Private Equity
Greensky President’s Club (GPC), a newly constituted group of 20 high net worth investors, has made a debut investment of $400,000 in Cyclica Inc, a Toronto-based developer of next generation computer simulation technologies for drug discovery and testing. Cyclica presented to GPC at the organization's inaugural meeting, 23 days prior to the closing. GPC's deals, including the Cyclica financing, are sourced, vetted and managed by boutique corporate finance advisory firm GreenSky Capital Inc. Cyclica, which also has an office in San Francisco, said that investment proceeds will be used to build its team and IT infrastructure as the company pursues contracts with clients in the pharmaceutical industry and expands the scope of existing partnerships.
3 min read · 10 December 2013
Canadian clean technology-focused venture capital firm Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital has appointed a new advisory board that includes Paul de Martini, former CTO of Cisco Systems; Mark Dudzinski, former CMO of GE Energy; and John Thompson, former vice president of technology and development at Teck Resources. The purpose of the board is to advise Chrysalix on sustainable innovations that address challenges facing such industries as oil and gas, electric power and mining. Chrysalix said two additional members are expected to join the advisory board within the next quarter.
4 min read · 10 December 2013
Lorus Therapeutics Inc (TSX: LOR), a Toronto-based biopharmaceutical company targeting essential apoptosis pathways to deliver transformational cancer drugs, has completed a previously announced public offering of common shares, raising gross proceeds of over $7 million. Lumira Capital, one of the Lorus' existing Canadian venture capital investors, participated in the offering, as did Pinetree Capital. Concurrent with the deal, Lumira managing director Dr. Brian Underdown will join the company's board of directors. Lorus, which has been venture-backed since the late 1990s, said it will utilize net proceeds from the offering to fund its clinical trial program, manufacturing program and for general and corporate working capital purposes.
6 min read · 10 December 2013
U.S. life sciences-focused venture capital firm Versant Ventures has provided $10 million in Series A funding to a new company called Inception 4, which is focused on the development of drugs to treat retinal eye disease, including wet age-related macular degeneration. The deal was done in partnership with Bayer Healthcare, and will be managed by Versant's new Vancouver-based incubator Inception Sciences Canada. In another announcement, Versant said it plans to establish similar operations in Montréal in 2014. Versant also recently formed an incubator in Toronto, called Blueline Bioscience, which is collaborating with Celgene to launch new companies in areas such as oncology and inflammation. The firm said it is making a long-term commitment to Canada to translate scientific discoveries in academic institutions into early stage biotechnology enterprises.
3 min read · 10 December 2013
The Saskatchewan government's Financial and Consumer Affairs Authority has announced the launch of its Saskatchewan Equity Crowdfunding Exemption. The exemption allows Saskatchewan-based small businesses and start-ups to undertake two, six-month offerings of $150,000 each per year to investors who are also residents of the province. Investors are, in turn, limited to $1,500 per offering. The exemption is based on a proposal that was tabled for public feedback in October. Last week, the Ontario Securities Commission announced plans to publish proposals for new capital raising prospectus exemptions, which includes a crowd-funding exemption, in the first quarter of 2014.
2 min read · 09 December 2013
BDC Venture Capital has made a $3 million commitment to BrandProject LP, a venture capital fund that invests in early-stage consumer products and technology companies. With offices in Toronto and New York, the fund makes equity investments in disruptive Internet-enabled consumer products and consumer services businesses across North America. Founded in 2012, BrandProject, which completed a first close of $12 million in Aug. 2013 with the backing of angel investors, builds on the record of Blackpoynt Brand Ventures, a firm focused on creating value and growing branded consumer businesses. Both BrandProject and Blackpoynt were founded by Andrew Black, who was previously president and CEO of Virgin Mobile Canada.
4 min read · 09 December 2013
Roger Tambay has been appointed a partner at Cycle Capital Management, a Montréal-based venture capital firm focused on clean technologies sectors. Tambay has 20 years of experience with small, medium and large corporations, in a wide variety of industrial sectors. He held several positions at Eastman Chemical in Canada and United States and, more recently, he was responsible for business development and operations for Balcan Plastics.
2 min read · 09 December 2013
LX Ventures said Monday that it has named Ryan Holmes, founder and CEO of HootSuite, to its board of advisors. The appointment is effective December 9, 2013. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, LX Ventures is a publicly-traded accelerator that acquires, integrates and accelerates high-growth technology companies. Update: Vancouver-based social relationship platform HootSuite in Aug. 2013 raised a US$165 million in a Series B financing round, the largest venture capital deal in the Canadian market's history.
2 min read · 09 December 2013
Monexa Services Inc said Monday that it has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Canadian venture capital firm Yaletown Venture Partners. Also, the company has named Brad Johns, a partner at Yaletown, to its board of directors. Based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Monexa is a provider of SaaS enterprise billing and commerce solutions. Update: Earlier in 2013, Monexa secured financing from Ansera Capital Partners. Proceeds of the latest investment will be used to position the company for growth in the enterprise billing and commerce market.
3 min read · 09 December 2013
Impact8, an accelerator focused on social impact ventures, has completed its first program with start-up demos at the Toronto Stock Exchange. The inaugural cohort consists of: Detailing Knights, a mobile car-detailing service that reduces waste water; GrantBook, a source of solutions to advance grants management; LB Designs, a specialist in refining clothing manufacturing in Haiti; Learning Bird, a provider of affordable online learning experiences; The Lucky Iron Fish, a health innovator focused on iron deficiency anemia; RainGrid Network, a provider of infrastructure to protect cities against storm flooding; Sumac, an organization that offers support for food businesses, and Sunfarmer, a supplier of solar energy services to rural communities. Impact8 is sponsored by Toronto-based innovation hub MaRS Discovery District.
4 min read · 05 December 2013
