Chris Arsenault's other blog

Gamerizon Thinks Big, and Acts Big! Chop Chop

2011-09-16T15:20:00.001-07:00

We (iNovia Capital) invested in Gamerizon for a number of reasons, and among them, one stands out: we believe that Alex, Martin, Robert & the team already have the ingredients required to build a very large Company. And by very large, I mean to grow to + $100M in annualized revenues within a reasonable short period of time, and not fall into the trap of an early sale of the Company to a major Media conglomerate. At least, this is our premise as of today!

The team’s deep understanding of crucial game mechanics, and the fact that they have built into the company’s DNA a fundamental understanding of mobile and social interaction, makes us believe Gamerizon will outperform most of the game studios out there today. The Chop Chop franchise already show great traction, they own some key proprietary technology, have tons of industry knowledge, and they presented us with an impressive plan for growth.

The team is doing all the right things as a start up. Self-funded until they hit tangible milestones, got over 15 million downloads of their product to prove traction, built an amazing team and early-on opened up to a few key potential investors.

I also think we have the best co-investor for this Company. Who better than Vanedge Capital to help guide an A team that wants to build the next PacMan, the next Zynga? Vanedge! We

are really looking forward working along side Paul Lee (ex-President of Electronic Arts, and Glenn Entis (ex-President of Dreamworks Interactive), helping Gamerizon rise to the top.

Congrats guys, you are off to an awesome start!

Check out Gamerizon site: http://gamerizon.com/

And most importantly, download chop chop on the AppStore!

Press releases :

English : http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/September2011/15/c3729.html

French: http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/September2011/15/c3740.html

A few article links:

La Presse : Cent emplois et des nouveaux investisseurs pour Gamerizon

The Gazette : Gamerizon's early start pays off

Next Montreal : Gamerizon Raises $5 Million led by Vanedge Capital and iNovia Capital

The Gazette : Gamerizon a local success story

Financial Post : Canadian startups close all-Canadian funding rounds

Direction Informatique : Gamerizon obtient un financement de 5M$

The Gazette : Montreal’s Gamerizon secures $5 million in funding

Branchez-vous : Le studiomontréalaisGamerizonobtient5millionsen

Video:

L’Actualité : Chop Chop et l’art de construire une marque dans l’univers du mobile

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Startup Visa Canada: Who's In, Supporting Organizations, Media Coverage, and How You Can Help

2011-06-06T15:53:00.001-07:00

Startup Visa Canada

“We believe startups to be the driving force behind job creation and prosperity,” says [CVCA's] executive director Richard Rémillard. “We need to be more attractive to foreign entrepreneurs."

Thanks for supporting the Startup Visa Canada Initiative. It's been about 5 months since we launched. During that time, the team has been busy reaching out to government officials, influencers and organizations across Canada to gather data and garner support for an alternative visa for entrepreneurs.

Here's a quick update on our progress:

Chris Arsenault, iNovia Capital joins the Founding Team

We are pleased to welcome Chris Arsenault, Managing Partner at iNovia Capital to the Startup Visa Canada team. Chris has been an early stage investor and entrepreneur for over 17 years and is an active board member with the Canadian Venture Capital Association (CVCA). Chris has been a strong supporter of the initiative and recently wrote a post in the CVCA magazine entitled Attracting Foreign Entrepreneurs to Canada.

Based in Montreal, it's great to have Chris on board to represent and support Startup Visa Canada on the East Coast.

Who's In?

Over 270 people including you have signed our online petition and 67 notable entrepreneurs, investors and influencers have come forward to publicly endorse the initiative including:

Ben Yoskovitz, Year One Labs
Jason Bailey from SuperRewards and GrowLab
Anthony Lee, Altos Ventures and C100 Organization
Chris Albinson from Panorama Capital and C100 Organization
David Crow from Startup North
Roger Chabra, Rho Ventures
JS Cournoyer, Real Ventures
Paul Kedrosky
Dan Martell, Flowtown
Maria Pacella from GrowthWorks
Brian Wong of Kiip

Supporting Organizations

Many thanks to the organizations, who have also endorsed the initiative including the CVCA, StartupNorth, Real Ventures, iNovia Capital, Bootup, the Canadian Innovation Exchange. Podium Ventures and Startup Edmonton. If your organization would like to endorse us as well, please send maura [at] bootup [dot] ca a message.

Media

"It takes eight years for the Canadian immigration system to evaluate a young tech entrepreneur applying to immigrate from Paris. Applying from Hong Kong takes a little more than seven years, from New Delhi more than six and from Beijing nearly four. I

n the world of technology startups, waiting times measured in Olympiads will convince applicants to apply for a visa elsewhere." -

Joe Friesen, The Globe & Mail

Startup Visa Canada has also received some great coverage in CVCA Magazine, BC Business, Techvibes, StartupNorth and Hacker News. You can find links to more stories in the Press section on the Startup Visa website.

How You Can Help

Tell your friends to endorse the Initiative, if they have not already done so.
Tweet and blog about the initiative @startupvisaca
Send your local MP's a message with a link to the site and express your support for Startup Visa Canada
Follow us on Twitter @startupvisaca and like us on Facebook

Thanks again!

The Startup Visa Canada Team

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The largest gathering of Venture Capital and Private Equity firms is heading out to Vancouver

2011-05-13T10:22:00.001-07:00

Posted first on May 12, 2011 by Chris Arsenault for CVCA VCRants Blog
I’ve been an active board member of the CVCA – Canada’s Venture Capital & Private Equity Association – for many years, with somewhat of a focus on helping make the annual main event a unique and uttermost valuable gathering of the minds that define our private capital industry.

I’m predicting that this year’s event will set new groundbreaking records. In fact, I think that this year’s event will break every record we have logged at the CVCA! And why you may ask? Because this year’s event speakers and attendees are made up of the most active and opinionated leaders in our industry.

We have the largest group ever of Limited Partners attending, coming from across North America, Europe and Brazil, which, in turn, is attracting practically every Venture & Private Equity Fund Manager and General Partner in the country.

This year’s Annual conference is being held from May 25-27^th in beautiful Vancouver, British Columbia, at the Westin Bayshore.

The speaker lineup is amazing and includes:

Leo DeBever, CEO and Chief Investment Officer, Alberta Investment Management Corporation (AIMCo)
Barry Gonder, Managing Partner, Grove Street Advisors, LLC
Doug Pearce, CEO and Chief Investment Officer, British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (bcIMC)
Maurício da Rocha Wanderley, CIO, Valia

Sebastien Burdel, Principal, Coller Capital Ltd.
Alan Hibben, Managing Director, Mergers and Acquisitions, RBC Capital Markets
John McCoach, President, TSX Venture Exchange
Andrew Rippy, Managing Director - Investment Banking, Pacific Crest Securities

Blair Cowan, Vice-President, Corporate Finance, CIBC
Vipon Ghai, Managing Director, Manulife Capital
Mark Jenkins, Vice-President and Head of Private Debt, CPP Investment Board
Greg Woynarski, Managing Director and Head of the Global Debt Capital Markets Group and Global Co-Head of Credit Capital Markets Group, Scotia Capital

Chris Arsenault, Managing Partner, iNovia Capital Inc.
Jeff Clavier, Founder and Managing Partner, SoftTechVC
John Ruffolo, Senior Vice-President and Head of Knowledge Investing, OMERS
Boris Wertz, CEO, W Media Ventures

Frank Dennis, President and CEO, Swiss Water Decaffeinated Coffee Company
Brett Hodson, President and CEO, Corix Group of Companies
Peter Luit, President and CEO, Livingston International

Tim April , Managing Director, Fund Investments, BDC Venture Capital
Jacques Bernier, Managing Partner, Teralys Capital
Jennifer Brooy, Vice President and Head of Equity, Export Development Canada
Melissa McJannet, Managing Director, Northleaf Capital Partners
Todd Tessier, Vice President, BC Renaissance Capital Fund

