Private Equity
Swedish virtual reality therapy company Mimerse has raised $730,000 in seed funding. Almi Invest led the round.
1 min read · 04 May 2018
Miami-based venture firm Rokk3r Fuel has named Vicente Quesada as a general partner. Quesada is a former high yield director at Santander Investments in London.
3 min read · 04 May 2018
Canadian venture capital firm Golden Ventures has raised $72 million in committed capital for its third seed-stage fund. Golden Ventures III, the firm's largest fund to date, was backed by a range of new and returning limited partners. They include: Cendana Capital, Foundry Group Next, HarbourVest Partners, Kensington Capital Partners, Northleaf Capital Partners, Teralys Capital and Venture Investment Associates. It will invest in 20 to 25 early-stage technology companies in Canada and the United States. With Fund III's close, Golden said it promoted Jamie Rosenblatt to principal and hired Marianne Bulger to head the firm's people and platform team.
4 min read · 03 May 2018
Sol Cuisine Inc, a Toronto-based alternative protein brand, has secured $13 million in growth financing led by Avrio Capital, a Canadian food and agriculture technology investor. Export Development Canada (EDC) and Investeco Capital partnered in the deal. Avrio Senior Associate Jonathan Goodkey and an EDC representative will join the board as a result. Sol Cuisine, founded in 1980 by CEO Dror Balshine, caters to retail and restaurant consumers in search of plant-based proteins made on a gourmet vegan, non-GMO, and wheat- and gluten-free basis. Avrio Managing Partner Aki Georgacacos said his firm's investment attests to growth prospects in the protein vertical.
4 min read · 03 May 2018
Canada’s venture industry is entering a new evolutionary phase as leading firms unveil big, bold plans for scaling brands, taking on new challenges, and filling market gaps. INovia Capital, a 10-year investor in North American tech companies, provides the latest and perhaps most ambitious example of the trend. Last month iNovia said it would blend its longstanding early-stage focus with an ability to do growth-equity deals, an initiative reportedly allied with a major US$500 million ($640 million) fund launch.
4 min read · 03 May 2018
San Francisco-based Foresite Capital, a healthcare and life sciences investment firm, has closed its fourth fund at $668 million. The fund's limited partners include university endowments, pension funds, insurance companies and foundations.
3 min read · 03 May 2018
San Francisco-based Loom.ai, a provider of mobile solutions for building and animating personalized 3D avatars, has raised $3 million in seed funding. The investor was Samsung Venture Investment Corporation.
1 min read · 03 May 2018
Certn, a Victoria, British Columbia-based background check platform, has raised a seed-stage financing. No financial terms were disclosed; however, Betakit said the round's value is $975,000. Atrium Ventures, Panache Ventures, Hello Ventures, iNovia Capital and a number of angel investors were among the backers. Launched in 2016 by Andrew McLeod, Evan Dalton and Owen Madrick, Certn's technology uses available data and artificial intelligence to allow lenders, property managers and employers to more fully evaluate the credibility of applicants. It plans to use the funds raised to enhance its platform and support growth.
4 min read · 03 May 2018
Dawn Capital has raised over $12.4 million for its third fund, according to an SEC filing. No target was listed on the document. London-based Dawn Capital is an early-stage venture firm that invests in European startups.
1 min read · 03 May 2018
Salesforce Ventures, the venture capital arm of U.S. technology giant Salesforce (NYSE: CRM), has launched the Canada Trailblazer Fund, a US$100 million ($128 million) fund to invest in startups and fuel cloud innovation and customer success in Canada. The fund has so far backed four technology companies. They are: Tier1CRM, a provider of cloud-based CRM solutions for the capital markets industry; Traction Guest, a developer of cloud-based visitor management systems; Tulip, a mobile application provider focused on empowering retail workers, and; OSF Commerce, a digital cloud transformation specialist focused on building multi-cloud and unified commerce projects.
5 min read · 03 May 2018
