2 exits, 3 new portfolio companies, 2 follow-on investments, 8 new colleagues, and an in-person AGM and CEO Summit!

We hope that you had a productive spring! On our end, our team’s calendars were bustling.

In the last quarter alone, we welcomed three new portfolio companies, Novisto, Spellbook and Cohere, doubled down on two existing portfolio companies, Super and BenchSci, and proudly announced that we exited Neeva (acquired by Snowflake in May) and Poka (acquired by IFS in June).

The rise of Machine Learning (ML), Large Language Models (LLMs), and Generative AI represent a monumental shift in human-computer interaction. This tailwind is creating momentum for many portfolio companies, including Cohere, Spellbook, BenchSci and Neeva. Inovia is armed with a deep bench of ML knowledge and is well-equipped to support our companies and assess the impact and opportunities of LLMs on their businesses.

This spring, we added eight new team members to support our growth ambitions: Claire Glossop Irani, Head of Investor Relations (Toronto), Alex Behal, VP, Investment (Toronto), Phoebe Kitchen, Investment Associate (London), Marianne Dubois, former Advisor and now Manager, Discovery (Montreal), Alex Gouchtchina, now a full-time Investment Analyst (Toronto/Waterloo), George Lahdo, Associate, Accounting (Montreal), Minnie Jia, Associate, Accounting (Montreal), and Gina Lane, Executive Assistant (London). We also welcomed two new EiRs, Simon Leroux and Melissa Dominguez and nine new summer interns.

We enjoyed many networking events with the ecosystem during the quarter. In early June, we gathered with our portfolio Founders, CEOs and Limited Partners at the Inovia 2023 CEO Summit and Annual General Investor Meeting (AGM). After four years of video conferencing, reuniting with everyone in person was wonderful. For more details about this great event, read Chris’ blog

In May, we hosted the second annual “Inovia After Hours” event with the Vancouver ecosystem, and Inovia EiR Kristine Steuart presented the Revenue Execution Model. Last week Inovia and TVC co-hosted a networking cocktail reception with the tech community gathered in Toronto for Collison.

Finally, our team actively engaged and shared insights in multiple industry conferences. Hugues and Kory were panelists at the BMO Quebec Growth Tech Summit, Dennis participated in CCI Capital Markets Summit, Mia and Steven took part in the Scotia Vancouver Tech Conference, Meryl was on a panel at Tech Exit Vancouver and Hugues and Mia spoke at Collision

Enjoy the highlights below and here’s to a splendid summer!

Portfolio companies in the news

Fundraising

  • Canadian AI company Cohere raises US$270M from Inovia, NVIDIA, Oracle and Salesforce Ventures I The Globe and Mail
  • Al Gore-led Fund Leads CAD$95M Investment in Toronto’s BenchSci, Which Uses AI to Hasten Drug Discovery I The Globe and Mail
  • Money Pours into AI Startups that Save Countless Hours of Legal Paperwork I Semafor
  • Montreal ESG Tech Firm Novisto Raises US$20M Despite Difficult Funding Market I The Globe and Mail
  • Plenty’s New Wealth-Building App Targets Couples Blending Finances I TechCrunch
  • Super.com Targets Its US$85M Equity, Debt Raise Into New Savings Super App I TechCrunch
  • Certn Background Screening Gets US$30M Boost with Support from Export Development Canada I Business Wire

M&A and Partnerships

  • Poka to be acquired by Swedish enterprise software giant IFS I Betakit
  • Snowflake Acquires Neeva to Accelerate Search in the Data Cloud through Generative AI I Press Release
  • Powered by Neo Financial, New Tims Credit Card Offers Quicker Ways to Earn More Free Coffee, Beverages and Food | Press Release
  • Spare and Uber Partner to Enhance Public Transit I Press Release
  • CommBank is partnering with global travel agency Hopper I Company’s PR
  • Uber Taps Hopper for Flights and Fintech I Skift

Other Exciting News

  • Spellbook is Now Free for Law Schools I Press Release
  • WorkJam included in Time’s 100 Most Influential Companies – Pioneers Category I Time
  • Vital Selected as a Finalist for the 2023 AACC Disruptive Technology Award I AACC
  • Disco Named EdTech Breakthroughs Startup of the Year – A Testament to the Power of Learning Communities I Disco 
  • Spellbook: An honest take on the future of Generative AI I Tech To
  • Hopper wins Travel Tech Titans award for 2023 I Travel Tech Titans 
  • AppDirect Post on the Floor of NYSE I LinkedIn
  • Neo Financial Sets a Target of 13,000 Rewards Partners by the Start of the 2023 Canadian Small Business Week | Financial Post
  • How Can a Startup Help 90 Million People in 6 Years? Tiffany Kaminsky, Co-founder of Symend, Shows It’s about Clarity of Purpose I The A100
  • The Science Behind Serving Consumers Unmet Needs: How Super.com Saved Americans over US $172M I Super Blog
  • Rewind Receives Atlassian Partner of the Year 2022: New Cloud App I Press Release
  • Super Placed 11th on the Financial Times & Statista Ranking of the Fastest-growing Companies in the Americas’ I Financial Times

Inovia Thoughts

Blogs

Investment videos

  • Cohere: Pioneering the Future of Language AI for Business I Inovia
  • Novisto: Creating Value from ESG Data I Inovia

Inovia News 

  • Welcome to Inovia Entrepreneur in Residence Simon Leroux I Inovia
  • Welcome to Inovia Executive in Residence Melissa Dominguez I Inovia

Founder-to-Founder

  • Emily Luk, CEO of Plenty, on The Human Side of Scaling a Company I Inovia

Podcasts

Other Thoughts

  • Inovia Capital’s Michael McGraw: Leverage the LGBTQ+ Asset I PE Hub Europe  
  • There are 3 Kinds of VCs in this World. Which One Are You? I Sifted (with Mike McGraw)

INDUSTRY HIGHLIGHTS

  • Canada Launches its Tech Talent Strategy at Collision 2023 I itbusiness
  • Groundbreaking Study by VC Platform Highlights the Power of Platform Roles in the Venture Capital Industry I VC Platform
  • Québec Attracted More Venture Funding than Any Other Canadian Region in Q1 2023 I Betakit
  • Introducing the FounderFuel 2023 Cohort of Impactful Innovators from across Canada I Real Ventures
  • Toronto Capitalises on Tech Success I Financial Times