Stephen Dent, Partner, Birch Hill Equity Partners
Kelly DePonte, Partner, Probitas Partners
Aaron Gershenberg, Managing Partner, SVB Capital
David Henderson, Managing Director , XPV Capital Corporation
Tim Kelly, Partner, Adams Street Partners

Susan Long McAndrews, Partner, Pantheon
Dave Mullen, CEO and Head of Private Equity North America, HSBC Capital (Canada) Inc.
Deanna Brown, CEO, Federated Media Publishing Inc.
Matt Klainer, Business Development Manager , Google
Michael Shim, Vice President, Mobile Partnerships, Groupon

Jim Orlando, Managing Director, OMERS Private Equity
Scott Stedman, Partner, The Yucaipa Companies

Gary Rubinoff, Managing Director, Summerhill Venture Partners
Chris Wormald, Vice President – Strategic Alliances, Research In Motion
Paul Deninger, Senior Managing Director, Evercore Partners

Jennifer Morais , Senior Principal, Funds and Secondaries, CPP Investment Board
Jim Pittman, Vice President, Private Equity, PSP Investments
Rakesh Saraf, Portfolio Manager, Private Investments, Alberta Teachers’ Retirement Fund Board
Lincoln Webb, Vice President, Private Equity & Infrastructure, BC Investment Management Corporation

Miguel Ferreira, Head of International Markets, Tarpon
Tim Formuziewich, Managing Partner, Brookfield Brazil
Miguel Perrotti, President, Invest Tech
Maurício da Rocha Wanderley, CIO, Valia
Duncan Littlejohn, Managing Director for Latin America, Paul Capital Partners
Michael Woolhouse, Senior Principal, Private Investments, CPP Investment Board

Sidney Chameh, Chairman, ABVCAP Founder and Partner, DGF Investimentos
Martin Pose, Partner, TozziniFreire Advogados

David Snow, Founder & CEO, Privcap

Bing Gordon, Partner, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
Don Mattrick , President, Interactive Entertainment Business, Microsoft
Neil Young, CEO, Ngmoco

Stephen Todd Walker, Managing Director, Oppenheimer & Co., and Author of ‘Wave Theory for Alternative Investments’

And yes! The rumors were well-founded. Entertainment before the traditional Scotch Tasting Evening on the 26^th will be provided by none other than “Great Canadian Entrepreneur and Entertainer Howie Mandel”

HOWIE MANDEL

Howie Mandel, one of the biggest names in comedy, will entertain us after dinner. Howie Mandel has remained a constant force in show business for over 30 years. This summer he embarked on his latest endeavor as a judge on NBC’s hit talent competition series “America’s Got Talent” alongside Sharon Osborne and Piers Morgan. Howie recently received an Emmy nomination for “Outstanding Reality/Competition Host” for “Deal or No Deal” and a Daytime Emmy nomination for “Outstanding Game Show Host” for the syndicated version of the show.

So if you are not registered and are looking for “the place to be” later this month, then LINK TO CONFERENCE WEB SITE, SPEAKER LIST & AGENDA and register today – we are almost sold out!

See you in Vancouver!

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C100 AccelerateMTL – Bring it On Montreal Tech Entrepreneurs!

2011-03-16T18:22:00.001-07:00

Posted first on February 25, 2011 by Chris Arsenault for iNovia Capital

Come join us for AccelerateMTL on March 31st The C100, iNovia Capital, Real Ventures and BDC Venture Capital have collaborated to bring the Montreal tech entrepreneur community a major event about the “What” and the “How” of building successful tech companies at high speed.

The event kicks off at 2:00 pm with “Do More Faster: Techstars Lessons to Accelerate Your Startup”, a keynote and open Q&A session with Brad Feld, co-founder of Techstars and Managing Director of the Foundry Group, investor in Zynga.

Brad will be followed by a panel of leading C100 seed investors and VCs from the US and Canada who will share what they think it takes to get their money and build world class companies from your own backyard.

Not to be missed is the final portion of the program – keynotes from Dave McClure, the Founder of 500 Startups, and Howard Lindzon, Founder of Stocktwits – to be followed by an interactive Q&A with both Dave and Howard.

Come join us to mingle and network with entrepreneurs, VCs and angels who’ve done it and want to support the next generation of great Canadian entrepreneurs.

Note: We will also be announcing the CIX Accelerator winning Montreal Entrepreneur that will be attending the Silicon Valley based Plug and Play Technology Center for three months.

**Doors open at 1:00 pm – come early!**

We also adding the second floor with tables as a business "office hours" area, allowing investors, entrepreneurs and C100 chartered members to hold one-on-one meetings.

For those interested in joining the team for an AccelerateMTL Ski Day click

here: http://acceleratemtlski.eventbrite.com

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Follow up to Steve Blank post: VC’s Are Not Your Friends

2011-02-06T12:02:00.001-08:00

“Great VCs do everything they can so that Exceptional Entrepreneurs have the tools they need to build Great Companies”.

After reading Steve Blank's post: VC's are not your friends:

– Steve Blank is a teacher, writer, and serial entrepreneur. He teaches at Stanford University, U.C. Berkeley’s Haas Business School and at Columbia. He is the author of “The Four Steps to the Epiphany” and “Not All Those Who Wander Are Lost”.

One of the biggest mistakes entrepreneurs make is not understanding the relationship they have with their investors. At times they confuse VC’s with their friends...

It was a good post, but not only the title of the article was mis-leading, the picture chosen to represent the post was just inappropriate. I couldn't resist but provide some additional insight.

I'm a venture capitalist with iNovia Capital yet, I'm first and foremost an entrepreneur. We identify and back Exceptional Entrepreneurs on the premise that the Founder Entrepreneurs are the ones with the passion and vision to get a Company through the real tough times as well as are the ones that are truly able to adapt the business as it becomes needed and can take advantage of the market opportunities that come up over the life of the Company. The Founders don’t need to be the CEO, but, they are the ones we back!

That being said, if, as an investor, I don’t understand the market that is then being addressed, the players, the opportunities and challenges, my intrinsic value as a VC becomes null. Sometimes this happens after the fact, as the company evolves and adjust it's business plan. Like most in my industry, I have limited time and limited capital. Thus, such change becomes a reason to back out. Even thought the entrepreneur is awesome.

Identifying the right investors to work with isn't that different then building a successful management team: you need the right people at the right time in the right position. An Entrepreneur needs the right investors, at the right time providing the right resources.

The message is somewhat confusing in Steve's post – one could easily fall into extrapolated statements, such as: your Employees aren’t your friends; your Customers aren’t your friends; your Suppliers aren’t your friends; your Partners aren’t your friends; and on… even family aren't your friends, right?

Though, I must add that the points Steve makes about what needs to be done to make of a Company a successful one and how VC does play a role is what I think is important in the post.

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Supporting an entrepreneurial catalyst – the Canadian Innovation Exchange

2011-01-14T08:28:00.001-08:00

I think the Canadian Tech Community is on fire, and even more so in Montreal. The next few years will be of utmost interest. Many elements required to build a solid foundation for Entrepreneurs seeking to not only launch but also to grow their tech business from their home town, are coming together and I think that the Canadian Innovation Exchange (the “CIX) provides one of those elements. Over the last few years, the CIX quickly became a must-attend conference for the principal players in the innovation economy aiming to showcase and accelerate the development of the great technology-based innovation emanating from Canada. And now, CIX can do even more.

The CIX has offered a great platform for tech leaders, entrepreneurs and investors alike, to connect, to share and to build relationships. This conference has not only been extremely successful, it has been very complementary to other innovation and entrepreneurial driven events such as Startup Camp Montreal (SCMTL), the Banff Venture Forum and The Canadian Financing Forum. Being innovative and taking the lead in developing unique opportunities is what entrepreneurship is all about, and I think that the CIX is doing just that.

