Private Equity
Fund of funds Cendana Capital II seeks $30M; direct investment fund seeks $25M
1 min read · 25 November 2013
Toronto-based commercialization hub MaRS Innovation has entered into a collaboration with Johnson & Johnson Innovation, and its affiliate Janssen Inc, to advance early-stage technologies related to human health in therapeutics, medical devices, and diagnostics. Under the terms of the three-year agreement, MaRS Innovation and the Johnson & Johnson Innovation Center in Boston, Mass. will jointly identify and fund high-potential opportunities emerging from research at MaRS Innovation's 16 member institutions, which include the University of Toronto and its teaching hospitals.
2 min read · 25 November 2013
U.S.-focused and rest-of-world funds are solid performers, but Asia is lagging
2 min read · 25 November 2013
BDC Venture Capital and the National Angel Capital Organization (NACO) have renewed their partnership for a third year, promising to further strengthen Canada's community of angel investors by identifying, standardizing, and sharing best practices. BDC's Dominique Belanger noted that the initiative supports the continuing rise in the number of angel investors, and their increasing role as drivers of Canadian innovation and competitiveness. The announcement was made at this week's 2013 National Angel Summit, hosted by NACO in Banff, Alberta. The winner of the Summit's pitch competition, peHUB Canada has learned, was Farm At Hand, a cloud-based farm management platform that allows producers to manage production and agribusinesses to exchange real-time information. The company is backed by Vancouver-based start-up accelerator GrowLab.
3 min read · 22 November 2013
Finjan Holdings has made an undisclosed investment in an unidentified Israel-based venture capital fund. The pool will focus on early-stage tech companies "on the leading edge of cybersecurity innovation."
3 min read · 22 November 2013
GrowthWorks Canadian Fund has been provided legal authorization to begin a sale investor solicitation process. The authorization, which was provided by the Ontario Superior Court of Justice under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act, faciliates contact with prospective strategic and financial partners about a potential merger, asset sale, or investment in the fund. The venture capital fund has in past been affiliated with Vancouver-based GrowthWorks.
5 min read · 21 November 2013
Blueline Bioscience, a Toronto-based biotech incubator launched earlier this year by U.S. venture capital firm Versant Ventures, has entered into a new partnership with Celgene Corp, a manufacturer of drug therapies for cancer and inflammatory disorders with headquarters in Summit, New Jersey. Under the terms of the collaboration, Celegene will have certain option rights with respect to early-stage life sciences companies launched by the incubator in such fields as oncology and inflammation. Versant Ventures recently established an office in Vancouver. Blueline Bioscience is located in the MaRS Discovery District.
3 min read · 20 November 2013
Toronto-based financial advisory firm GreenSky Capital has launched GreenSky President’s Club (GPC), a group of high net worth investors interested in investing in early-stage technology companies. Under the GPC model, opportunities are first pre-screened by GreenSky. ”We will often work with companies for a couple of months before we bring them to the GPC, and will have completed and organized our own due diligence for the group to review even before they see the presentations," said GreekSky president Geoff Simonett. GPC's first meeting was this month held at MaRS Discovery District. Twenty GPC members were introduced to Cyclica, a platform for accurately testing drug candidates and designing new drugs, and OTI Lumionics, a company focused on reducing the manufacturing costs of organic light emitting diodes.
3 min read · 18 November 2013
After a long slog, the firm has six portfolio companies go IPO in past 14 months
4 min read · 18 November 2013
Union Square, Spark and Foundry Group top the list of winners
2 min read · 18 November 2013
