tino Alavie, the company plans to use the new funding to support on-going product development and expansion of its team. Whitecap announced a pre-Series A investment in Qvella when the firm closed Whitecap III LP at $100 million in June.
3 min read · 29 October 2015
Turnstone Biologics Inc, a Toronto-based biotechnology company focused on developing novel oncolytic viral immunotherapies for cancer, has closed $11.3 million in Series A financing. U.S. venture capital firm Versant Ventures led the round, with participation from existing investor FACIT, a trust established by the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research. With the funding round, Turnstone named Dr. Sammy J. Farah as CEO and Dr. Brian D. Lichty as CTO, while adding Versant Partner Dr. Jerel Davis and Managing Director Dr. Brad Bolzon to its board of directors. The company said it will use the new investment's proceeds to expand development of its product portfolio.
4 min read · 28 October 2015
Toronto-based financial technology company Financeit has closed a minority equity funding round led by the merchant banking division of Goldman Sachs. The value of the round, and its other backers, were not disclosed. Financeit, a cloud-based point-of-sale financing platform, said the investment gives it growth capital to help put its offering into the hands of more merchants. Since its founding in 2011, the company has signed up more than 4,000 merchant partners and received more than $1 billion in loan applications. Led by CEO and President Michael Garrity, it has received funding from BEST Funds, FinSight Ventures, TTV Capital and other investors.
3 min read · 23 October 2015