By taking the lead in celebrating Canadian successes, showcasing the tremendous innovations coming to market and providing Canadian tech entrepreneurs with more than a “must-attend” conference, with the tools to exchange and access information and people throughout the year, the CIX can become a true catalyst for growth. By tying into the top Canadians in the Valley (the C100) in order to build stronger links with the global 500 Tech Companies as well as the top tier Valley VC’s, as well as leveraging the multiple initiatives to attract foreign investment into Canada that the CVCA has initiated, and by forging even stronger links with entrepreneurial events such as SCMTL, A100, Anges Quebec, Réseau Capital and others, I expect the CIX to play a critical role in connecting the dots and help deliver even more value to our community.

It’s an honour for me to have the opportunity to collaborate even more closely, as co-chair, with such a great team and to help make CIX an even more important partner to the tech & VC community. I’m really looking forward to gathering feedback, ideas and support from my colleagues and all of those actively wanting to play a part in building up our tech community here in Montreal and across Quebec.

If you have an idea to share please contact me @chrisarsenault

Here is a link to the full CIX press release posted on nextMontreal.com

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Looking forward to 2011!

2010-12-31T14:16:00.001-08:00

The past year seems to have gone by ridiculously fast - actually, the past decade seems all but a flash! For all of us at iNovia, the last few years have been very rewarding. We have achieved many critical milestones, and yet seem to have set ourselves up with even more for the coming year.

I have always been somewhat intrigued by the fascination some people have with looking back at a given calendar year. I assume they do so in the hopes that the enumeration of the past year’s achievements and successes (but rarely failures) will bring satisfaction and encouragement that repeats itself in the upcoming year. Experience has shown me that none of my last 19 years as an entrepreneur have ever been even close to resembling one another. I feel that the intensity has constantly increased year over year. I think the rush against time is never-changing, and the odds and the amount of effort required to overcome life challenges are always unique. Of course, at the same time, the stakes seem to keep getting higher.

We have been investing in new opportunities driven by exceptional entrepreneurs at a rate of 8 deals per year since Fund II (launched in 2007). Over 60% of our deals have been in very early or pre-revenue companies. All of our investments were done in sectors we understand. We have invested in entrepreneurs that we believe in and in large and growing markets that fit our IT cluster strategy (Mobile Internet and Ecommerce, Enterprise SAAS and Cloud-Computing, Digital Media and Communications). Our management’s focused expertise has allowed us to better identify fast growing companies for which we can provide specific insights, and attract complementary skill sets and managerial experience. As a result, many of our investments are either rapidly growing revenue and/or are growing exponentially in their markets. We know that there is nothing easy about building a successful tech company these days. I can only applaud the founders and CEOs that we’ve been privileged enough to work closely with for their constant efforts and energy in making the impossible a reality. Hard work? Yes - and a lot of it! But, most importantly, these entrepreneurs have repeatedly proven that by focusing their energy on the elements of their business they do control, they can learn faster, adjust quicker and gain market validation at much lower cost than anybody else. We have lost 3 of our portfolio companies as a result of not controlling these factors.

With all of what we have gone through over that last 12 months (our re-enforced management team, a rapid portfolio growth, M&A analysis, missed opportunities, liquidations, course-corrections, market changes, unique new investments and high quality deal syndication), I can only be ecstatic when thinking of the work load, challenges and opportunities staring at us right in the eye for 2011.

However, when I come to think of it, I’m not a big fan of New Year Resolutions either (especially since I’ve listed so many in my past that I was never able to respect). I think we should stick to doing what “feels right”, and what drives our deep passion to succeed. I personally put a lot of effort in doing so. I think that what it boils down to is: “Doing more of what one is amazing at, and doing less of what one is mediocre at.” That simple rule makes me a better person, our team stronger and more cohesive, and our fund a great resource for exceptional entrepreneurs who are looking for a helping hand in building great tech companies.

I'm totally psyched, curious, excited and anxious when thinking of what awaits us in 2011: raising a new fund, working with some of the most amazing entrepreneurs on the planet, building up our current portfolio of companies, identifying new opportunities and establishing long lasting relationships… in our own way, helping change the world for a better place!

I’m looking forward to what lays ahead…Happy New Year!

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A brave new world: Amid the recent industry turmoil a rash of new VC players have emerged in Canada

2010-12-17T05:20:00.001-08:00

This post was originally written for the Private Capital Privé winter 2010 edition of the printed magazine. And was Curated for nextMontreal on November 22, 2010.

No point in letting a good crisis go to waste. Opportunity emerges during times of market challenge. At the tail end of perhaps the toughest decade that the global – and Canadian – venture capital industry has endured, a flurry of new fund managers has hit the fundraising trail in Canada and successfully raised first-time funds.

It takes guts, and patience, to launch a new venture at times like these. You may have heard that the venture industry in Canada has been declining for years, that LPs are ‘pruning’ managers rather than adding new ones, and that raising a new fund is nothing short of a suicide mission. Nonetheless, you can’t say that entrepreneurial spirit and guts are not alive and well in the Canadian venture capital industry.

Compelling market opportunities, good teams, and perseverance in a difficult fundraising environment is paying off for a new generation of emerging VC managers in Canada. In more than one way, we are witnessing the re-birth of the Canadian venture capital industry.

Canada has always been, and continues to be, a venture market that is dramatically underserved by capital, and so there is plenty of room for new entrants – indigenous, entrepreneurial and from outside our borders. Over the last year, against all odds, a new generation of emerging “entrepreneurial investors” teamed up around specific domains and market segments, built strong teams the same way a startup builds an A-team, and launched into a world of opportunities and chaos.

Impressive accomplishments on the fundraising trail by upstart GPs has created a dramatically changed landscape in Canadian venture capital. Not to belittle the effort, it should be pointed out that some of these debut funds were on the money raising trail for a few years. And now we have a whole new crop of opportunities being pursued, by a whole new crop of new venture investors. Global digital media funds, global water business funds, expansion capital where none existed before in Canada, to name a few.

Vanedge Capital

Capital: $100M first closing

First Close: May 2010

Partner Locations: Vancouver and Shanghai

Investment Focus: Digital media

Sources of Capital: Numerous Canadian and foreign institutional, corporate and private LPs.

Team: Paul Lee is the former president of Electronic Arts responsible for the worldwide studios, as well as an active and successful angel investor. Glenn Entis is the former chief visual and technical officer of Electronic Arts and former CEO of Dreamworks Interactive. Divesh Sisodraker is the former CFO of Taleo Corporation, former CEO of Pivotal Corporation and former finance head at ALI Technologies (McKesson). Jason Chein is former general manager of EA China and former Asia developer relations with Microsoft’s Xbox group.

XPV Partners

Capital: $100M+

First Close: February 2010

Partner Locations: Toronto

Investment Focus: Water technologies and water-related businesses

Sources of Capital: Canadian and International institutions.

Team: XPV’s team is a marriage of investment expertise, sector knowledge and deep industry operating experience.

“Tenacity, focus and an enormous team effort has positioned XPV to capitalize on the growing investment opportunities now present in the water sector,” said David Henderson.

Georgian Partners

Capital: $50M+, first closing

First Close: July 2010

Partner Locations: Toronto

Investment Focus: Growth equity firm investing in expansion and later-stage enterprise software and information aggregation companies.

Sources of Capital: Institutional investors form Canada and the U.S.

Team: Georgian Partners Justin LaFayette, Simon Chong and John Berton; all have hands-on experience in operating and managing expansion stage technology ventures.

Tandem Expansion

Capital: $300M first close

First Close: November 2009

Partner Locations: Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver

Investment Focus: Later-stage Canadian technology companies

Sources of Capital: Anchored by commitments from BDC, EDC and Teralys, which sponsored the formation of Tandem in collaboration with two of Canada’s best- known business leaders.

Team: Tandem’s managing partners – David Bookbinder, Andre Gauthier, Christopher Legg and Alex Moorhead – all have significant investment and entrepreneurial experience domestically and internationally.

