Private Equity
Toronto cloud accounting platform Hubdoc Inc has secured about $6.4 million (US$4.85 million) in a seed-stage financing. The round was led by Canadian venture capital firms BDC Capital and Round13 Capital and joined by Hyde Park Venture Partners and other investors. Founded in 2011, Hubdoc has developed an accounting application that uses cloud computing and machine learning to collect and analyze documents for financial reporting, reconciliation and audit proofing. It will use the funds raised to scale growth globally, accelerate innovation and hire new team members. Hubdoc is led by co-CEOs Jamie Shulman and Jamie McDonald.
3 min read · 21 June 2017
Canadian online alternative investment platform Crowdmatrix Inc said it will provide investors with access to private technology companies through a partnership with Plaza Ventures, a Canadian venture capital firm. The partnership will see accredited investors use Crowdmatrix's platform to invest in companies via Plaza Ventures Fund IV. Plaza is currently raising the micro-fund. By offering Plaza and other private equity funds on its site, Crowdmatrix said it hopes to open up the asset class to small investors. One of Plaza's portfolio companies, SweetIQ Analytics Corp, was acquired earlier this year.
2 min read · 20 June 2017
Ottawa fraud detection solution MindBridge Analytics Inc recently secured $4.3 million in a seed-stage financing, according to report by the Globe and Mail. The round was backed by Canadian venture capital firm Real Ventures and U.S. firm 8VC, the report said. MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund is among the company's other investors. Founded in 2015, MindBridge provides advanced anomaly detection solutions. Its flagship product, Ai Auditor, acquires and analyzes financial data to pinpoint unusual activity using a combination of machine learning, data science and artificial intelligence technologies.
1 min read · 20 June 2017
Canadian venture capital firm Avrio Capital has invested in POS Bio-Sciences Inc, a Saskatoon-based contract research organization offering process development, analytical and custom processing services for the bioprocessing industries. No financial terms were released for the investment, the sixth made to date by Avrio Ventures III, which raised $110 million last year. Avrio Managing Director Steven Leakos said the deal will help POS make the transition from a primary research focus to “a product-focused platform.” Founded in 1973, the company is led by CEO Dale Kelly. In March, Avrio invested in the US$6.5 million Series A financing of Farmlead Inc.
3 min read · 20 June 2017
Terrebonne, Québec-based software company Xpertdoc Technologies Inc has secured $2.285 million in mezzanine financing from BDC Capital's Growth and Transition Capital. The funds raised helped the company invest in the construction of a new building and attract and retain information technology professionals. Founded in 2000 by CEO Francis Dion, Xpertdoc provides document generation and customer communications management solutions. It reports achieving a 40 percent year-over-year growth rate over the past six years, in part due to U.S. sales.
3 min read · 20 June 2017
Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) has made a $5.5 million investment in Ranovus Inc, an Ottawa-based developer of advanced interconnect solutions for the telecommunications and information technology industries. Founded in 2012, Ranovus is led by President and CEO Hamid Arabzadeh. It is backed by Azure Capital Partners, BDC Capital, Export Development Canada, MaRS IAF, OMERS Ventures and T-Venture. SDTC, which funds early-stage clean technology projects, also invested $1.45 million in Heliene Inc and $903,000 in BioLINE Corp.
3 min read · 19 June 2017
Lululemon Athletica Inc (Nasdaq: LULU) has made an undisclosed minority investment in 7mesh Industries Inc, a Squamish, British Columbia maker of high performance cycling apparel. Vancouver-based Lululemon, an athletic clothing company, said the deal forms part of a strategic partnership with 7mesh, intended to create opportunities in advanced technical apparel. 7mesh was founded in 2013 by clothing industry executives. Lululemon is backed by U.S. private equity firm Advent International. Advent acquired a minority stake in the business for US$845 million in August 2014.
2 min read · 19 June 2017
Montréal financial technology startup Mylo, which closed a pre-seed round last month, has acquired Tactex Asset Management, a Canadian wealth management firm with a client asset book of $110 million. No financial terms were released for the deal, which Mylo said provides "immediate revenue." Mylo CEO Philip Barrar said the acquisition allows the company to launch and manage its own investment funds, giving users "with as little as $1 available to save and invest, get the same professional advice and low cost as those who have hundreds of thousands." Mylo, a mobile personal finance provider, is backed by Ferst Capital Partners and angel investors.
3 min read · 19 June 2017
In the boreal forests and on the remote prairies of Alberta, a handful of technology companies are running pilot projects they hope will end a two-decade drought in innovation and stem the exodus of top global energy firms from Canada's oil sands, Reuters reported. They are searching for a breakthrough that will cut the cost of pumping the tar-like oil from the country's vast underground bitumen reservoirs and better compete with the booming shale industry in the United States. If they fail, a bigger chunk of the world's third-largest oil reserves will stay in the ground. Canada's oil sands sector has become one of the biggest victims of the global oil price crash that began in 2014 when top OPEC producer Saudi Arabia flooded the market with cheap crude to drive out high cost competitors.
6 min read · 19 June 2017
Canada’s venture capital market saw its second-best quarter in four years in Q1 2017, with $905 million invested in 98 financing rounds, according to a report from the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA). Well-capitalized rounds, especially in the life sciences sector, drove trends, with the top 10 deals accounting for 68 percent of the total invested. Deal-making in Canada's private equity market, in contrast, continued at a sluggish pace in the first quarter. The report counted 108 transactions valued at $2.8 billion in this period. The consumer and retail industry accounted for the lion's share of dollar flows, or $1.3 billion.
4 min read · 16 June 2017
