Inovia Q1: 1 new Partner, 1 new CFO, 10 additional team members, 1 Nasdaq IPO, 3 new portfolio companies and US$364M in fundraising announcements
Friends,
We hope that you had an excellent first quarter despite everything happening in our world. The last few months have seen a flurry of activity across our portfolio companies and our internal team.
Sonder made its Nasdaq debut while BenchSci, RenoRun, and Disco closed financing rounds that will help to fuel their future growth. We also welcomed three new portfolio companies, Conduit, RouteThis, and Talent.com.
Internally, Hugues Lalancette was promoted to partner in early January and will continue to support our growth-stage companies in his new position. Patrick Ghoche, who brings 20+ years of strategic thinking, extensive financial depth and investment experience, has joined Inovia as CFO and will carry the torch forward that François Gauvin so brightly lit over the past 15 years. Patrick will add a fundraising and investor relations function to his new role.
In addition, we’ve added two new members to strengthen our platform team and better support the growth of our portfolio companies, Kory Jeffrey and Meryl Almeida. We’ve also welcomed four investment team members, Andrew Biddell, Simon Constantineau, Rania Ajakane, and Taha Mubashir; as well as Manli Li in operations. Finally, we are excited to welcome Marcos Lopez as a new EiR and Bruno Provencher and Conor Jung as our winter interns.
As we continue to support founders to build global tech companies, we want to thank you for being a part of this community and helping shape what Inovia is today.
— The Inovia Team
Portfolio companies in the news
Fundraising
- Conduit’s ‘Stripe for DeFi’ approach bags startup CAD $21.2M round led by Portage | Betakit
- AI drug discovery startup BenchSci scores CAD $63M series C round led by Inovia and TCV | Betakit
- RenoRun closes CAD $181M series B to fuel Canada-US expansion | Betakit
- Hopper now valued at US $5 billion after US $35 million secondary deal | TechCrunch
- RouteThis secures CAD $25M to take the headache out of home internet | Betakit
- Disco closes US $15M series A round from investors behind Masterclass, Coursera to scale its live learning platform | Betakit
- Calico attracts Serena Williams to US $2.1M seed to build fashion supply chain software | TechCrunch
- Bloom secures CAD $1.4M, launches AI platform to measure e-commerce product photo performance | Betakit
- Talent.com raises US $120M to build job board for post-pandemic economy | The Logic
M&A and Partnerships
- Certn acquires credence | Betakit
- Canadian online travel upstart Hopper takes on Airbnb with new home-rentals offering | The Globe & Mail
- AppDirect acquires leading Canadian cloud technology provider, ITCloud.ca | Press Release
- Busbud closes CAD $14M, acquires Recorrido to fuel Latin American expansion | Betakit
- Hopper continues acquisition spree with Parisian airline travel tech Smooss | Betakit
Hiring, Talent Movement and Board Appointments
- WorkJam expands leadership to accelerate global growth with appointment of CHRO, CMO, and EMEA Managing Director | Press Release
- Lightspeed adds global tech entrepreneurs Nathalie Gaveau and Dale Murray to its board | Betakit
- Lightspeed founder Dasilva steps down; Chauvet rises to CEO | Bloomberg
- WorkFusion appoints new Channel Chief to accelerate global partner success | WorkFusion
- Clearco co-founder Andrew D’Souza steps back as Michele Romanow assumes CEO role | TechCrunch
Other Exciting News
- Neo Financial’s move into downtown ties Calgary’s past to its tech future | Calgary Herald
- Aspire Food Group and DarwinAI awarded IRCAI Top 10 Outstanding Project for 2021 | Press Release
- Sonder makes Nasdaq debut | Betakit
- Neo4j closes banner year marked by customer successes, continued industry validation, community engagement, and major funding | Neo4j
- Quebec ink: The pandemic didn’t ruin Hopper and Sonder — it made them stronger | The Logic
- WorkFusion introduces a set of digital workers | Forbes
- BenchSci gave its staff VR headsets for remote hangout sessions | Toronto Life
- Age of Union pledges $14.5 million donation to BC Parks Foundation to protect threatened ecosystems | Age of Union
- BenchSci, WealthSimple, SnapCommerce, Clearco, and Tulip all referenced as offices of the future examples | Toronto Life
Inovia Thoughts
Investment Blogs
- Conduit: DeFi-ing the Odds: How Conduit is Making Crypto Accessible for Retail Investors
- Sonder: Now Trading on Nasdaq as (SOND), Sonder Continues Its Mission of Revolutionizing the Hospitality Industry
- BenchSci: Defying Eroom’s Law: why we’re doubling down on BenchSci
- RouteThis: Connecting the Dots: How RouteThis Is Revolutionizing the World of Connectivity
- Talent.com: We’re taking on the labor shortage with Talent.com
Inovia Sessions
Founder-to-Founder
Team Announcements
Industry highlights
- Inovia promotes Hugues Lalancette to partner in the growth investment team | Betakit
- Venture funding for Montreal tech sector grew steadily in 2021 with $1.6B raised | Betakit
- Patrick Ghoche joins Inovia as a new CFO | Venture Capital Journal
- Toronto, the quietly booming tech town | The New York Times
- Institutional investors allocate more money to private equity amid volatility in public markets | The Globe & Mail
Articles in French
- Un “rappel” pour l’industrie québécoise | La Presse+
- Accès au Capital : Les femmes remportent la mise | Premières en affaires
- De petite licorne à grand étalon | Le Devoir
