Happy New Year! We hope that you had a chance to recharge over the Holidays.
The end of Q4 2023 closed another year marked by the perseverance and resilience of tech companies and the ecosystem. In this context, our team of company builders has actively continued to support our portfolio companies to ensure their sustained growth.
Here are a few highlights of our last quarter :
- We welcomed two new portfolio companies, Booksy, resulting from another great cross-team collaboration between our European and North American teams, and Cavelo, a cybersecurity company
- We doubled down on our investments in portfolio companies Clearco and Photonic
- We proudly announced our 5th exit of the year, resulting in the acquisition of Granify by Bazaarvoice
- We welcomed Manon Brouillette as an Executive Advisor to our team of Company Builders
- Our CTO office published their latest perspectives on generative AI
- We’ve organized our first annual Inovia Talent Summit and collaborated with Canadian Tech at Scale 2023 to host tech leaders in our portfolio
- From WVC:E in Paris to Grow London, to Phocuswright in Florida, and to Super Return in NYC, it was another busy quarter sharing insights and networking with the North American and EU tech ecosystems
Find below more activity highlights of the past quarter. May 2024 bring you health and success!
— The Inovia Team
Portfolio in the News
Fundraising
- Inovia Capital invests in Booksy I Sifted
- Forward Raises $100M and Announces Forward CarePod™ I Press Release
- B.C. Quantum Computer Maker Photonic Emerges From Stealth With $100-million and Microsoft Deal I The Globe and Mail
- Cavelo Secures $5M Inovia-led Seed Round to Help Financial Services Firms Protect Their Data I BetaKit
- Clearco Raises US$60M and Secures New Financing in Bid to Recover from “Tumult” I The Logic
M&A and Partnerships
- Bazaarvoice Acquires Granify, a Leader in AI-driven E-commerce Contextualization, Enabling Brands and Retailers to Increase Online Conversion and Sales I Press Release
- Neo4j Signs Strategic Collaboration Agreement with AWS to Enhance Generative AI Results While Addressing AI Hallucinations I Press Release
- Photonic Collaborating with Microsoft to Power Global Quantum Ecosystem I Press Release
- Certn Acquires European ID Verification Company Trustmatic I BetaKit
- Docker with Neo4j, LangChain, and Ollama Launches New GenAI Stack for Developers I Press Release
- New Qualtrics and WorkJam Partnership Empowers Every Frontline Employee to Deliver Better Customer Experiences I Press Release
- One of the World’s Largest Automated ADA Paratransit Systems Successfully Launched by CapMetro & Spare I Press Release
- Pine Acquires Properly to Capture More of the Canadian Home-Buying Process I BetaKit
- The Partnership Between UKG and WorkJam is Taking Things to the Next Level I LinkedIn
Hiring, Talent Movement and Board Appointments
- Geoff Darling named as new Chief Revenue Officer at AlayaCare I LinkedIn
Other Exciting News
- Neo4j Named a Visionary in 2023 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Cloud Database Management Systems I Press Release
- Cohere, le ChatGPT fait au Canada qui veut changer le monde du travail I Radio Canada (article in french)
- Spare Celebrates 10 Million Boardings Milestone with a Toast to Enhanced Public Transport Accessibility Worldwide I LinkedIn
- Wealthsimple Aims to Quadruple Assets to $100 Billion in 5 Years I Financial Post
- Vasu Nadella Recognized in Forbes 30 Under 30 Healthcare List 2024 I Forbes
- Hopper’s Fred Lalonde Went From Hacker to Tech Titan I The Globe and Mail
- Certn, Symend, Spare, Rewind, Hopper, Lightspeed, AlayaCare, Neo Financial, and Fellow all part of Deloitte Canada’s Annual Technology Fast 50 Program Winners I Deloitte
- Photonic Accelerating Quantum Computing’s Transformational Benefits with New Architecture I Press Release
- AppDirect CEO in the Top 50 Business Leaders of San Francisco for 2023 I The Business Report
Inovia Thoughts
Investment Blogs
- Investing in Booksy: Empowering Beauty & Wellness Entrepreneurs Everywhere I Hugues Lalancette
- Investing in Photonic: Unlocking a Credible Path to Commercial Quantum Computing I Shawn Abbott & Manpreet Deol
- Investing in Cavelo: Simplifying Data Protection and Attack Surface Management I Taha Mubashir & Etienne Gauthier
Inovia News
- Welcome to Inovia Executive Advisor Manon Brouillette I Inovia
Emerging Manager Series
- Inovia Emerging Managers Portrait Series: Meet Maple VC I Portrait
- Inovia Emerging Managers Portrait Series: Meet Two Small Fish Ventures I Portrait
- Inovia Emerging Managers Portrait Series: Meet Front Row Ventures I Portrait
- Inovia Emerging Managers Portrait Series: Meet N49P I Portrait
- Inovia Emerging Managers Portrait Series: Meet Luge Capital I Portrait
Podcasts
- The Door to America, Episode 6: Making Dual HQs Work with Emil Eifrem I Inovia Sessions Podcast
- The Door to America, Episode 5: Bridging European and North American Business Practices with Collin Crowell I Inovia Sessions Podcast
- The Door to America, Episode 4: Mastering the Art of U.S. Expansion with Konstantina Psoma I Inovia Sessions Podcast
- The Door to America, Episode 3: Laying the groundwork with Daniel Glazer I Inovia Sessions Podcast
- The Door to America, Episode 2: B2C Expansion Playbook with Phil Hutcheon I Inovia Sessions Podcast
- The Door to America, Episode 1: Building the Case for North American Expansion with Isabelle Guis & Françoise Brougher I Inovia Sessions Podcast
Other Thoughts
- Perspectives on Generative AI from our CTO Office: A Moment In Time I Steve Woods & Kory Jeffrey
- Putting Patients at the Center: Parallels between Customer Experience Solutions and Digital Health platforms I Charlotte Borgognoni
Industry Highlights
- Inovia Charts a Course for VC in the Generative AI Age I The Logic
- FounderFuel Wins the Collaboration of the Year Award at the Startup Community Awards I MTL NewTech
- Canada Helped Lay the Foundations for Today’s AI Boom. Can It Reap the Rewards? I The Logic
- Benchsci, Inovia, Ada Among #CDNTech Orgs Pledging to Fight Workplace Hate in Wake of Israel-Hamas War I BetaKit