Fundraising

Pelican is targeting a return of 4x capital and plans to back between 20 and 30 companies across pre-seed, seed and Series A rounds.

Imec xpand, a Belgian venture capital firm focused on semiconductor investments, has closed its sophomore fund at €300m.

Fund IV's investors include the Mexico State Investment Council, JP Morgan Asset Management, Vanderbilt University Endowment and USAA.

LPs include the Illinois Growth and Innovation Fund, RK Mellon Foundation, Renaissance Venture Capital, NVNG and Cintrifuse Capital.

After a couple of years of slower growth, Canada’s venture system is re-energized and poised to resume its expansion.

The fund of funds, which is targeting $750 million, expects to invest 70 percent of its capital in primary funds, including as many as 14 venture funds.

Investors include BlackRock, Temasek, Allstate, BBVA, KIRKBI, Mizuho Bank Ltd, MUFG Bank Ltd and TotalEnergies.

Norwest now has $15.5 billion total capital under management.

Venture firms worldwide closed on $15bn in the first quarter. It was their smallest fundraising haul since Q3 of 2017.