“Tandem is the only Canadian based growth equity fund, this give us a unique advantage in both sourcing and working closely with our portfolio companies,” said Christopher Legg.

Mantella Venture Partners

Capital: $20M

First Close: March 2010

Partner Locations: Toronto

Focus: Invest in domain expert entrepreneurs who are building early stage mobile and Internet software companies, surrounding them with an ecosystem of experienced operators to get their ideas from conception to market.

Sources of Capital: A family owned commercial and residential real estate developer

Team: The main investment partners are Robin Axon and Duncan Hill. Robin is ex-Ventures West and Duncan was an EiR at Ventures West and previously founded Think Dynamics (acquired by IBM back in 2003).

“At MantellaVP we believe strongly in maintaining alignment between founders and investors. We work shoulder to shoulder with entrepreneurs to build their business, and provide the right capital at the right time. This ensures that at all stages of the company’s evolution, a good outcome for the founders is a good outcome for everyone,” said Duncan Hill.

Real Ventures

Capital: $50M initial closing

First Close: October 2010

Partner Locations: Montreal

Investment Focus: Seed stage venture capital firm investing in Internet, software, mobile, digital media, social and casual gaming startups.

Sources of Capital: Invest Quebec, Fonds FTQ and private LPs

Team: John Stokes, JS Cournoyer, Alan MacIntosh, Mark MacLeod, Austin Hill and Daniel Drouet, who have all been entrepreneurs, angels and/or VCs.

“The Web and mobile web are creating major disruption, incumbents are being challenged and new markets being created. The productizing and commercialization of ideas can be done with significantly less capital and as innovation is becoming harder to realize internally, established companies are using acquisitions to fuel revenue growth…what a great time to be starting a business … or a venture fund!” said John Stokes.

W Media Ventures

Capital: undisclosed

First Close: Started investing in November 2007

Partner Locations: Vancouver

Investment Focus: Consumer Internet, social media, online commerce

Sources of Capital: personal investment fund of sole partner, Boris Wertz

W Media has completed over 20 investments to date, with a majority done in the Pacific Northwest. WMedia also has a unique connection with Vancouver based Bootup Labs.

Incubators 2.0 (aka “Accelerators”):

In the late 1990s, the first wave of private incubators arrived on the scene in Canada, emulating the models of their U.S. counterparts. A few short years later, precipitated by the technology and equity market implosion, this part of the Canadian venture and startup eco-system entered extinction. Various government programs attempted to fill some of the gaps in providing services (but usually not capital) to the new generation of post-bubble era technology startups. Now, nearly a decade later, with an explosion of new startup activity in Canada’s major technology clusters in Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto, a new wave of entrepreneurially driven accelerators – such as Montreal StartUp, Vancouver’s Bootup Labs, Ontario’s BaseCamp (Mantella-related), Extreme Ventures NeoTech, Bolidea and newly-launched Year One Labs – are taking the Canadian startup landscape by storm.

Newcomers such as these are helping build a more savvy roster of entrepreneurs eager to attract follow-on financing from VCs. Some are already generating exits before VCs have an opportunity to get a seat at the table; witness Extreme’s two visible exits, one to Google and the other to Electronic Arts, within its first few years in operation. All provide hands-on support at every stage of a company’s creation and growth – from business development and marketing to financing and team development – to help facilitate early market traction. Oh yeah, and some also have cash, which, not surprisingly, still matters an awful lot to most startups, even if the amounts they need are smaller.

Silicon Valley comes calling:

Not alone in their optimism for the Canadian investment landscape, the new crop of Canadian venture capital players are also joined by a number of new entrants from the Silicon Valley who are exhibiting keen interest in the Canada. In each case, there is knowledge of the Canadian market opportunity owing to one or more partners having roots in Canada.

Altos Ventures, Bridgescale Ventures and Panorama Capital – all Sandhill Road firms – have made investments in Canadian companies during 2010. All three firms focus on expansion-stage venture financing, while making selective earlier-stage investments on occasion. The deals being done by these Valley funds split quite evenly between Western Canada and central Canada. What is most striking is the visibly increasing commitment of partner time to the Canadian market. In the case of Bridgescale, two Canadian-based partners have been added, both in Toronto, including the October 2010 announcement that Derek Smyth – the final partner remaining at now defunct Edgestone Venture Capital – was joining the Bridgescale team. Bridgescale is the first Silicon Valley firm to locate partners in Canada. A betting man might wager that they won’t be the last.

This fall, Silicon Valley’s technology accelerator on steroids, Plug and Play Tech Center, announced expansion plans into Canada. CEO Saeed Amidi made the announcement at a private gathering in Vancouver (where he also happens to have a second home), stating a keen personal interest in “strengthening and leveraging the bridge between Canada’s technology sector and Plug and Play’s industry and venture capital network in the Valley.” Virtually every major technology company in the acquisition game, and a list of venture capital funds that appears only in the wildest dreams of most Canadian entrepreneurs, is partnered in some way with Plug and Play in Sunnyvale, California. Plug and Play plans to set up shop in Vancouver in 2011 and its venture arm Amidzad Ventures, which has seed funded dozens of Valley startups including major players such as PayPal, comes along with the deal.

Canada goes calling in China. Russia comes calling in Canada:

With only a few short years into a landmark fund structure involving a major corporate capital commitment from Research In Motion, alongside commitments from U.S. and Canadian institutional LPs, the Black Berry fund managers – a new partnership between JLA Ventures and RBC Capital – announced the first closing of a new Blackberry Partners China Fund. With $100M+ in initial commitments, this vintage 2010 fund represents a first in Canadian venture capital – a Canadian venture fund manager successfully establishing an international fund. Interestingly, VanEdge Capital, which closed during the same month as Blackberry China, also has designs on Asia, and one of its initial three partners is based in Shanghai. Previous attempts to establish funds with an Asian focus, including efforts over the past decade by private independent managers such as McLean Watson and even the Canadian government’s own BDC Venture Capital, have not taken flight.

More evidence of the growing international presence of Canadian venture capital is found in the Russian-Canadian partnership led by Rusnano, who has recently announced plans to partner with John Varghese, CEO and managing partner of Canadian venture fund manager VentureLink. Varghese plans on assembling a new nano-technology focused fund that will pursue investments from a Canadian base. Is this a sign? A new direction for Venture Capital? A new Canadian reality? The Fund will invest in Canadian companies that have the potential for global expansion. The wrinkle or added benefit of the partnership with Rusnano is that each investment will have a corporate sponsor in Russia prior to the first investment being made. Thus the go-to market strategy of each company will be established with a customer that can be referenced, facilitating global expansion. Can we say procurement assistance?

Domain expertise, cross-border partnerships, a growing network of valuable industry and private capital relationships, value-added support, seed acceleration facilities and teams: these are all trends gripping Canadian venture capital. A brave new world – with brave new leaders – is evolving, and fast.

Co-written by Chris Arsenault and Steve Hnatiuk

NOTE: this post was originally written for the Private Capital Privé winter 2010 edition of the printed magazine. And was Curated for nextMontreal.

Posted via email from Chris's posterous

Respect for C100 Knockout Entrepreneurs!

2010-12-16T05:17:00.001-08:00

After attending “Knockout Entrepreneurs! Venture Capitalists Boxing For a Cause“, the first word that comes to mind is simply: RESPECT. I mean, you have to respect these entrepreneurs for being REAL entrepreneurs! It’s not just about taking such risk in front of their friends, family and industry colleagues; It’s about putting on a great boxing match, showing commitment to a venture, demonstrating their passion for a cause, having the ambition to succeed, taking risks beyond their comfort zones and for at long last hearing that final bell with their heads held high.

