Our 2018 Highlights
Kicking off the fund, we knew it was going to be a fast ride from the start!
In June, we officially launched Luge with our stellar partners: Desjardins Group, La Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Sun Life Financial, Fonds de Solidarité FTQ and La Capitale. They shared our vision and supported our debut into the fintech ecosystem across North America.
We completed two new investments. The first one was Flinks, along with National Bank, Innostart Capital, Panache, inovia capital and Conconi Growth Partners. The investment accelerated the company’s growth and development of an AI-powered credit scoring solution. Read more…
A second investment will be announced publicly early in the new year so stay tuned!
David presented the Status of the Canadian Fintech Landscape at the Canada FinTech Forum in October, which highlighted what industry players can do to improve it. Moreover, Karim wrote about how early-stage fintech companies can build a track to success… it involves a little bit of crazy! (P.S. that’s not us in the street luge photo.)
We feel it’s important to get involved in issues that affect the fintech ecosystem. Regulation policy is one critical area. David is one of the eight new members of the AMF Technological Innovation Advisory Committee (TIAC), which aims to inform and guide the AMF on technological innovation in financial services. Similarly, Karim and Laviva provided policy recommendations to a consortium of regulators around the world on the Global Financial Innovation Network (GFIN) that will help create a worldwide sandbox for innovative firms to interact with regulators.
In 2018, we worked closely with 20 renowned professionals to form our advisory team, who provide invaluable guidance on specific opportunities and thesis-evolution.
Read more stories from the year in our blog
Industry Events
We attended numerous events in Canada and the USA where at times, we were also speakers, judges, moderators or panelists. A few of the key events included:
● Money 20/20
● Canada FinTech Forum
● Fintech 2.0
● InsureTech North
● Village Capital Fintech Program
● Holt Accelerator Program
● Elevate
● Desjardins Cooperathon
● Empire Startups
● Startupfest
● Fundica
We were proud community sponsors of the #movethedial’s Inaugural Global Summit, which supports women leaders. This conference brought together incredible tech leaders and influencers dedicated to promoting the participation and leadership of all women in tech.
Luge was one of six nominees for Top Investor at the Canada FinTech & AI Awards this year. Kudos to all the nominees and award winners, especially Flinks for taking home the Judge’s Choice Award!
In 2019, we will be further collaborating with our network of Financial Institutions, early-stage fintechs and key ecosystem players to help create win-win partnerships and synergies.
A Few Fun Facts
Laviva spent countless nights and weekends studying for her CFA Level 1 and passed it in June! Congrats Laviva! (We would have celebrated in a luge ride, but there was no snow yet…)
The Luge team believes in supporting important charitable causes. We participated in the Tough Mountie, a 5-km obstacle charity race together with other venture capital firms and Espace CDPQ. Organized by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Foundation of Stars, this event supports pediatric research. We’ll be back next year pushing ourselves even further!
At Luge, we have immense respect for world-class champions that push themselves beyond their boundaries. We see many similarities in how entrepreneurs strive to build great businesses with incredible dedication, drive, physical and mental strength, will to win, endless hours of work, focus, and strategic planning. We were thrilled to spend time with Ty Danco, former luge Olympian, entrepreneur, angel investor and friend of the fund, who shared stories about his experience as a great athlete in his field. We also met Alex Bilodeau who took home the gold medal in Vancouver and Sochi.
Happy Holidays!
Happy Holidays to you and yours — and may 2019 be your best year ever!
Luge Capital Team
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