Private Equity
Six of the global market's largest institutional investors, including Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, have voiced their support for a new index designed to encourage corporations and investors to give more focus to the long term. The S&P Long-Term Value Creation Global Index, launched today, is designed to track companies that are seeking to create long-term value and that can show sustainable financial quality. Several institutions supporting the initiative, including CPPIB, have committed to an initial allocation of about US$2 billion into funds tracking the index.
8 min read · 21 January 2016
Montréal-based iNovia Capital has exceeded the target set for its fourth venture fund, thanks to a group of new and repeat limited partners that included many of the firm’s best known founders. Fund IV secured $175 million in committed capital, iNovia Managing Partner Chris Arsenault told PE Hub Canada. That’s 17 percent more than its goal of $150 million.
3 min read · 21 January 2016
Capital régional et coopératif Desjardins (CRCD) has invested US$750,000 ($1.1 million) in Hortau Inc, a Canadian provider of wireless and web-based irrigation management systems. CRCD said the investment will help the company to expand into new markets. Founded in 2002, Lévis, Québec-based Hortau is also backed by Advantage Capital Partners, Avrio Capital and Telesystem. CRCD is a retail fund managed by Canadian private equity firm Desjardins Capital de risque.
2 min read · 20 January 2016
GigaSpaces Technologies Inc, a New York and Herzliya, Israel-based provider of cloud orchestration and data scalability platforms, has secured US$20 million in follow-on financing. The round was led by Claridge Israel, a fund launched last year by the Bronfman family and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec. The company's existing investors BRM, FTV and Intel Capital also participated. GigaSpaces said the new funds will help accelerate global adoption of its solutions, drive continued product innovation, and expand its sales organization. Claridge Israel was set up to invest in Israel’s civil technology and innovation sectors.
3 min read · 20 January 2016
Flywire, formerly known as peerTransfer, has acquired ScholarFX, a Toronto-based payments service for international students attending Canadian universities and other educational institutions. No financial terms were released. Boston-based Flywire, which operates in the same sector, said the acquisition increases its ability to attract Canadian customers and adds scale to its cross-border payments platform. With the deal, ScholarFX’s founder, Darren Chadwick, joins Flywire Canada. Founded in 2009, Flywire is backed by Accel Partners, Bain Capital Ventures, Devonshire Investors, Maveron, QED Investors and Spark Capital, among others.
3 min read · 20 January 2016
Waterloo-based machine-learning startup Maluuba announced it has raised $9 million in a Series A financing. The investors included Canadian venture capital firm Emerillon Capital, U.S.-based Nautilus Ventures, and undisclosed strategic investors. The company has now raised $12 million in total funding. As part of the round, Brian Kang, managing director of Nautilus, and Ludovic Andre, managing director of Emerillon, have joined the board. Founded in 2011, Maluuba has developed technology that helps to solve language-understanding problems and to train machines to model capabilities of the human brain. It said its platform is now integrated across over 50 million devices.
3 min read · 20 January 2016
Real Ventures has been voted 2015's Venture Capital Firm of the Year in an awards program sponsored by Techvibes, a Canadian technology news site. OMERS Ventures, the venture investment arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) was the runner up. Other award recipients included Grow, a Vancouver-based online lending platform, which won Startup of the Year 2015.
1 min read · 19 January 2016
TeraXion has agreed to sell its high-speed photonics components assets to U.S.-based network specialist Ciena Corp (NYSE: CIEN) for about $46.6 million in cash. Ciena said the acquisition will advance its market role in high-speed optics and enhance its ability to develop differentiated solutions. Following the deal, TeraXion said it will continue to operate its fibre-optic communication, fibre lasers and optical sensing applications business from its headquarters in Québec City. Founded in 2000, TeraXion raised funding from a number of Canadian venture capital firms. It continues to be backed by several investors, including the Fonds de solidarité FTQ.
3 min read · 19 January 2016
Kraken has agreed to buy Cavirtex, a Calgary-based exchange for buying and selling bitcoin in Canadian dollars. No financial terms were disclosed. Kraken, a global bitcoin exchange, said the acquisition of Cavirtex and New York's Coinsetter will set the stage for its "immediate and significant expansion into the North American market." Founded in 2011, Cavirtex claims to be Canada's first bitcoin exchange. It joined with Coinsetter last year. San Francisco-based Kraken has secured funding from several venture capital investors, including Hummingbird Ventures, which led its Series A round in 2014.
4 min read · 19 January 2016
Covington Group of Funds has completed over $42 million in shareholder redemptions for Covington Fund II. This total includes over $24 million redeemed since the retail venture capital fund was re-opened on January 18, 2016. Since being closed to new investors in 2012, Fund II has seen 21 portfolio exits and has redeemed over 50 percent of outstanding units, representing about $180 million in assets, Covington said. The fund continues to hold investments in 32 companies. Covington said it is optimistic that 2016 "will offer potential exit opportunities" for some of these holdings.
2 min read · 18 January 2016
