👉 Subscribe to our newsletter to receive Inovia Quarterly straight in your inbox.📩
Q2 is in the books, and so much happened that our newsletter is starting to feel a bit like a novel — but, spoiler alert: it’s a really great story of growth! Here are some highlights:
NEW TEAM MEMBERS: First, the big news — we welcomed two new GPs and three new team members this quarter. Patrick Pichette, former Google CFO and Dennis Kavelman, former RIM/Blackberry CFO/COO joined the team to lead our growth investing practices. We also welcomed three new investment team members:
Jerry Hendrix / Associate / Toronto
Growth Stage Investment Team
Hannah Chelkowski / Analyst / San Francisco
Early Stage Investment Team
Ramit Kar / Western Canada
Entrepreneur in Residence
As part of our growth plan, we restructured into a Full Stack venture firm, with 4 strong teams: Early Stage, Growth Stage, Acceleration Practices (adding value to the portfolio in the areas of Sales & Marketing, People & Talent, Growth, M&A), and Operations. Don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions about how we can best work together.
NEW OFFICES: We are deepening our roots in the most valuable tech hubs with some moves and new office space. We bid adieu to Michael McGraw, who moved from Montreal to London to help Patrick set up shop; we opened our new Toronto office; and we’re nearly signed on our new San Francisco digs. We look forward to welcoming you when you’re in town!
COMMUNITY: We celebrated these new endeavors with portfolio Founders/CEOs and LPs at our annual CEO & Annual Summits in Montreal. Our theme this year, Powers of Scale, was an expression of our renewed vision to help companies through every stage of hyper growth — multiplying by a ‘Power of 10’ their headcount, revenue, office space, and impact every few months. Read the wrap-up on our blog for highlights from our world-class lineup of speakers.
PORTFOLIO: We welcomed impressive new companies to the family — including Certn (Pre-seed/AI) and BenchSci (Series A/digital health/life sciences). We see in each of these companies the best of Canadian tech, and look forward to digging in and helping each team to build global companies.
EXITS: In exits, we were proud to support VendorHawk in its acquisition by ServiceNow — a move that will help the team to continue their mission in partnership with an industry leader. We also celebrated seed investment Return Magic, which was quickly acquired by Shopify. Congrats to all!
Well — we could go on with many more chapters, but you probably need to get ready for a vacation soon. Thanks for reading and have a wonderful summer.
Inovia Team
IN THE NEWS
Inovia
- Inovia Snags CFOs from Google, Blackberry to Lead Growth Fund 🦄 | Globe & Mail
- The New Inovia Capital and Canada’s Scaling VC Industry 🦄 | PEHub
- Why the Former CFO of Google Joined a Canadian VC Firm After Two Years Traveling the World 🌍 | CNBC
- Former CFO Patrick Pichette is Becoming a VC 🏆 | Recode
- Patrick Pichette, Former Google CFO, Joins Inovia as General Partner 🏆 | CNBC
- Former Google CFO Patrick Pichette Just Joined the World of Venture Capital 🏆| TechCrunch
- Watch: Patrick Shares Thoughts on Why It’s Time to Keep Canadian Tech Talent at Home 🎬 | CBC On the Money
- Former Inovia Principal David Nault Launches Luge Capital with Karim Gillani 💵 | Betakit
- Hugues Drops in on “VCs Say These Startup Metrics Don’t Really Matter” 📊 | FastCompany
- Principal Magaly Joins the MILA Board 🏆 | MILA
- L’ex-Patron de Google Patrick Pichette s’allie à Inovia Capital 🦄 | LaPresse
- Watch: CVCA CEO Sessions Featuring Chris, Patrick, & Dennis 🎬 | CVCA
PORTFOLIO HIGHLIGHTS
- Nature.com Mentions BenchSci in its Review of Technology in Drug Discovery 💉 | Nature.com
- PEX CEO: Why Gig Workers Need Spend Management Tools 📱 | Pymnts.com
- Certn Raises $975K to Use AI for Background Checks 💰 | Betakit
- VendorHawk Joins Forces with ServiceNow 🏆 | VendorHawk Blog
- Dax Dasilva on Evolving Businesses in the Face of Amazon 🏆 | Globe & Mail
- Google’s AI-focused Gradient Ventures Invests in BenchSci to Speed up Biomedical Discoveries 💰 | VentureBeat
- BenchSci Raises $10.3 Mill
ion to Analyze Antibodies with AI 💰 | TechVibes - Benchsci Raises $10 Million Series A For Antibody Search Engine 💰 | BetaKit
- Shopify Buys Montreal Startup to Beef Up Return Game 🏆 | Financial Post
THOUGHTS
Inovia
- Read Sarah’s take in the “Ask an Investor” weekly series 💥 | Betakit
- Read Sarah’s article People Share Their Cars, Their Homes, and Now Their Nannies.
- Read a recap of the stunning lineup of speakers at our 2018 CEO & Annual Summits.
- Venture Partner Todd Simpson explores the landscape of AI for developers and investors in AI: Beyond Horizontal vs. Vertical.
- Antoine, Inovia Principal, dissects the vulnerabilities in Life Sciences research, and how one of this quarter’s investments — BenchSci — offers a solve. Read Solving the Life Sciences Reproducibility Crisis with Machine Learning.
- Read our announcement about new General Partners Patrick Pichette & Dennis Kavelman.
- Shout out to Antoine for contributing to “4 VCs Share How To Change Their Minds About Funding Your Startup” in FastCompany
- Watch: Patrick Pichette Says All You Need in Life Fits in a Backpack 🎒
PORTFOLIO HIGHLIGHTS
- Pre-Seed investment Return Magic sets forth a bold vision for perfecting the online shopping experience | Return Magic Blog
- Workfusion Raises $50M Series E | Workfusion Blog
CANADIAN TECH LEADERSHIP
- The power of Top 40 Under 40 Canada includes two Inovia portfolio Company CEOs: Rebecca McKillican @ Well.ca and Mike Siligaze @ TopHat | National Post
- Shopify CEO says Canada is ‘Brilliant Place’ to Build Tech Firms | Bloomberg
- Canada’s Brain Gain — The Reverse Migration of Tech Talent is Happening | Globe & Mail
- Canada Is Going To Be The Next, Great, Entrepreneurial Tech Country | Feld Thoughts
- H-1B Workers Are Leaving Trump’s America for the Canadian Dream | Bloomberg
- Canada Has Pulled Off a Brain Heist | Axios
- Why This VC Thinks Canada Will Be the Next Big Startup Hot Spot | Inc.
- Canada Wants Silicon Valley’s Tech Employees | The Atlantic
- Hello World Canada: The Rise of AI | Bloomberg
- How Toronto Became a Global Powerhouse for Artificial Intelligence Startups and Giants | Adweek
- Want Your Startup to Succeed? Move to Toronto | Inc.