New Portfolio Companies, Over US$660M of Equity Financing in the Portfolio & 3 Globally Relevant Events in Montreal

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We hope that you had a lovely summer and recharged your batteries. 

While our team of company builders also took some time to re-energize, we accomplished a lot, thanks to a strong pipeline of opportunities across venture and growth, along with the momentum in our portfolio! Here are a few highlights from Q3:

  • We welcomed several new portfolio companies, including Motion, Reliant AI, and Scribenote
  • We doubled down on Spare
  • Sonder Announced a Strategic Licensing Agreement with Marriott International I Press Release
  • We welcomed GTMFund to our portfolio of Emerging Managers 
  • In July, we took part in Startupfest, where Pascale judged the Startup Showcases, and Magaly shared insights during the “Business of Truth” panel. Chris participated in a fireside chat during GPFest, while Marianne and Claire contributed to LPFest discussions.
  • In September, Steve participated in the “Empowering Growth: Fostering AI Excellence in Canada” session at ALL IN alongside thought leaders from MILA (Valérie Pisano), Meta (Joelle Pineau), and C100 (Michael Buhr), moderated by David Skok from The Logic.
  • Montreal hosted the prestigious Kauffman Fellows Summit, a key event for this global VC learning community, where our colleague Mia is proudly participating as a fellow. Inovia team members played an active role: Marianne, Claire, and Chris contributed their insights to the LP-GP roundtable, while Dennis participated in the ‘Meet Canada’s VC’ panel. We also co-hosted the VC Drinks evening with Brightspark, fostering valuable connections between the Montreal VC community and Kauffman Fellows.
  • Finally, we welcomed a new EiR, Shyam Sheth!

Read below about additional activities during the last quarter. We wish you a productive end of the year! 

— The Inovia Team

Portfolio News

Fundraising – Portfolio Companies

  • Scribenote Pioneers AI Scribe to Combat Burnout Among Veterinarians as It Secures $8.2M Seed Round Led by a16z I Forbes
  • Landbase Emerges from Stealth to Intelligently Automate Your Go-to-Market I Betakit
  • Spare Fixes Cities’ Outdated Transport Services for Disabled Residents I TechCrunch
  • Former Delve Laboratories, Dialogue Leaders Secure $2M to Help Cyber Insurance Brokers Sell Policies and Assess Risk I BetaKit
  • WorkJam Announces $20 Million Investment from Export Development Canada to Expand International Operations I Press Release
  • Not Diamond, the World’s Most Powerful AI Model Router, Announces Their $2.3M Pre-seed Round I LinkedIn
  • Startup With ‘Radical’ Concept for AI Chips Emerges From Stealth With $15 Million to Try to Challenge Nvidia I Fortune
  • Lakera, which protects enterprises from LLM vulnerabilities, raises $20M I TechCrunch
  • Momentum.io Has Closed a $13M Series A Round Led by Firstmark and Stage 2 Capital I Press Release
  • Cohere Series D Hits $500 Million Raised at $5.5-Billion Valuation I BetaKit

Fundraising – Emerging Managers

  • Luge Capital Closes CAD$96M to Invest in Emerging Fintech Companies I Press Release
  • Northside Ventures Closes First Early-Stage VC Fund at CAD$15M I BetaKit

M&A and Partnerships

  • Cohere and NRI Collaborate to Launch New Financial AI Platform I Press Release
  • Certn Integrates Credence Background Screening into Its Global Brand I Press Release
  • Sonder Holdings Inc. Announces Strategic Licensing Agreement with Marriott International I Press Release
  • Seeking “Deeper Engagement,” Tripadvisor Launches in-app Hotel Bookings I PhocusWire
  • Announcement of a new collaboration between TravelStaytion and Hopper to amplify our collection of properties to travellers worldwide I LinkedIn
  • Cohere and Fujitsu Announce Strategic Partnership To Provide Japanese Enterprise AI Services I Press Release
  • Hopper Doubles Down on HTS to Power Banks and Credit Cards to “Build New Space in Travel” I Web In Travel
  • Midwest Fiber Networks (MWFN) Launches MWFN Home Residential Internet Services with gaiia I Press Release

Hiring, Talent Movement and Board Appointments

  • Chad Ballentine: Why I’m Joining Spare as their Microtransit Paratransit Transformation Executive and What Comes Next I Spare Blog
  • Ryan Fox named as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) at Super.com I LinkedIn

Podcasts

  • Navigating Love & Wealth: Tune into ‘Love & Other Assets’ with Emily Luk I Love & Other Assets Podcast 
  • Aidan Gomez and Harry Stebbings Discuss Today’s Opportunities, Challenges, and What’s to Come in Enterprise AI I 20VC Podcast

Other Exciting News

  • Spare Shines on the Big Screen at the TSX I LinkedIn
  • Life House Spins Out Revenue Management Tech as Diamo I PhocusWire
  • Spellbook Launches Associate: ‘First Full-Fledged’ Legal AI Agent I Artificial Lawyer
  • Introducing AI Redline Summaries: Your Go-To Tool for Effortless Document Review in Spellbook I LinkedIn
  • AI-powered Legal-tech Startups Cut the Hype, Gain More Traction I PitchBook
  • ai|coustics API 1.0.0 now live: Automate and Enhance your Audio Production Workflow I Press Release
  • Accessible Transportation Platform Gives Cities Options To Spare I BetaKit
  • [Video] Floor Talk with Amiad Soto, CEO & Co-Founder of Guesty I NYSE
  • [Video] How Cohere CEO Aidan Gomez Says AI Will Directly Profit Companies I CNBC

Inovia Thoughts

Portfolio Blogs

Inovia News 

  • Welcome to Inovia Executive in Residence Shyam Sheth I Portrait

Emerging Manager Series

  • Inovia Emerging Managers Portrait Series: Meet GTMfund I Portrait

Our Team in the News

Podcasts

Industry Highlights

  • Montreal AI Unconference: How we can all work together to make Montreal the ideal city for AI startups, with participation from Chris Arsenault I Montreal AI Unconference