I (alongside all of the other 160 attendees) was ridiculously impressed after witnessing such a well executed 6 rounds of boxing. After 150 hours of training, François-Charles “The Sniper” Sirois, walked into the ring for the first time ever as an underdog. Like most champions, he was confident of heart, body and mind. Sauntering into the arena with the sounds of “Eye of the Tiger” mixed with “I Gotta Feeling”, Sirois showed some out-of-the-box and energetic thinking that defines him. Unknowingly blessed by a famed (and perhaps genetic) “there is no way I’m going to lose” attitude, the Sniper gave 100% of what he knew he could give, plus an additional 100% of energy, creativity and effort he didn’t even realize he had prior to stepping into the ring.

In contrast to France-Charles’ inexperience was Jacques “TNT” Bernier. Jacques walked into the boxing ring with an experienced entourage of purple-clad past champions with a look of complete determination and focus on his face. With AC/DC TNT blasting in the background, I can honestly say that for a moment, when I looked into Bernier’s eyes and grasped his level of concentration, my thoughts turned to: “Oh my, I hope neither one of them get badly hurt”. Jacques was “In the Zone!” Older? Yes. More experienced? Oh yes. In shape? Not as much as François-Charles – but it didn’t matter. TNT didn’t dance around the ring as much as the Sniper did, but his forceful experience and knowledge of when to push at the right moment and time paved the way to a triumphant victory after 6 rounds of top-quality prize-fighting.

Checkout the short Video of round 5

The two fine combatants raised almost $40,000 for two very important causes:Fondation Sainte-Justine and Centre of Excellence for Cellular Therapy of Hôpital Mainsonneuve-Rosemont. Luckily, no one was badly hurt, although I do think François-Charles walked out with a broken rib. It was a true sign that he and his opponent gave us all they had. This was their first match, but also their last match!

Great entrepreneurs come in different styles, types and personalities. But they all share similar quality traits. Entrepreneurs:

Take on (calculated) risks;
Are smart (they plan, they prepare);
Are passionate about everything they set their minds too;
Fear not the unknown, but rather embrace it;
Aren’t ever satisfied, not even for a moment;
Build momentum and let their determination feed off of it;
Cross the finish line as winners (no matter what the outcome is).

By taking up this crazy yet unique challenge, Jacques & Francois-Charles showed us what truly great entrepreneurs they are.

Congratulations!

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Knockout Entrepreneurs! Canadian GP & LP put-on the Gloves for a great cause on Nov. 18th

2010-10-28T15:22:00.001-07:00

By Chris Arsenault, iNovia Capital

Posted on October 28^th for nextMontreal.com

Do you remember the last time you got into a heated argument that culminated with your adversary laying down the proverbial gauntlet by issuing those infamous three words – “I dare you!”? Then, without even a shadow of a doubt and before you can even comprehend the seriousness of the situation, you responded with a testosterone-tinged “Sure, I’ll do it – name the time and place!” More often than not, the consequences of such actions end up being more than you wished for.

Now, to be honest, I’ve given more than my share of cocky replies over the last 20 years in the business. That being said, I can also say none of my “quick replies” ever landed me in a prize-fighting ring versus a trained boxer who also happens to be Canada’s largest VC and PE fund investor!

Yes, ladies and gentleman; Jacques Bernier, Managing Partner at Teralys Capital, has dared the VC community to face him in the ring. He wants to go at it, one-on-one and show what he’s made up of.

Personally, stepping into a ring is already something I consider a little crazy. Furthermore, to go out and face one of my future potential investors on a boxing ring is almost suicidal. It’s definitely a lose-lose proposition...Or is it?

François-Charles Sirois, a dynamic young entrepreneur (and also President of Telesystem - one of Canada’s most active entrepreneurial investor through its numerous funds), heard the calling in October 2009. When Jacques threw out his “I dare you” in a friendly meeting, François-Charles rapidly evaluated the odds of winning or losing, the time he needed to train, the muscle-mass he needed to gain to face Jacques, identified Jacques’ main weaknesses, calculated the difference in age and speed, and rapidly (because all of this happened within a micro-second) answered back: “Sure, I’ll fight you. Give me a year to prepare. Oh, and by the way, I care tremendously for a specific foundation that gives support for kids and want to give 100% of my winnings to the Fondation Sainte-Justine.” “My winnings” – talk about a bold statement! Jacques quickly replied: “Perfect - but to be clear, my winnings will go to the Centre of Excellence for Cellular Therapy of Hôpital Mainsonneuve-Rosemont, which is a cause close to my heart”.

Definitely, François-Charles is walking into this adventure with but one objective in mind - to win! While Jacques already knows he has won!

Being a Montrealer and having had the opportunity to be friends with both Jacques & François-Charles, I had the pleasure of hearing, discussing and sharing allot of the buzz this “I dare you” challenge has generated since last year. These guys are knockout entrepreneurs!

In the left corner, wearing purple shorts, you have Jacques Bernier; A self-made entrepreneur with an amazing amount of energy, vision and execution skills. In addition to have been an amazing athlete (race car driver and as a boxer) he is an avid cycler. Jacques usually doesn’t hold any punches, and gets things done once he puts his mind to it. The Billion dollar Teralys Capital fund of funds was his making, hardly a small feat.

In the right corner, wearing red shorts, you have François-Charles Sirois, a younger entrepreneur with nothing less than hundreds of millions under management. Telesystem has direct ownership in a series of companies (Stingray, Plexo, Zone 3…), VC funds under management (ID Capital, Propulsion…) and other funds co-managed (Tandem, Enablis…). Telesystem has been an important player in the Telecom arena and in the Venture Capital industry in Canada and elsewhere in the world. Yet, in a nutshell, Telesystem is about Entrepreneurs. And François-Charles, a solid entrepreneur who fears nothing but himself, makes calculated risks and takes bold moves. I’ve witnessed (and in some cases actively participated with) him launching new businesses and converting wild ideas into sustainable companies. He has the drive and the guts to go for Gold, nothing less.

So on November 18^th, after a year of intense training, practice, and preparation, the challenge will be answered via a friendly boxing match organized by Christian Zabbal, Pascal Tremblay, Jacques Bernier and François-Charles Sirois.

This is an “Invitation-Only Event” and all proceeds from this event will support both St-Justine and the Centre of Excellence for Cellular Therapy of Hôpital Mainsonneuve-Rosemont. Because it is a private event, and constraints of the room, only a limited number of guests will have the opportunity of attending this memorable match.

This is going to be a knockout event! And I’ll be there to take the shots (picture-shots that is!).

Posted via email from Chris's posterous

The C100 is Changing the Pace of Development for VC-backed Canadian Tech Entrepreneurs

2010-08-17T08:54:00.001-07:00

This article was first posted on August 10, 2010 for nextMontreal.com - The source for news & opinion
on technology and startups in Montreal

I first heard about C100 in September 2009. Chris Albinson was just paving the way for the organization, and it’s very quickly become one of the most influential Canadian Tech Entrepreneur Associations around. Comprised of a passionate group of primarily Silicon Valley-based Canadians, the C100 aims to foster relationships that will lay the groundwork for future Canadian success stories at the highest echelons of the technology industry.

In early March, at an event in Menlo Park, the association was ready to give the world a first glance at who was behind the C100 Organizing Committee, who were some of the initial Charter Members, and to highlight the C100 global ambitions. There was active participation from Montreal’s venture capital community, including iNovia Capital, Montreal Startup, Teralys Capital and BDC Ventures; as well as some of our top tech company entrepreneurs: Woozworld, Reflex, Coradiant, Beyond the Rack, and a few others as well.

So why so much hype around the C100?

For starters, this young organization has demonstrated quantifiable results and has awakened hundreds of Canadian technology entrepreneurs to a new dimension – one where Canadians are helping fellow Canadians succeed. In order to achieve such success, a C100er doesn’t just lend his or her name to setup a meeting in the Valley or provide funding to a talented entrepreneur; rather, he or she provides a “Path to Success”. The package provided by C100ers to young, dynamic and talented Canadian entrepreneurs includes access to role models, coaching & mentoring sessions, networking events, financial capital and a healthy dose of inspiration. “There is a bigger story here than just providing introductions or capital”, said Anthony Lee, a General Partner at Altos Ventures who co-founded the C100 alongside Chris Albinson (Managing Partner at Panorama Capital). “This is a non-for profit, we have no permanent staff, no one is being paid to do this, everybody is a volunteer and cares about giving back to Canada”.

