Private Equity
Northleaf Venture Catalyst Fund (NVCF) has made $30 million in commitments to two Canadian venture capital funds: iNovia Investment Fund 2015, which held a $175 million final close this month, and Information Venture Partners II, which held a $72.5 million initial close. NVCF was the lead investor in both funds. A venture fund of funds managed by Northleaf Capital Partners, NVCF closed at its hard cap target of $300 million in mid-2015. To date it has deployed more than 75 percent of its capital. NVCF is managed by Northleaf Director Ian Carew.
4 min read · 26 January 2016
ProctorFree, an automated, online test proctoring service, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding. The round was led by Canadian venture capital firm Real Ventures, which last year closed its third early-stage fund at $89 million. It was joined by Task Force X Capital and a number of individual investors. With the financing, Mark McDowell, a special limited partner at Real Ventures, will serve on the company's board of directors. Huntersville, North Carolina-based ProctorFree said it plans to use the funds to maintain and enhance its technology, accelerate sales and marketing, and add key new hires to meet market demands. The company was founded in 2012.
3 min read · 26 January 2016
BDC Capital has made an additional $3 million commitment to a seed and early-stage information technology fund managed by Mistral Venture Partners, a Canadian venture capital firm. The investment, which brings BDC's total lead commitment to $6 million, will support Mistral's ability to undertake follow-on financings, BDC said. Founded in 2013, Ottawa-based Mistral is led by Code Cubitt, the firm's managing director, and Bernie Zeisig, its managing partner. Mistral's 2015 deals include The Better Software Co, a provider of SaaS solutions to small businesses, and CENX, a provider of orchestration solutions for software-defined and virtualized networks.
3 min read · 26 January 2016
BDC Capital has joined the $4 million Series A financing of Invixium, a Toronto-based maker of advanced biometric security devices and solutions for the industrial and enterprise markets. The round, announced in October 2015, was led by McRock iNFund LP, an industrial Internet of Things fund managed by McRock Capital. BDC co-invested through its Industrial, Clean and Energy Technology Venture Fund. Founded in 2012, Invixium has sold over 3,500 products to government and business customers in the Middle East, North Africa, India and North America, the company reported.
4 min read · 26 January 2016
Kitchener, Ontario-based video platform Vidyard has secured about $50 million (US$35 million) in a Series C financing. The round was led by U.S. venture capital firm Battery Ventures and was joined by existing investors Bessemer Venture Partners, Salesforce Ventures, OMERS Ventures, iNovia Capital and SoftTech VC. With the deal, Michael Brown, general partner at Battery Ventures, will join the company's board of directors. Founded in 2010, Vidyard helps business marketing and sales teams generate more pipeline and investment returns with online video content. It said it plans to use the funds to develop new innovative products. To date, Vidyard has raised over US$60 million in total financing.
5 min read · 26 January 2016
OMERS Ventures, one of Canada's biggest venture firms, plans to raise up to $300 million through the launch of a third fund in 2017 to invest in early-stage technology companies, its chief executive told Reuters. CEO John Ruffolo said he expects OMERS Ventures to eventually have about $1 billion of assets under management.
2 min read · 26 January 2016
INTEGA Skin Sciences Inc, a Montréal-based dermatology specialist, has agreed to buy Valeant Groupe Cosméderme from the Canadian division of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. No financial terms were disclosed for the deal, which includes three high-end medical skincare brands developed and manufactured in Laval, Québec. Founded last year by President and CEO Gregory Orleski, INTEGA was backed in the acquisition by Knight Therapeutics Inc and Bloom Burton Healthcare Lending Trust. It said it "aspires to become the Canadian benchmark in the pharmaceutical industry for the treatment and care of skin diseases."
5 min read · 25 January 2016
Scotiabank has named Scott Bonham to its board of directors. Bonham is a charter member and co-chair of the C100, a Silicon Valley-based nonprofit organization established to support Canadian entrepreneurship. He also helped to build GGV Capital, a U.S. venture capital firm. Bonham's other activities include his roles as co-founder and partner of The Fueling Station, a real estate management company that manages properties serving Canadian entrepreneurs and startups.
2 min read · 25 January 2016
Canadian drug delivery company IntelGenx Corp (TSX-V: IGX) has appointed Robert Bechard to the position of vice president, corporate development. Until 2009, Bechard was a managing partner at RBC LifeSciences Venture Fund II, an affiliate of the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC). Before his time at RBC, he worked as an investment manager at the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. Montréal-headquartered IntelGenx is a developer of products based on its oral drug delivery technologies.
6 min read · 22 January 2016
Activity in Canada’s venture capital market continued to grow in 2015, according to a preliminary report by Thomson Reuters. A total of $2.5 billion in venture capital went to 542 financings last year, up 6 percent from 2014, reflecting the largest investment in Canadian companies since 2002. Information technology sectors accounted for 61 percent of the dollar flows. The report also found buyout and related private equity invested in Canadian companies totaled $20.1 billion last year. While this is down 35 percent year over year, private equity deployments in Canada in 2015 were still the second highest since 2007. Canadian private equity investors were especially active abroad last year, participating in 27 foreign deals sized greater than $1 billion, an all-time high.
2 min read · 21 January 2016
