Happy New Year! As we begin 2025, we’re energized by the opportunities ahead and the renewed momentum across our portfolio.
The close of Q4 2024 wrapped another year marked by the grind, grit and determination of tech companies and the broader ecosystem. The hard work of our founders and our team of company builders has driven us to re-acceleration over the past year, setting our portfolio on a path of sustainable, long-term growth. In 2024, Inovia deployed over US$194M, supporting 35 new companies, 18 existing ones and two new emerging managers.
Here are a few highlights of our last quarter:
- We welcomed several new venture portfolio companies including Medeloop and poolside, initially part of our Discovery portfolio
- We doubled down on Flare
- Life House announced a joint venture with Lark Hotels
- We welcomed Felicia Bochicchio and Donny Cheung as Executive Advisors to our team of Company Builders
- We’ve organized our second annual Inovia Talent Summit and collaborated with Canadian Tech at Scale 2024 to bring together tech leaders from across the country
- From SaaS North in Ottawa to the Calgary Innovation Week, to Phocuswright in Phoenix, to Slush in Helsinki, and to launching our Accelerating Success Dinner Series in partnership with BDC Growth Venture Fund, it was another busy quarter sharing insights and networking with the North American and EU tech ecosystems
Please find below more activity highlights of the past quarter. And, may 2025 bring you health and success!
— The Inovia Team
Portfolio News
Fundraising
- Flare Raises $30M to Thwart Info-Stealers Like Those Used on Snowflake Customers I TechCrunch
- Wealthsimple Valuation Back To $5B as Investment Firm for US Billionaires Buys Employee Stock I The Globe and Mail
- Upheal Secures $10M to Help Reduce Provider Burnout and Improve Client Outcomes with their AI-Powered Platform I Press Release
- Armed with CA$1.6M, runQL Wants to Take the Chaos out of Data Query Management I BetaKit
- Canadian-led Medeloop Closes US$15.5M in Inovia-led Series A Round I BetaKit
- Neo Financial’s $360-million Series D Features Big Names I BetaKit
- poolside Closes $500M Series B to Build the World’s Most Capable AI for Software Development I Press Release
M&A and Partnerships
- Capping Off a Year of Grind and Company Building: Key Highlights from Our Strategic Growth Initiatives I Chris Arsenault on LinkedIn
- Lark Hotels and Life House Team Up to Manage Lifestyle Properties I Skift
- AppDirect Acquires IT Asset Management Platform Firstbase, Providing a Consolidated Management Platform for Software, Telecom, and Now Hardware Assets I Press Release
- Cohere Is Quietly Working With Palantir To Deploy Its AI Models I TechCrunch
- South Korea’s Woori Card and HTS Partner on New Travel Offering I Press Release
- Expedia and Hopper Resume Hotel Supply Deal After Bitter Falling Out I Skift
- AppDirect’s Acquisition Spree Heats Up As It Reveals Plans To Purchase vCom Solutions I BetaKit
- Spellbook now Integrates Content from Thomson Reuters Practical Law I Press Release
- Trillium Health Partners Teams Up with Signal 1 to Accelerate Artificial Intelligence for Better Health I Press Release
- Telus and Photonic Join Forces to Build Canada’s Quantum Future I Press Release
Hiring, Talent Movement and Board Appointments
- Ripsy Bandourian joins Booksy as COO I LinkedIn
- Navya Rehani Gupta joins Talent.com as Chief Product Officer I LinkedIn
- Jeff Gowen joins Wealthsimple as CFO I LinkedIn
Podcasts
- From $50B to $1 Trillion: Wealthsimple’s Vision I The Startup CEO Show
- Founder DNA: From Scaling Uber to Winning with Canadian Talent, with Andre Charoo I Unstacked Startups
- Bootstrapping to a Billion-Dollar IPO: Dax Dasilva on Lightspeed’s Journey I Tank Talks
- Raising $500M To Compete in the Race for AGI with Eiso Kant, CTO @ poolside I 20VC
- Can Wealthsimple Build Canada’s Largest Financial Institution? I The BetaKit Podcast
Other Exciting News
- The Guesty Effect: Supercharging Revenue for Short-Term Rentals and Vacation Properties I Guesty
- Wealthsimple Celebrates 10th Anniversary at the TMX Opening I LinkedIn
- Neo Financial Introduces Industry-Leading Cashback Credit Cards with Top-Tier Benefits I Business Wire
- Booksy Billboard Lighting Up Times Square I LinkedIn
- Cohere to Help Build Multibillion-Dollar AI Data Centre in Canada I The Logic
- Alternative Investments Just Got (a Lot) More Accessible With Wealthsimple I LinkedIn
- How to Scale Up with Cohere: Insights from Aidan Gomez I BenchSci Blog
- Aidan Gomez and Mike Katchen Named Among Toronto’s 50 Most Influential I Toronto Life
- Michael Katchen: Breaking Investment Barriers with Technology I BBC
- Neo4j Surpasses $200M in Revenue, Accelerates Leadership in GenAI-Driven Graph Technology I Press Release
- Inovia Portfolio Shines in Deloitte’s 2024 Technology Fast 50: Neo Financial, Hopper, Fellow, BenchSci, Certn, and Lightspeed Recognized for Outstanding Growth I Deloitte
- Children’s Hospital Los Angeles Tests Generative AI to Translate Discharge Notes into Spanish I Stat News
Inovia Thoughts
Investment Blog
- Investing in Medeloop: Redefining the Limits of Clinical Research With AI Agents I Magaly Charbonneau, Pascale Archambault, and Gabi Piccininni
News
- Welcome to Inovia Executive in Residence Donny Cheung I Portrait
- Welcome to Inovia Executive in Residence Felicia Bochicchio I Portrait
Insights
- State of SaaS in Canada: Trends, Challenges, and Growth I Inovia Blog
Emerging Manager Series
- Inovia Emerging Managers Portrait Series: Meet Roar Ventures I Portrait
Our Team in the News
- International Investors Eying Luxembourg I Silicon Luxembourg article featuring Mike McGraw
- One Chart That Will Make You Feel Good About Canadian Tech I BetaKit article featuring Chris Arsenault
- Investors Will Have to Wait to See if Their AI Deals Pay Off I The Logic article featuring Chris Arsenault
Podcasts
- Inovia’s Michael McGraw European LPs and Why A Higher Risk Appetite Could Pay For Itself I EUVC Podcast
- Inovia Capital Panel on Making Acquisitions A Success from the People, Cultural, and Technical Side I How To Saas Podcast with Krista Skalde, Meryl Almeida, and Kory Jeffrey
- Live Podcast @ SaaS North: The State of Canadian Software in 2024 with Chris Arsenault I The BetaKit Podcast
- The Secret to Building Billion-Dollar Teams—Revealed by Steve Woods I Superhuman AI: Decoding the Future
- Live Podcast @ Espace CDPQ: The State of Early Stage in Canada I Flagship Podcast featuring Marianne Dubois (also available on YouTube)
Industry Highlights
- Welcome to the US$100-Million Club: With Dozens of Scaled-Up Tech Companies, Canada Is Poised to Deliver a Wave of Quality IPOs I The Globe and Mail
- The World’s Largest AI Data Centre to Be Developed in the Greenview Industrial Gateway (“GIG”) Near Grande Prairie in Northwest Alberta, Canada I Press Release
- Spotlight: Capital Exited in Canadian Venture over the Past Decade I RBCx
- Canada Just Launched Its Own AI Safety Institute I The Logic
- Meet Christopher Skeete, Québec’s New Minister Responsible for Finishing Fitzgibbon’s Work I BetaKit