Friends,
Happy New Year! We hope you recharged over the holidays and we wish you a great year ahead.
The last quarter of 2022 closed a year marked by perseverance and resilience for tech companies and the ecosystem. In this context, our team of company builders has continued to actively support our core portfolio companies to ensure they are all well positioned for the year to come.
We doubled down on two growth stage companies, Symend and WorkJam and welcomed CommerceBear to the Inovia family.
Inovia proudly supports sustainability, and this quarter marked an important milestone on our ESG journey. Our CA$3M donation will help the Nature Conservancy of Canada and Kenauk Institute’s effort to preserve the Kenauk property. Their work to protect this 65,000-acre territory between Ottawa and Montreal ensures that future generations will also get to know and enjoy the nature we cherish.
We also strengthened our team and welcomed two new members, Pascale Archambault, VP, Investment and Alessandra Delli Colli, Associate, Marketing and Communications. Furthermore, three amazing Advisors and EiRs recently joined Inovia to support our founders with world-class expertise in building and scaling companies: Françoise Brougher, Sarah Miller-Wright and Kristine Steuart.
Last but not least, we have revamped our website featuring our incredible community of founders, advisors and team members. Check it out and look for the Portfolio Jobs section featuring nearly 1,200 open positions across our portfolio. Spread the word if you know someone seeking an exciting career opportunity to start the year.
We look forward to building with you in the coming year!
— The Inovia Team
2022 HIGHLIGHTS
What a year! From fundraising and closing our Venture Fund V to continuing to bring value to our portfolio companies. From investing in new companies to welcoming new team members, so much has happened this past year. Here is a summary of the milestones we achieved.
- 2022 was an important year of growth for the Inovia team with 18 new members. We strengthened our team to continue supporting our firm’s and portfolio companies’ ambitions. Highlights include:
- Hugues Lalancette was promoted to Partner in early January and continues to support our growth-stage companies.
- Patrick Ghoche joined Inovia as CFO and carries the torch that François Gauvin so brightly lit over the past 15 years.
- And finally, our London-based EiR for the past three years, Raif Jacobs, was promoted to Partner in Q4.
- In the first half of the year, we were busy raising and closing our US$325M Inovia Venture Fund V, a testament to our commitment to tech entrepreneurs. Since June, Inovia Venture Fund V has invested in five promising seed and Series A tech companies. More to come in 2023!
- Another big focus for our team this year was reviewing the two-year plans of our core portfolio companies and closing internal financing rounds to strengthen some portfolio companies’ balance sheets. We are confident that all our core portfolio companies are equipped and well capitalized for the more challenging times to come.
- Inovia portfolio companies raised nearly US$900M over the year.
- Through it all, we found time to celebrate our 15th anniversary! Thanks again to all of you who have been part of our story.
Please read all our 2022 newsletters for more highlights from this past year.
Portfolio companies in the news
Fundraising
- Corporate Card Startup Mercantile Raises US$22 Million to Target an Unusual Niche: Professional Associations | Forbes
- Symend Closes CA$54M to Pursue Global Expansion Amid Uncertain Economic Environment I Betakit
- Software Company WorkJam Gets US$50 Million Growth Investment I WSJ
- Flare Systems Secures CA$3M Series A Add-on Funding | Private Capital Journal
- CommerceBear Raises US$10.5M to Modernize Outdated Furniture eCommerce Market I Betakit
M&A and Partnerships
- WorkJam Partners with Aware to Give Enterprise Customers Greater Insight into Frontline Employees’ Priorities, Needs and Concerns I Press Release
- Certn Acquires InterCheck to Expand Certn’s Background Check Technology in the Australian Market I Certn
- Hopper Surpasses US$5B Valuation as Capital One Increases Stake in Montreal Online Travel Company I The Globe and Mail
Hiring, Talent Movement and Board Appointments
- Lightspeed Appoints Former Google Executive as Chief Product & Technology Officer | Press Release
- Talent.com Appoints a New CHRO | Linkedin
- Lightspeed Promotes JD St-Martin to President | Press Release
- Sonder Holdings Inc. Announces Seasoned Tech Industry Finance Executive Sean Aggarwal Appointed to Board of Directors | Press Release
- Super’s CMO Framework to Evaluate if You’re Happy with Work | Fast Company
Other Exciting News
- 26 Canadian Tech Startups (including AlayaCare, Bench, Certn, Clearpath, Hopper, Neo, Talent.com, and WorkJam) Added to the List of Firms on Path to $1 billion in Annual Revenue | Betakit
- Neeva launches in Europe to Rival Google Search I Business Wire
- Snapcommerce Grabs its Cape and Becomes Super I TechCrunch
- AppDirect Announces Unification of its AppSmart Business Under the AppDirect Brand I Financial Post
- AlayaCare Modernizes Home Care in Newfoundland & Labrador | Press Release
- Several Inovia Portfolio Companies are Part of Deloitte’s 25th Annual Technology Fast 50 Winners I Press Release
- Rewind, Clearco, AlayaCare, BenchSci, Symend and Certn included as part of the Tech Fast 50 List
- Hopper and Talent.com included as part of the Enterprise Fast 15 List
- Fellow included as part of the Companies to Watch List
- Margaret Atwood Uses Disco to Offer Her Vision of Utopia I The New York Times
- Former Google Ad Chief’s Neeva Launches Its Ad-Free, Privacy-Conscious Search Engine in Canada | Betakit
- BenchSci, Certn, DarwinAI, OTTO Motors, Signal 1 were highlighted as 20 Canadian AI Companies to Watch in 2023 | Vector Institute
Inovia Thoughts
Investment Blogs
- WorkJam is Transforming the Digital Frontline Workplace I Andrew Biddell & Hugues Lalancette
- Building the Modern eCommerce Platform for the Furniture Industry with CommerceBear I Kory Jeffrey & Noah Nagle
Inovia News
- Preserving Wilderness, Investing in the Future I Patrick Pichette
- Welcome to Inovia Executive Advisor Françoise Brougher I Inovia
- Welcome to Inovia EiR Sarah Miller Wright I Inovia
- Welcome to Inovia EiR Kristine Steurart I Inovia
Founder-to-Founder
- Founder-to-Founder: Jason Moore, CEO of RouteThis, on Scaling People & Process | Blog
Podcasts
- Chris Arsenault – Building Canada’s Largest Multi-Stage VC Firm I Backstage Pass, by Front Row Ventures
Other Thoughts
- Magaly’s thoughts on resilience in Float Magazine I Float
INDUSTRY HIGHLIGHTS
- Québec Venture Funding Faced a Perfect Storm In Q3 2022 | Betakit
- Interview with Patrick Pichette at Zone Économie on the Kenauk Project I Radio-Canada (interview in French)
- Movement51 and CIWA Secure $861,980 from PrairiesCan to Support Women Entrepreneurs, Investors | Betakit
- David Nault: passionné par la création d’entreprises | Les Affaires (article in French)
- François Gauvin Appointed President of the Board of Réseau Capital I Réseau Capital (article in French)