With over 300,000 Canadians now working in Northern California (almost 1% of the Canadian population!), the C100 aims to attract those Canadians at a stage of their lives where they want to give back to their homeland in a truly unique way. “C100 Charter Members include top executives from technology giants such as Apple, Cisco, Electronic Arts, eBay, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Oracle, plus a terrific group of start-up CEOs, and some of the most active venture capital investors in both Canada and the US”, said Anthony. The C100 already has over 500 General Members, with 70 Charter Members, including a few Montrealers, such as executives from Google, Microsoft, Ubisoft and from a select few venture firms like iNovia Capital and Founders Fuel. But we need more reach into C100 from our local Montreal and Quebec expatriates. As Chris Albinson puts it so well: “We should not worry about Brain Drain but Brain Flow. It’s about time Canadians come out of stealth mode and start showing what we do.”

With a few exceptions, this is the profile of a C100 Charter Member today:

· Canadian and Silicon Valley based;

· Senior Executive (VP or C-Level) within a successful tech company, Founder or CEO role at a start-up or as a Partner with a VC Fund;

· Has the ability and resources to provide coaching, mentoring and introductions to aspiring Canadian entrepreneurs;

· Fully committed to participating in the process and supporting developments in the lifecycle of a start-up;

· Passionate about Canada and driven by the opportunity to do more for their country and compatriots;

· Wants to give back!

Since its inception, the C100 Organizing Committee has already helped kickstart a new era in Canadian entrepreneurship. Beyond delivering on membership goals, the organization has hosted over a dozen networking events in major cities across North America (including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Menlo Park, Vancouver and Ottawa). The inaugural 48Hrs in the Valley mentoring event was also a tremendous success, hosting 20 top Canadian tech startup entrepreneurs for a two day session in the midst of the world’s technology headquarters. To build on the momentum of these events, the group has also continued to hold quarterly mentoring sessions via Cisco Telepresence to provide additional support to eager entrepreneurs.

Check out the upcoming 48Hrs in the Valley scheduled to be held on October 27-28th in Menlo Park. Let me know by email if, as a Canadian Entrepreneur, you want to apply and participate.

Commitment, Mentorship and Coaching:

§ Held its first “48Hrs hours in the Valley by hosting 20 top Canadian entrepreneurs;

§ The next 48Hrs in the Valley will be held on October 27-28th;

§ Held 5 Mentoring sessions via Cisco-Telepresence;

§ Ongoing Quarterly Mentoring Cisco-Telepresence Sessions;

Canadian tech leadership awareness in the Valley:

§ DFAIT series of Entrepreneur Bootcamps;

§ Major Networking events in the Valley and major Canadian cities;

Cross border deal making (VC funded Canadian tech Companies):

§ Calgary based Tynt, Toronto based Kontagent, Montreal based Beyond the Rack,

§ Edmonton based Immunet, Toronto based Dayforce, Montreal based Vantrix, to name but a few Tech startups that raise over $40M this year;

§ And, Toronto based Bumptop acquisition by Google was also co-funded by two C100ers.

Like it or not, the growth of Canadian tech startups is still heavily dependent on their ability to effectively access the US market (notably Silicon Valley). Already we at iNovia have worked on 5 different Canadian tech startup opportuities with C100 members, one which turned into an investment in Tynt and another one in Fixmo. Not a bad start! The key value-add a C100 investor brings any Canadian startup is access and personal relationships with some of the leading tech companies based in the Valley.

I think that the passion and drive behind the C100 marks an important change for Canada and the Canadian Tech Community. Not only is it time that we realize we are already leaders within the global economy, but by regrouping and providing a forum to learn from each other, we are poised to play our most important role yet in the ever changing landscape of Communications, Digital Media, Enterprise Software and the real-time Internet.

Given the tremendous traction that the group has already gained, it’s hard to believe that the C100 is only a few months old! If you haven’t yet had a one-on-one conversation with a C100 Member, don’t miss the opportunity to meet up at the Vancouver GROW conference on August 19-20th, at the Quebec city conference on October 25-26th or through one of the many mentoring, coaching and networking events. You’ll find all the details athttp://www.theC100.org. And follow The C100 on Twitter.

If your ambitions meet those of the C100, then I welcome you to join now and come make a difference. It’s awesome to see Montrealers participate as Charter Members, the General Membership, as well as some of the key C100 Sponsor Members. Yet, we can pull our weight even more and play a critical role in building out our own ecosystem by reaching into the Valley and connecting our Entrepreneurs with enhanced access to capital, mentoring, knowledge, customer relationships and most importantly inspiration.

Your comments and involvement is more than welcomed!

This post was first written up for the nextMontreal.com - The source for news & opinion
on technology and startups in Montreal

Posted via email from Chris's posterous

Untitled

2010-08-03T07:45:00.001-07:00

Attracting the right type of co-investors (Status.Net)

Our portfolio Company Status.Net just announced that it raised $2.3M in initial funding to date. While some will argue that such an amount is on the low side for a tech startup, especially when comparing it to other microblogging platforms that raised dozens of millions in funding, others will argue they are doing it right! And I think it’ awesome when a Company is able to attract the right amount of funding it needs to execute, and at the same time get it from the right type of investors.

In a nutshell, Status.Net develops and supports medium to large enterprises with open source microblogging tools. Its products include the StatusNet Enterprise Network support subscription program and the Status.Net Cloud Service software-as-a-service offering. Its early clients include: Motorola, Mozilla, Shit my Dad says, and is already on a run rate of over 10,000 downloads per month. I’d say that’s a pretty good start.

But when building a Tech Company from scratch, it’s as important to build the right team to execute as it is to attract the right type of investors to support the vision. Evan Prodromou has an amazing vision of how Corporations around the world should integrate microblogging into their applications and communications platforms. And on the other hand, Scott Switzer of Firstmark Capital has the deep experience of having built a leading open source ad platform – OpenX, and will provide Evan with a leg up on massively deploying a profitable open source platform. Scale for growth is critical for Status.net.

When we (iNovia Capital) first seed funded the Company, it was on the basis of our belief in Evan’s vision for Status.net, his capacity to attract the right team and because the guys over at Montreal Start Up where there to help kick-start this Company. Now, the Company is kicking into second gear with the support and knowledge of the FirstMark Capital guys. And we are looking forward building an Enterprise software category leader.

Check out the full Press release here:

http://www.inoviacapital.com/news.php?langID=&pre_id=84

Or learn more about the Company and this funding round at:

http://tcrn.ch/9GNl7Z

http://status.net

Posted via email from Chris's posterous

2010-04-02T12:49:00.001-07:00

Building a culture of Entrepreneurial Venture Capital
http://bit.ly/9ol0OA @ChrisArsenault Blog

2010-04-02T10:13:00.001-07:00

The Next Big Thing: University technology transfer - why so difficult?
by @DonDodge http://bit.ly/apb9cA

Building a culture of Entrepreneurial Venture Capital

2010-04-02T08:34:00.001-07:00

by Chris Arsenault, Managing Partner at iNovia Capital

Earlier this month I was invited by Rob Hyndman to post some of my views on the topic of: The Future of Venture Capital in Canada, as part of a series of posts at The Mark - Canada's daily online forum for news, commentary, and debate. I ended up posting a short view of the “VC Ecosystem”, outlining only but a few key elements critical to having a stronger and most importantly a viable tech industry supported by venture capital in order to compete on a world wide basis. David Crow, added some valuable comments relating to “Creating a Venture Culture” so as did ex-VC and entrepreneur Rick Segal, tech CFO Mark MacLeod and others, participated in the discussion and shared their views on the topic. If you haven’t read the posts, I strongly suggest you give it a read.

