Private Equity
The uncertain regulatory environment surrounding the operation of unmanned aerial vehicles isn’t hampering the application and innovation of drones.
4 min read · 11 October 2014
Peter Thiel, the first outside investor in Facebook and co-founder of PayPal and Palantir Technologies, continued his campaign against what he sees as a lack of innovation in the technology business at the PartnerConnect conference Tuesday.
2 min read · 07 October 2014
Marc Andreessen joins Bill Gurley and Fred Wilson in sounding the alarm that the tech startup world is overheated. Key word: "vaporize."
3 min read · 25 September 2014
When Ryan Holmes founded Hootsuite Media in 2008, he had two key objectives in mind. He wanted his startup to be a leading driver of social media innovation on a global scale. He also wanted to build it into a billion-dollar company that would stay true to its Canadian roots. Holmes and Hootsuite have made significant progress on both counts. This week, the company announced it has closed a US$60 million follow-on financing, which brings its total raise of venture capital since 2009 to a whopping US$250 million.
4 min read · 25 September 2014
There’s something to be said for sticking with a job. It certainly has worked out for Jim Breyer, who joined Accel Partners as a newly minted MBA graduate in 1987. It was a good call, Venture Capital Journal reports.
3 min read · 18 September 2014
Businesses and governments everywhere are being forced to grapple with escalating, stealthy and increasingly destructive cyber-attacks. One Canadian startup believes it has a solution. This week, Cambridge, Ontario-based eSentire, which has developed an active threat detection platform popular with hedge funds, secured a $14 million Series C financing from a consortium of Canadian and U.S. venture capital firms and strategic investors to promote further growth and customer diversification.
4 min read · 16 September 2014
Vancouver-based e-commerce provider Elastic Path Software has raised $5.35 million in a new financing round led by BDC Venture Capital IT Fund and joined by Yaletown Venture Partners and several angel investors. The new funds will help Elastic Path position its digital technology platform and scale its operations to anticipate a major market shift in the direction of experience-driven commerce.
3 min read · 10 September 2014
Kitchener-Waterloo's Desire2Learn Inc said on Thursday it raised $85 million in venture capital funds, Canada's biggest such deal this year, as the fast-growing owner of educational software maker looks to ramp up its overseas expansion, Reuters reported. Investors in its latest financing round included Columbus Nova Technology Partners, Graham Holdings, Four Rivers Group and Aurion Capital. The deal follows an earlier $80 million round in 2012, co-led by New Enterprise Associates and OMERS Ventures, which both also contributed this time around.
2 min read · 14 August 2014
There is a new Canadian technology investor in town. Gibraltar Ventures, a Toronto-based firm that is seeking to bring disruptive technology solutions to consumers and small to medium-sized businesses, this week completed the initial close of its first $50 million fund, Gibraltar Ventures Fund One LP. Backers of the fund included BDC Capital. Gibraltar has also made its first investment, leading the $5.2 million Series A financing of online tickets marketplace FanXchange.
4 min read · 12 August 2014
Serial entrepreneurs have been growing their presence in Canadian innovation hubs since the tech boom of the 1990s. And several have been responsible for some of the hottest venture-backed startups to emerge of late, such as Waterloo's Auvik Networks. Repeat founders might also be having an important impact on the bottom lines of VCs. The portfolio evolution of Canadian venture capital firm Celtic House Venture Partners, a 20-year-old media communications technology investor, is illustrative of the trend.
5 min read · 05 August 2014
