Inovia Q1: Portfolio raised $1.5B, a mega-deal with Vista Equity Partners, and the Launch of Growth Fund II $450M
What a great quarter behind us! There is great momentum in our ecosystem right now and we are pleased to share the many exciting things that have happened since January. Lightspeed and AlayaCare closed 2 major acquisitions. Like Sonder, AppDirect is expanding its Montreal team with 700 new hires, and several portfolio companies raised an aggregate of US $1.5B in mega financing rounds. Read more in the “Portfolio Companies in the News” section below. We are also extremely proud of TripleLift accelerating its growth with Vista Equity Partners announcing the acquisition of a majority position at a reported valuation of US $1.4B.
On our end, we’ve announced Growth Fund II, at US $450M, bringing our total assets under management to over US $1.5B. The new fund is backed by Inovia’s 32 experienced operators and investors, and a powerhouse operations team across Canada, the US, and Europe — giving founders access to the talent, capital, and mentorship they need to scale globally.
And finally, in order to support the amazing growth of our portfolio, we added more talent and expertise to our own team. Isabelle Audette joined as our new VP, Marketing & Communications and Natasha Gould (whom many of you may know from Osler) also joined our legal team as Director of Legal Affairs. We also want to recognize François Gauvin, who celebrated his 14th “Inoviaversary”.
— The Inovia Team
Portfolio Companies in the News
- Lightspeed continued its strong growth with an additional US $676M offering on NYSE, and grew its reach into the Asia-Pacific region with the US $350M acquisition of Vend 🌏 | Lightspeed | Betakit
- After a breakthrough 2020, adtech platform TripleLift sold a majority stake valued at $1.4B to Vista Equity Partners 🚀 | PE Insights
- Hopper raised $170M and partnered with Capital One on a new cardholder travel booking portal ✈️ | TechCrunch
- AppDirect is growing its Montreal team — quickly. This quarter, the company welcomed Pierre-Luc Bisaillon (former Cirque du Soleil) as Chief Information Officer to help build operations as the company seeks to fill 700 positions over the next few years, with 200 open roles now 🚀 | AppDirect
- Forward raised US $225M with SoftBank, Founders Fund, Khosla Ventures, and Inovia to build on its long-term health support infrastructure 🩺 | TechCrunch
- Inovia invested in high growth novel gaming exercise platform Zwift 🚴♀️ | Venturebeat
- Snapcommerce raised US $85M from Inovia, Lion Capital, Acrew DCF (Diversified Capital Fund), Thayer Ventures, and Full In Partners, to build the future of conversational, mobile-first commerce 📱 | TechCrunch
- Neeva, founded by former Google SVP of Ads & Commerce and Inovia advisory committee member Sridhar Ramaswamy, raised US $43M from Greylock, Sequoia and Inovia to upend search — again 🔍 | Forbes
- Symend is growing quickly — it raised US $43M to scale its empathetic approach to customer engagement 🚀 | TechCrunch
- Intelligent automation platform Workfusion brought total funding to US $340M with its new raise of US $220M 💰 | VentureBeat
- Education platform Top Hat raised a US$130M Series E and welcomed new CEO Joe Rohrlich 💰 | Betakit
- Read more about Top Hat CEO Mike Silgadze’s journey and decision to make a big change 🦅 | Globe & Mail
- We were pleased to deepen our partnership with advisory committee member Sukhinder Singh Cassidy through an investment in her diverse board candidate platform theBoardlist 🚀 | Business Insider
- We backed serial entrepreneurs Chris Sukornyk and Candice Faktor in their new cohort-based training platform Disco 🕺 | Globe & Mail
- As remote hiring gains steam, Certn’s US $43M raise will offer employers a way to vet candidates and grow trust 🤝 | Certn | Inovia Blog
- Cloud backup leader Rewind raised a US $15M Series A to build its team and platform 💰| SiliconAngle
- Inovia led headless commerce platform Nacelle’s US $18M round to accelerate the shopping experience for customers, while reducing management for shopkeepers 🛒 | TechCrunch
Industry Highlights
We’re proud of and inspired by portfolio initiatives — including BenchSci, which launched 3 social impact initiatives this quarter: STEM Diversity, Mental Health, & Climate Change | BenchSci
Events
- A must-watch: theBoardlist held a fireside chat on International Women’s Day, between Kim Scott (Radical Candor), Trier Bryant, and Emily Chang (Brotopia). The conversation was recorded and we invite you to listen and share with your teams. Plus, theBoardlist is offering an additional 40% off Kim’s new book “Just Work: Get Sh*t Done Fast and Fair” | Recorded Session | Book discount
- Chris shared his views on Quebec Tech success history, what it takes to build massive companies, and the direction Canada is taking, as a keynote speaker at the Canadian Club Montreal — (in French) | Recording page
- Chris also moderated a fireside chat on D&I with three leading financial market executives at a recent Réseau Capital event | Event page
- Magaly joined two amazing entrepreneurs for a deep discussion at the AI Strategic Forum | Event page
- Magaly also appeared on a panel with Réseau Capital to share her experience of being a founder and an investor | Event page. Look for her at the CVCA’s Invest Canada June 8–9th
- Antoine shared his experiences in tech and as an investor with Harvard Business School students | Twitter