I fundamentally believe in the early stage venture capital model that supports promising high growth tech startup entrepreneurs. And through my efforts and those of my colleagues and partners at iNovia Capital, MSBi Valorization, the CVCA, the C100 and numerous other initiatives, we are trying to make the model work by approaching venture capital the same way you one would build any other tech business: with the right people/team at the right time (entrepreneurs vs. operators); by building a strong network of knowledgeable partners with complementary skills sets and long term relationships; and by understanding what startups and entrepreneurs need from their early stage VC’s and deliver results/returns to our Limited Partners while properly managing expectations. Building an Ecosystem takes time, commitment and passion. Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem requires the right culture and mindset! For the last 12 years I’ve dedicated my entrepreneurial life towards helping to build successful tech business via my role as an active early stage investor. Over this same period of time I’ve witness important changes across the Canadian VC landscape which continues to evolve and now seems to be driven by a more entrepreneurial culture, one that includes Venture Capital savvy Entrepreneurs that understands the role of VC funding more than ever before. Hopefully the pieces will continue to fall in place and we will see the next generation of successful Canadian tech entrepreneurs that will change the way we work and live be funded by Canadian VC’s.

Earlier in March I was given the opportunity/challenge to discuss Entrepreneurial Venture Capital by giving a, “fast, 15 seconds per slide, 5 minute 20 slide presentation” at Ignite Montreal. My presentation was specifically on the topic of trying to communicate how to “Make Venture Capital Work”. I really like the Ignite presentation model, but it’s indeed a challenging concept, too bad I ended up doing the basic mistake of trying to say too much in too little time… thus not saying as much as I could if I would of said less!

So, many entrepreneurs these days are talking about “How the Venture Capital Model is Broken”, which is the wrong way to address the lack of capital Canadian entrepreneurs face! The VC Model isn’t broken because it never really worked in the first place, period!

With the exception of the 1980’ and the few last years of the Internet bubble, the model has never been successful for the masses, but has been only for a handful. And, when it comes down to Canadian numbers, we have to account for an additional level of difficulty: the fact that Canada doesn’t have the “weight” of numbers in its favor. Not only does Canada have a less mature IT and Biotech industry when compared to the US, it also has a small and nascent private equity and venture capital industry, and still only has a handful of privately managed venture capital funds today.

The stories about the highly successful technology entrepreneurs as well as those about the rockstar venture capitalists (note: over 80% of all venture capital returns are generated by less than 25% of the venture capital funds out there) created the impression that the only thing needed to build a high valued successful startups was an entrepreneur with an idea and an investor with cash! This meant that venture capitalists could blame poor returns on unsuccessful entrepreneurs while those entrepreneurs could blame their failures on the lack of capital or restrictions tied to the capital they did raise.

The math is the same for a Canadian venture capital fund as it is for a US venture capital fund. Investors in venture capital funds usually expect a high IRR (internal rate of return) – Top tier venture capital expected returns in the +30% IRR, a rate that is far above banking rates due to the high level of risk involved. A Venture Capital fund will usually has a ten year life and will require a certain level of management fees over that period. Therefore, in order to understand the type of capital that needs to be returned to the investors of the Fund (the Limited Partners) one needs to plan on generating three times (3x) return of capital to be successful and part of the Top tier firms that are able to continuously raise additional capital and funds.

In a nutshell, that means that a $100M size fund must return approximately $300M in order to generate the expected level of returns of a Top tier fund! So, knowing that for an early stage venture capital fund, one can expect it owning on average 20% of any given company in a portfolio of around 15 companies (for a $100M size fund), this would translates into $1.5 billion of aggregate portfolio enterprise value at exit, or $150M in cumulative EBITDA based on a 10x EBITDA exit valuation, needed to generate those type of returns. That’s pretty demanding! Managing expectations also sets the bar as regards the type of actions that will be put forward to achieve those expectations. Maybe it’s time we set an aggressive but achievable bar that would benefit the whole industry, no?

Reality is that entrepreneurs operate in a living “Ecosystem” that feeds itself by growing and building new connection. No party can do it alone! The community feeds itself off its own growth. High growth technology companies need venture capital to succeed and the venture capitalists need to back successful entrepreneurs to generate strong returns. Not only do we need to have better return expectations for venture capital funds, we also need better collaboration within the community to build networks strong enough to support promising technology companies and deliver high shareholder value.

The more successful entrepreneurs are, the more successful venture capital funds will be, leading in turn to more funding for entrepreneurs.

We have to learn how to expect more and know how to get more. Yes, funds and large institutional investors like pension funds and insurance companies should expect better returns from their venture capital investments. The last 10 years of Canadian venture capital returns represent -0.2%, yet expectations were in the unrealistic + 30% range, while solid manageable returns should be more in the 15% level. Large institutional investors can help themselves achieve such realistic returns by selecting fund managers with entrepreneurial backgrounds and experience with building successful companies. Managers who think and act like the entrepreneurs they back are better suited to select the ones who understand how build a successful start-up and have the most chances of succeeding.

Likewise, entrepreneurs should expect more from themselves, their teams and their investors. Entrepreneurs need to understand what is expected from the capital they raise and they can do this by selecting the right potential investors and doing due-diligence on them, by understanding the ecosystem they are operating in and making sure they surround themselves with people who are stronger than themselves, and generate stronger returns by setting themselves up for success.

High but achievable expectations create and define leaders!

Entrepreneurs are natural leaders, because they are able to execute on ideas, they transform opportunities into tangibles such as jobs, products and profits. So by having more entrepreneurs funding other entrepreneurs, we have more chances of building a sustainable ecosystem. It takes time to build a viable company, and by understanding the type of returns that are expected from the different source of funding, entrepreneurs and fund managers alike will be able to create a model that works.

The venture capital model is broken only to those who don't understand it those who aren't willing or interested in investing the energy to adapt it to their reality. Like other industries, the venture capital industry will continue to evolve over time.

I'm looking forward to seeing the level of returns over the next five to 10 years as the Canadian venture capital industry begins this evolution - where entrepreneurs are funding entrepreneurs

Now, some questions for you:

- What do limited partners think of the emerging number of entrepreneurial driven Venture capital Funds?

- What do entrepreneurs think of the new breed of entrepreneurial VC’s?

- Is the Canadian market mature enough to trigger the level of collaboration required to build a strong ecosystem around Canadian technology companies?

- What is expected by the entrepreneur of the early stage VC’s (other than the obvious $)?

- How will you be part of the “make it Happen” generation?

For those interested in participating, take a look at the following few links to recent articles and you’ll get a feel for the energy and around the subject:

The Mark: The Future of Venture Capital in Canada

La Presse: Jacques Bernier, de Tralys: le goût du risque

Tech vibes: Venture Capital Funding Outlook In Canada

Financial Post: Venture capital finally gets a break

TechCrunch: Strength In Numbers: Canadian Entrepreneurs Flock To The C100

CVCA: Canadian Venture Capital Investments in 2009 – Lowest recorded in 13 YEARS

StartupNorth: What is being a startup really about?

Bootup Labs: Startup Visa Canada

See and download the full gallery on posterous

Posted via email from Chris's posterous

2010-03-12T13:16:00.001-08:00

I'll be there, and you? Mark your agenda: CVCA Annual Conference May 26-28, 2010 in Ottawa http://bit.ly/5P7CNG via @cvcacanada

2010-03-11T10:31:00.001-08:00

Don't miss Capital Innovation event on March 25 in Montreal - Meet Teralys & Band of Angels http://bit.ly/buYJMV

2010-03-05T13:45:00.001-08:00

RT @CVCACanada VCRants: Change in tax law sends a strong signal to VC & PE market. Today on www.vcrants.com Summary by Deloitte

Comments on stimulating the startup industry in Canada

2009-12-13T11:40:00.001-08:00

Lately, I’ve been reading allot about different ideas and initiatives to stimulate the startup industry as well as re-energizing the venture capital/angel investing industry in Canada. Paul Kedrosky and Brad Feld came out with a pretty intense article in the wall Street Journal a week or so ago titled: Startup Visas Can Jump-Start the Economy

“One good idea to make this process easier is to create a new visa for entrepreneurs, something that is increasingly being called by venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, and angel investors a "start-up visa." It might work like this: If immigrant entrepreneurs want to start a company in the U.S. and are able to raise a moderate amount of money (perhaps as little as $125,000) from an accredited U.S.-based venture capital firm or qualified U.S.-based angel investors, we should let them start a company here. It could be a couple of founders with an idea—that's it. We would give visas to the founders and welcome them in to our country.”

