It’s Q4 already — and of course this means refreshingly chilly nights are just around the corner. As we retreat to cozy fires with warm drinks in hand, we invite you to join us in toasting portfolio company AppDirect, which ticked up to #25 on the Forbes Cloud 100 list! Please tweet your congrats to Dan Saks, Nick Desmarais and the entire team.
Also in Q3, we made a big investment in the future of home healthcare, leading AlayaCare’s series B of $14M. This comprehensive cloud platform provides solutions that will reshape the market, experience and outcomes. We were also proud to co-lead the $3M seed investment in DarwinAI alongside Obvious Ventures. In conjunction with the announcement we hosted Co-Founders Dr. Alex Wong, Sheldon Fernandez and Arif Virani in San Francisco for a talk about the evolution of practical deep learning applications. Finally, we co-led the $5.5M institutional seed round in IoT security platform Armored Things.
And finally, this quarter has been the story of old and new forming the foundation we’ll grown on in decades to come. Patrick and Mike settled into our new London office; Principal Magaly Charbonneau joined the MILA board; we celebrated Accounting Associate Tara Pellegrino’s 9th anniversary and welcomed 2 new hires:
Karim Sharobim, General Counsel, Montreal
Karim brings over 18 years of experience, specializing in mergers and acquisitions, divestitures, financings, restructurings and general corporate and commercial matters.
Mia Morisset, Associate, Montreal
Mia is originally from Montreal and is a McGill grad, but has lived and worked in London and Paris. She comes to the firm from the PSP Investments Private Equity team.
Cheers to all! It’s been great to share this quarter with you all and we look forward to seeing you all through the holidays.
The team at Inovia Capital
In the News
- Two of our portfolio founders, Rebecca McKillican (CEO, Well.ca) and Mike Silagadze (Founder & CEO, Top Hat), made Canada’s 40 Under 40 List! This acknowledgement is so very well earned. 🏆 | Canada’s Top 40 Under 40
- AppDirect was also named on the Forbes 2018 Cloud 100 List 🏆 | Market Insider
- DarwinAI’s funding announcement was covered in VentureBeat 💰
- Toronto’s AlayaCare Raises C$13.8 Million Series B 💰 | WSJ
- Busbud joined Startup Open House to help the community get to know the local tech startup scene 💥 | Betakit
- Chronogolf secures $2M 3rd round of financing 💰 | Private Capital Journal
- Read about WorkFusion’s new Partner Portal, which aims to help clients better connect with AI teams; helping to operationalize critical business needs 💥 | Markets Insider
- Vidyard partnered with HubSpot to launch the HubSpot Video platform, which offers a fully integrated solution for marketing, sales and customer service 💥 | MarTechSeries
- Armored Things Announces $5.5M Institutional Seed Round 💰 | PRWeb
…and their Co-Founder Julie Johnson was profiled 💥 | SandHill.com - Bench Accounting CEO Ian Crosby shared his views on the changing relationship between workers and employers 💥 | TechVibes
- Randeep Singh of AON3D had a great profile piece in Forbes — touching on the challenges and opportunities of starting a tech company outside Silicon Valley 🌍 | Forbes
Thoughts
- Inovia Principal Antoine Nivard and Nan Li of Obvious Ventures co-authored a piece on the fast-changing nature of applied AI, and why we see DarwinAI as a promising investment 💭| blog
- Three Inovia portfolio companies — Swept, Drivewyze and TrackTik — were highlighted in a feature about startups creating real solutions for real problems 🦄 | Entrepreneur
- Kerry Liu, CEO of Rubikloud, penned a provocative opinion piece on AI and the Canadian startup mindset; arguing stronger commercialization will create lasting gains for the local economy 🇨🇦 | Globe & Mail
- Inovia Head of Talent & People Salima Ladha collaborated with Patrick Pichette on a piece about the challenges and considerations of a growth stage CEO 🌊 | blog
- Inovia’s Fintech watcher Alex Barrett provided a big-picture look at the sways underfoot in the digital banking sector 💱 | blog
- In conjunction with our investment in home healthcare provider AlayaCare, Alex also shared thoughts about why this company has the right product at the right point in time 🏠 | blog
- As part of our investment in Armored Things Partner Todd Simpson presents the case for how connected IoT devices can make communities safer 📛 | blog
Industry Insights
- Corry Flatt, Founder of Bonfire Interactive, is part of an increasing trend we like to see — taking his exit in stride and doubling down on the Canadian tech scene 🇨🇦 | Communitech
- Lightspeed Founder Dax Dasilva co-authored a piece advocating for strategic changes in Quebec to spur technical innovation 🇨🇦 | Globe & Mail
- Our belief that geographically diverse teams will be the new normal is underscored in this piece on the shift away from Silicon Valley 🌎 | Economist
- Uber has committed to expanding it’s development operations in Toronto 🍁 | Globe & Mail
- On trend with other big players, Microsoft has opened a Toronto headquarters; bringing $570M for investments along with it 🍁 | Techvibes
- New General Partner and former RIM/Blackberry CFO/COO Dennis Kavelman talks about his insights on the opportunity in Canadian tech 🇨🇦 | The Record
- Another great article on the growing tech talent scene in Montreal 🇨🇦 | AITrends
Events
- In conjunction with the O’Reilly Velocity Conference, Dr. Alex Wong, Sheldon Fernandez and Arif Virani presented a talk on the problems and solutions in AI
- AppDirect’s #ADEngage is coming up October 15–17 in San Francisco. Join for inspiring sessions and networking on how we can transform business in the digital economy
- We hope to see you at SaaS North in Ottawa November 28–29