Private Equity
Four Canadian medical marijuana producers are working on transactions that will allow them to go public in the next few weeks, Reuters reported. Mettrum Ltd, OrganiGram Inc, Bedrocan Canada Inc and PharmaCan Capital, a holding company involved with three licensed producers, will join Tweed Marijuana Inc on the TSX Venture Exchange. Producers report robust demand from patients as well as rising interest from domestic and foreign fund managers and venture capital firms.
3 min read · 07 August 2014
Figure 1 has raised US$4 million in a Series A financing round led by U.S. venture capital firm Union Square Ventures. Canadian firms Version One Ventures and Rho Canada Ventures, which co-led the company's seed-stage funding last year, also joined the Series A round. A new angel investor, Jevon MacDonald, co-founder of GoInstant and StartupNorth, was also a participant. Based in Toronto, Figure 1 is a mobile-first network of healthcare professionals who use it to share and discuss medical images and other content. Union Square partner Andy Weissman will join the company's board of directors, as will Boris Wertz, general partner at Version One.
2 min read · 06 August 2014
AmorChem has entered into a collaboration on a project focused on finding a new treatment for patients suffering from the disease Friedreich’s Ataxia. The project was initiated by Jacques P. Tremblay, professor at the Université Laval Faculty of Medicine and researcher at the CHU de Québec Research Centre, and his team. The project has been supported by technology development and commercialization firm SOVAR. AmorChem, a Montréal-based life sciences fund managed by venture capital firm GeneChem, has so far this year announced a total of seven new R&D-stage investments and partnerships.
5 min read · 06 August 2014
Fluidware Corp, an Ottawa-based provider of online survey and application review tools, has been bought for an undisclosed sum by SurveyMonkey. Fluidware's headquarters and infrastructure will be maintained to help accelerate and scale the development of SurveyMonkey's online survey platform, the company said. Based in Palo Alto, California, SurveyMonkey has been backed by a mix of private equity and venture capital firms. In 2013, the company raised US$800 million in debt and equity. The deal's investors included Tiger Global Management, Google Inc, ICONIQ Capital, Social+Capital Partnership and Laurel Crown Partners.
3 min read · 06 August 2014
Northleaf Venture Catalyst Fund (NVCF), the first market-based fund-of-funds backed by Ottawa’s $400 million Venture Capital Action Plan in partnership with the Ontario government, has raised $233.5 million in its second close. The first close, announced in January, brought in $218 million. The NVCF's most recent investor is Canadian insurance company and financial services provider Manulife Financial. NVCF, which is managed by global private markets fund manager Northleaf Capital Partners, invests primarily in Canadian venture capital and growth equity funds and direct co-investment opportunities. To date, it has made six investments.
3 min read · 05 August 2014
Redfall Technologies Inc, which is also known as Vogogo, has raised gross proceeds of $8.5 million from a brokered and non-brokered private placement of 11.3 million in subscription receipts. The funding transaction is linked with Vogogo's previously announced plans to amalgamate with capital pool company Southtech Capital Corp (TSX-V: STU.P) under the issuing name Vogogo Inc. The Calgary-based Vogogo is a provider of comprehensive risk management, security, compliance and payment services to the cryptocurrency industry. It has been a portfolio company of Canadian early-stage venture capital firm AVAC since 2013.
7 min read · 05 August 2014
Strata Health Solutions has received an undisclosed amount of funding from U.S. private equity and venture capital Polaris Partners. In addition to the growth equity investment, Bryce Youngren, a managing partner at Polaris, has been named to Strata's board of directors. Based in Calgary and Dartford, Kent in the U.K., Strata is a provider of patient flow improvement within health systems. Update: Founded in 2001, the company said backing from Polaris would help it expand its eReferral and intelligent resource matching products across Canada and the U.K., and enter new markets in Europe and the United States.
3 min read · 05 August 2014
Serial entrepreneurs have been growing their presence in Canadian innovation hubs since the tech boom of the 1990s. And several have been responsible for some of the hottest venture-backed startups to emerge of late, such as Waterloo's Auvik Networks. Repeat founders might also be having an important impact on the bottom lines of VCs. The portfolio evolution of Canadian venture capital firm Celtic House Venture Partners, a 20-year-old media communications technology investor, is illustrative of the trend.
5 min read · 05 August 2014
ProMetic Life Sciences Inc (TSX: PLI) has secured a $20 million follow-on loan from existing investor Thomvest Seed Capital. As partial consideration for the loan, the Laval, Québec-based biopharmaceutical company has granted Thomvest 16.7 million warrants with an exercise price of $1.87 per common share. ProMetic said it will use the funds for the development and manufacture of plasma-derived orphan drugs, the advancement of its ongoing PBI-4050 clinical program, and repayment of debt. Toronto's Thomvest Seed Capital is an affiliate of Thomvest Ventures, the US$250 million venture capital firm of Canadian businessman Peter Thomson.
5 min read · 01 August 2014
AutoServe1, a tablet based inspection platform that allows auto shop centres to communicate with their customers, has raised growth financing from Monnsoon. The value of the investment was not disclosed. Based in Toronto, AutoServe1 said it will used the funds to expand on its existing software product suite and add more sales headcount. Monnsoon, an early-stage software investor affiliated with Toronto-based technology business development company Monteco Ltd, was founded this year.
2 min read · 31 July 2014
