Canada

Mindjet snags $10 mln in debt funding from Wellington Financial

Mindjet Corp has received US$10 million in debt financing from Canadian specialty finance firm Wellington Financial. Based in San Francisco, Mindjet is a software company focused on facilitating repeatable enterprise-level innovation. Founded in 1991, the company's backers include venture capital firms Investor Growth Capital, Industry Ventures and PICO Holdings. Mindjet said the partnership with Wellington will help it execute on its growth opportunities. Based in Toronto, Wellington currently manages a $600 million investment program.

GreenMantra raises $17 mln in funding to recycle plastics

GreenMantra Recycling Technologies Ltd has completed a series of funding deals that gave it more than $17 million in proceeds. The investment included equity financing from Canadian venture capital firms Cycle Capital Management and ArcTern Ventures, debt financing from Comerica Bank and Export Development Canada, and additional support from the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation and Sustainable Development Technology Canada. The funds will be used to expand the production capabilities of GreenMantra, which is focused on turning plastics into high-value specialty chemicals. Founded in 2010, the company is based in Brantford, Ontario.

VCAP-backed Teralys Capital Innovation Fund initially closes at $279 mln

Canadian fund-of-funds manager Teralys Capital has initially closed the Teralys Capital Innovation Fund at $279 million. The new fund, the second market-based investment vehicle to be backed by Ottawa’s $400 million Venture Capital Action Plan (VCAP), has also received commitments from Fondaction CSN, the National Bank of Canada, Desjardins Group, Knight Therapeutics Inc and OpenText Corp. Teralys, which has since 2009 been backed by the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Fonds de solidarité FTQ and Investissement Québec, was flagged in a June report by peHUB Canada as the likely manager of a new venture capital partnership between the Québec and federal governments. The new fund will make commitments to investor groups focused on a wide range of emerging technology sectors.

Execution Labs secures $6 mln in Series A funding round

Montréal game accelerator and investment platform Execution Labs Inc has raised $6 million in a Series A financing. The round was led by Corus Entertainment Inc, a Canadian media company, and was joined by existing investors BDC Capital, Real Ventures and White Star Capital. Execution Labs said the capital infusion will allow it to expand its mentoring, funding and other support services to new game studios. Corus said it will help the company build its brand presence in the market. To this end, Scott Dyer, a senior executive and CTO at Corus, will join Execution Labs' board of directors. Founded in 2012, Execution Labs also has operations in San Francisco.

AmorChem backs medical device aimed at post-surgical hip fractures

AmorChem has collaborated with École de technologie supérieure, Hôpital Sacré-Coeur de Montréal and Univalor on a project to develop and bring to market a medical device used to repair post-surgical hip fractures. The recently patented technology is the result of research by Dr. Yvan Petit, Dr. Georges-Yves Laflamme and Yan Bourgeois. Managed by Montréal-based venture capital firm GeneChem, AmorChem invests in R&D-stage initiatives to enable pre-clinical proof-of-concept in a semi-virtual mode. Univalor is a Québec university technology transfer organization.

KPCB invests in precision agriculture platform Farmers Edge

Farmers Edge has secured an undisclosed investment from U.S. venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB). Based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Farmers Edge is a provider of precision agriculture and independent data management solutions to agribusinesses. Update: The investment from Kleiner Perkins will help finance the expansion of the company's technology platform and support its growth in international markets. Farmers Edge was founded in 2005. It is also a portfolio company of Canadian venture capital firm Avrio Capital.

McLean Watson-backed SkyWave to be sold to ORBCOMM

ORBCOMM Inc (Nasdaq: ORBC) has agreed to acquire SkyWave Mobile Communications, a provider of satellite and satellite-cellular products and applications based in Ottawa. The purchase price was US$130 million, however, John Eckert, former managing partner at Canadian venture capital firm McLean Watson Capital, which has backed SkyWave since 1999, told peHUB Canada that gross proceeds from the sale will total US$182 million. Skywave's CEO Pui-Ling Stanley Chan was formerly with McLean Watson. Eckert, who co-founded Round 13 Capital in 2012, is the company's chairman. The deal, expected to close in early 2015, will create the largest global space-based machine-to-machine communications company, ORBCOMM said.

Venture-backed Xenon Pharmaceuticals to raise $36 mln in IPO

Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc has priced its previously announced initial public offering (IPO). The Canadian clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company said it intends to raise $36 million in gross proceeds based on an offering of 4 million common shares at a price of $9 per share. The offering includes an additional purchase option of 600,000 shares. Xenon will begin trading this week on Nasdaq under the symbol "XENE." Based in Burnaby, British Columbia, the company's investors include Fidelity Investments, Five Corners Capital, InterWest Partners, Invesco Private Capital, LipoteRx, MX Associates and RBC Capital Partners.

AppMakr acquires Canadian VC-backed rival Appifier

App building platform AppMakr has bought its Canadian competitor Appifier. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Appifier, which enables the creation of native mobile apps and mobile websites, was backed by Canadian venture capital firm BDC Capital and The National Research Council of Canada. Update: The company, which is based in Montréal, was founded in 2011 by entrepreneurs Michael Gozzo and Stephen Panetta.

Canada-born startup Kash raises $2 mln from Silicon Valley VCs

Kash Corp, a San Francisco mobile payments company originally started in Canada, has received US$2 million in seed-stage funding. Backers of the round included U.S. venture capital firms Draper Associates, Green Visor Capital and Structure Capital. The company said the capital infusion would help it develop, market and expand its mobile payments technology, which provides an alternative to traditional credit cards. Launched earlier this year in Toronto, Kash moved to the United States to join the startup program at Silicon Valley's Y Combinator.