Private Equity
U.S. venture capital firm Versant Ventures, which this week closed its sixth life sciences fund at $538 million, has appointed Mary Haak-Frendscho to the role of venture partner based in Toronto. Haak-Frendscho, who joined Versant in 2016 as CEO of Toronto incubator Blueline Bioscience, will support the firm's efforts to build a Canadian biotech portfolio in partnership with academics and entrepreneurs. Versant also appointed Lloyd Segal, formerly a managing partner at Canadian healthcare private equity firm Persistence Capital Partners, as a Montréal-based entrepreneur-in-residence.
6 min read · 05 January 2017
William K. Bowes Jr, founder of Silicon Valley venture firm USVP, died on Wednesday, December 28, 2016. In addition to launching USVP, Bowes's other accomplishments included serving as the lead underwriter of both Hewlett-Packard and Raychem when he was a senior partner in corporate finance at Blyth & Co. And, according to USVP, Bowes "was also a personal investor in many of the earliest startups that later defined Silicon Valley."
3 min read · 05 January 2017
Versant Ventures has made several appointments on its investment team to prepare for the launch of its newest fund. They are Clare Ozawa, who has been named managing director, San Diego; Alex Mayweg, now named venture partner, Basel, Switzerland; Mary Haak-Frendscho, who has become venture partner, Toronto; Lloyd Segal, who has been appointed entrepreneur in residence, Montreal; and Rahul Ballal, who is joining the Boston office as entrepreneur in residence.
6 min read · 05 January 2017
Camden, New Jersey-based Catapult Learning, which helps improve academic performance for all students, especially those who may be at risk, has named Chris Catalano as chief financial officer. Catalano is a former chairman and CEO of the School of Rock and ex-CFO and chief investment officer of McDonald’s Ventures.
2 min read · 03 January 2017
Seattle-based Avalara Inc, a provider of tax compliance automation for businesses, has appointed Jeremy Korst as executive vice president and chief marketing officer. Previously, Korst was the general manager for Windows marketing at Microsoft. Avalara's backers include Sageview Capital, Battery Ventures, Warburg Pincus, Technology Crossover Ventures and Arthur Ventures.
3 min read · 03 January 2017
San Mateo, California-based EverString, a predictive marketing and predictive sales SaaS company, has promoted co-founder and President J.J. Kardwell to CEO. He will also join the company's board of directors. Prior to co-founding EverString, Kardwell was a partner at Summit Partners. Everstring's backers include Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sequoia Capital, IDG Ventures and Lakestar.
3 min read · 03 January 2017
VentureOhio, which is focused on providing capital for Ohio startups, has named Ray Leach to its board. Leach is CEO of JumpStart Inc, a Cleveland, Ohio-based venture development organization.
3 min read · 28 December 2016
Ryan Blair, CEO of Los Angeles-based multilevel marketing company ViSalus, is leaving his post to devote more time to his venture capital firm HashTagOne. Nick Sarnicola, a co-founder of ViSalus, will succeed him. The appointment becomes effective January 1, 2017. Blair will remain on ViSalus' board of directors and serve as a key adviser to Sarnicola during the transition.
3 min read · 22 December 2016
Iguama, a cross-border shopping club that lets Latin Americans buy top brands from U.S. merchants at affordable prices, has named Weihua Yan as chief technology officer. Yan is a company co-founder and member of its board of directors. Iguama is backed by PeopleFund.
3 min read · 21 December 2016
Boris Wertz’s career as a venture investor is less than a decade old, but he has acquired a market influence that belies that brief timespan. Wertz was an angel investor before founding Version One Ventures, an early-stage tech VC firm, in 2012. Within a year, the Vancouver firm ranked among North America’s top seed investors. It has backed 32 startups, among them some of the hottest names in Canada and Silicon Valley. PE Hub Canada sat down with Wertz to discuss the progress of Version One's latest fund, its recent deals, and growth in Canada’s VC market.
4 min read · 21 December 2016
