Friends,
Q3 was a busy quarter at Inovia, with several new investments, major portfolio transactions in the making, and plenty happening across the tech ecosystem.
Here are a few highlights:
- We welcomed Branch Energy, Feldera, Katalyze, Paraito, Peripheral, and StrongestLayer to our venture portfolio.
- Portfolio company Super.com announced a US$65M Series D, valuing the company at US$1.2B.
- Portfolio company Poolside was featured in the Wall Street Journal, which reported that Nvidia plans to invest $1B in the company at a $12B valuation and acquire a non-exclusive license to Poolside’s model-factory software for an additional $6B.
- Patrick Pichette became CEO of Digital Transformation Canada, a cause for celebration and a significant development for Canada’s national AI strategy
- Our team had a strong presence at key ecosystem events across Canada and Dubai: a fireside chat with Chris and Cohere’s Aidan Gomez at CVCA’s Canadian Global Growth Forum in Toronto, a mainstage panel on building Canadian AI champions at ALL IN in Montréal, Claire moderating a cybersecurity fireside chat at GISEC in Dubai, plus Waterloo Tech Week, Canada 2020 in Ottawa, and more.
- We launched our new website!
Scroll on for the stories and milestones that shaped the quarter.
— The Inovia Team
Portfolio News
Fundraising — Portfolio Companies
- Exclusive: Feldera Raises $15.4M for Faster Data Processing I Axios I Press Release
- Branch Energy Raises $33M to Deliver AI Power in Weeks, Not Years I Press Release
- This AI Startup Is Using Self-Driving Car Technology to Bring 3D Video to Live Sports I Fast Company
- StrongestLayer Raises $4.1M for Reasoning-Based Email Security I SiliconAngle
- Super.com Lands US$65M Financing at US$1.2B Valuation for Savings App I Fortune I The Logic I The Globe and Mail
- Exclusive: Katalyze AI’s Seed Round for Pharma Workflow Software I Axios I BetaKit I Press Release
- Paraito Raises $2.65M to Automate Grunt Work for Quebec Notaries I BetaKit I Press Release
Fundraising — Discovery Portfolio
- Ex-Lunar Founders Raise €8.2M to Launch AI-Native Audit Firm Repodo I Repodo
Emerging Managers
- Connect Ventures Closes $55M for Fund V I LinkedIn
Deals, M&A, and Partnerships
- AppDirect Acquires Soul Machines to Expand Enterprise AI Experiences for Advisors and Businesses I Press Release
- TD Announces $25 Million Strategic Relationship with Cohere to Support AI Adoption I Press Release
- Guesty Has Acquired Smily I LinkedIn
- Cohere and Aleph Alpha Sign Agreement to become the first transatlantic sovereign AI solution I Press Release
- Signal 1 Signs Deal with Newfoundland Health Authority to Bolster Canadian Business I The Logic
- BenchSci Announces Two-Year Enterprise Agreement with argenx to Advance AI-Driven Preclinical Drug Discovery I The Canadian Press
- BenchSci Partners with Google Cloud to Close Biology Infrastructure Gap I BenchSci
- Neo4j’s GraphAware Acquisition Targets New Customer Segment I Tech Target
- HUMAIN and Cohere Announce AI Compute, Sovereign Models, and Enterprise AI Collaboration I Press Release
- DIAMO and Guesty Partner to Bring AI-Powered Pricing and Marketing Technologies to the Short-Term Rental Industry I Hotel Tech Report
Hiring, Talent Movement and Board Appointments
- Legal AI Startup Spellbook Hired a New CMO, and She Has Strong Opinions on Avoiding ‘Creepy’ AI Marketing I Business Insider
- Novisto Hires Sacha Elsamra as CFO I LinkedIn
Thought Leadership — ICYMI
- The Next Decade of Biopharma R&D Will Be Won by Whoever Redesigns the Factory Floor Around AI I Liran Belenzon
- Abnormal Is Not Malicious. Malicious Is No Longer Abnormal I Security Boulevard
- Q&A: Hussein Fazal on Super.com’s 10-Year Journey to Becoming a Unicorn I BetaKit
- Modem’s Ben Vinegar launching Episode 8 of the State of Agentic Coding, guest starring Mario Zechner, co-creator of Pi I LinkedIn
Updates & Other Exciting News
- Save the Date: Novisto’s 2026 Sustainability Forum, Owning the Outcome I Register Here
- Spellbook, Float and Novisto Named Among Canada’s Top Growing Companies I The Globe and Mail
- Leaders from Cohere and Spellbook Amongst 2026 Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 Honourees I The Globe and Mail I Financial Post
- Joelle Pineau from Cohere Included in the TIME100 AI 2026 List I Time
- The LegalTech AI Company Seeing Enormous Traction I Forbes
- Why Cohere Is Tripling Its London Bet I The Morning Intelligence
- Clearco Close to Profitability I The Globe and Mail
- Not Diamond Announces Not Diamond Code I LinkedIn
- Poolside Is Releasing Laguna S 2.1, a New Open-Weight Model for Agentic Coding and Long-Horizon Work I LinkedIn
- Skyfall AI Comes Out of Stealth: Former Microsoft AI Leaders Are Spending $1M to Prove AI Can Replace CEOs I Forbes
- Super.com Featured on Nasdaq, NYSE and TSE I LinkedIn
- Skyfall AI Launches Morpheus, the World’s First Real-World Reinforcement Learning Environment I LinkedIn
- Nodal Exchange Taps Compute Desk to Power New AI Compute Futures I Bloomberg
- Spellbook Runs 530,000 Contract Reviews a Month with Claude I Claude
Inovia Thoughts
Company Spotlights
- Spotlight on Feldera with Conversation Between Inovia Partner Taha Mubashir and Feldera CEO & Co-Founder, Lalith Suresh I Inovia YouTube
- Spotlight on Float with Inovia Partner Dennis Kavelman and Float’s CEO, Rob Khazzam I Inovia YouTube
- Spotlight on Peripheral with Inovia Partner Karam Nijjar and Peripheral CEO, Kelvin Cui I Inovia YouTube
- Spotlight on StrongestLayer with Inovia Partner Taha Mubashir and StrongestLayer CEO, Alan Lefort I Inovia YouTube
- Spotlight on Super.com with Inovia Partner Mia Morisset and Super.com CEO, Hussein Fazal I Inovia YouTube
Insights
- Canada’s Next Chapter: Building Global AI Champions From Home I Chris Arsenault
- The Electrons Must Flow I Pranav Vinod I LinkedIn
- The Open Source Inflection Point I Taha Mubashir & Ayush Malhotra
- The Next Big Breach Won’t Be a Hacker. It’ll Be an Over-Permissioned Agent I Techstrong TV
- Building High Growth Tech Ventures in the AI Era with Kory Jeffrey from Inovia Capital I FinStrat Management
- Taha Mubashir: Riding Shotgun with Founders Past the Dark Web Into the Metaverse I YouTube
- Quick Answers to Quick Questions: Steve Woods, Partner & CTO, Inovia Capital I SandHill
Our Team in the News
- Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez Says Canada Could Become a Data Centre Superpower I BetaKit
- Patrick Pichette Named CEO of Digital Transformation Canada I The Logic
- Inovia Partner Magaly Charbonneau named a Finalist for the Prix Créateur(trice) de valeur at the 2026 Gala Reconnaissance I Réseau Capital
- CVCA Hosting Canadian Global Growth Forum Toronto I The Logic
- Etienne Gauthier Named Judge for the SiliconAngle TechForward Awards I SiliconAngle