In a nutshell, they believe that by attracting foreign entrepreneurs to the US, immigrants aren’t taking jobs away from Americans, they are helping create more job openings and drive innovation.

Danny Robinson of Bootup Labs published a similar idea, titled: Startup Visa Canada where a VC firm would “sponsor” an entrepreneur in order to accelerate the immigration process and enable the launch of new innovative companies here in Canada. This is how is could he says it could work for us:

1. VC Firms and Investors apply to become “Sponsors”

2. Founders apply to Immigration Canada along with an accepted Term Sheet from the pre-approved VC Firm

3. A temporary work visa is approved for the founders with certain conditions:

1. They incorporate a Canadian company within X days of Landing in Canada and become employees of that company.

2. They close on the financing.

3. They cannot work for another company.

4. They can apply for a more permanent status after a “probationary period” of some amount of time.

While it may not be necessary to create a new visa category, the Canadian government could broaden the existing Entrepreneur Program to allow VC financing to replace the net worth and experience requirements. I think that this is a great initiative. Synergies are drive innovation, but most importantly I think that the need for a dynamic open environment to let innovations flow is critical to our economy. Though I think the visa opportunity/issue is more of a US concern than a Canadian one (to get a working permit in the US is nightmare), I support the initiative and think it can only help build a stronger web of knowledge, of entrepreneurs and investor base. I don’t think it will reduce any available funding for strong Canadian start-up initiatives nor will it take away jobs, on the contrary, this type of initiative should energize our economy boost innovation and help get ideas and research to markets at a faster pace.

Montreal Start Up (MSU) and other partners are also well advanced in putting in place an initiative to attract talent, entrepreneurs and ideas to Montreal. Creating links between industries, sharing knowledge, enabling people to have the capacity to go to market with their innovative ideas. Again, in an ever-changing extremely competitive technology enabled global market, we need to play more offensive and drive change than ever before.

Good job guys!

The Startup Visa Canada initiative is only one of many initiatives required to boost our economy, from the grounds up that is. I applaud and invite more entrepreneurs to take action instead of remaining passive commentators.

New blog post: Getting over the crisis! an interview with Tom Barrack

2009-08-19T12:09:00.001-07:00

First posted on CVCA Capital Rants blog by Chris Arsenault

Thomas J. Barrack, Jr., Founder, Chairman, and Chief Executive Officer of Colony Capital, LLC, is interviewed by Chris Arsenault (iNovia Capital Managing Partner and CVCA board member) for the CVCA Private Capital Privé magazine – Summer 2009 edition

First, you survive the crisis, then you take advantage of the opportunities afforded by the confusion, advises CVCA keynote speaker Thomas J. Barrack,Jr.

At this year’s CVCA Annual Conference, held in Calgary in late May, we had the pleasure to have with us, as a keynote speaker, Thomas J. Barrack Jr., Founder, Chairman and CEO of Colony Capital, LLC. Barrack’s keynote speech was of utmost interest and very enjoyable, in part because he presented the audience with his views on both sides of the harsh reality of today’s private equity buyout market, outlining the key challenges as well as some great opportunities.

Like many other private equity buyout firms across North America, Barrack’s firm, Colony Capital, is having a tough time adjusting to all the changes caused by what is considered to be the worst market ever for the U.S. investment community.

Even though Colony Capital has only one transaction of importance in Canada, the 2006 acquisition of Fairmont Hotels & Resorts Inc., Barrack believes Canada will be one of the big winners coming out of this global crisis. This is being driven by the country’s stronger banking system, smaller and better performing buyout funds, and fundamentally sound assets across numerous line of business. They weren’t as badly impacted by the sub-prime crisis due to the fact that they weren’t overly leveraged with debt.

“We need to fix the trust issues between fund managers, investors, lenders and the markets. High leveraging multiples must be part of our past” Thomas J. Barrack Jr., Colony Capital, LLC

Barrack recently took the time to expand on some of his views with Private Capital in an interview with Chris Arsenault, managing partner at iNovia Capital and a member of the CVCA board.

Chris Arsenault: What are your current views on the state of the private equity industry in general?

Thomas J. Barrack: Let me summarize a few of my instinctive views into two categories, short term and long term.

Short term: debt is the new equity (rescue, restructuring and acquisition of all forms of distressed debt); alternative energy subsidized platforms will be the flavour of the year; real estate will continue to get clobbered; private equity will perform poorly for another two years.

Long term: oil is the new gold; alternative energy projects will reduce oil supply and increase cost; real estate will be the asset of choice; technology will play a bigger role in communications and will impact the real estate model and travel; private equity will outperform other asset classes and VC and technology funds will be at the top of the list.

Arsenault: Do you see more challenges or more opportunities for private equity players?

Barrack: Colony Capital has a few billion in dry powder, and we are being asked: “Don’t go to fast, don’t be too opportunistic.” The reasoning behind such comments is understandable and is being felt across the whole private equity community. The major investors in private equity funds are banks, pension funds and endowment funds, and their contributions are directly impacted by the lack of distribution by private equity funds. They need distributions in order to make their contributions but they got a double hit, first by a slowdown in distributions AND simultaneously by a 50 per cent asset value loss.

The super funds are the ones that are suffering the most though, they lost more money in the last two years then they had made over the last 10 years. The fee dilemma created by these funds also didn’t help as some firms were leveraging their fees to a point where it killed the model of sticking to finite capital for fees and infinite capital for investments.

We are seeing great opportunities, sound businesses being deleveraged, and true value that can be built through time. We are going back to more realistic growth objectives and we expect to do very well in the mid to long term. In the short term we have to focus on the challenges from an inches and feet perspective, not miles. We need to fix the trust issues between fund managers, investors, lenders and the markets. High leveraging multiples must be part of our past.

Arsenault: How are private equity buyout funds, such as Colony Capital, reacting to the new paradigms?

Barrack: This crisis will pass like all other crises. The key is two-fold: First you need to survive; second, you need to take advantage of the opportunities created by confusion. Experience will show a lot of its value in the coming 18 to 24 months. Inflation will return exponentially within two to three years. Private equity & real estate will directly benefit from the short-term deleveraging and the long-term inflation.

Arsenault: What does your experience tell you?

Barrack: That we need to return to principled leadership by making decent and informed decisions based on true value for the long term. No short-term value creation thinking. Even though the short term will continue to be unpredictable, the medium to long term are totally predictable. We entered into an era of broken confidence, adrift in a sea of unfulfilled expectations. New equity owners will take the reins of very valuable operating companies, acquire assets on a lower cost base and start deleveraging. And with these new teams being incented with long-term value creation goals, investor returns will be restored, and with lower leverage ratios, confidence and trust will be restored. But first, you need to survive!

Arsenault: How much deleveraging needs to occur?

Barrack: $6.9 trillion. So we will still have pretty shaky grounds in the short term. In the long run, the winners will also include those able to convert debt into equity.

Arsenault: How about your views on Canada?

Barrack: Canada can be a strong beneficiary of what is happening. The U.S. is in its worst shape ever. While here in Canada, the banks are solid, we haven’t seen any hyper leveraging; no super funds were put in place. And in these times unique skills are required, different tools are needed, and Canada is better equipped to delicately take advantage of the opportunities created by the numerous short-term stimulus packages.

Arsenault: Any other points you would like to share?

Barrack: The private equity model is changing and the focus will be going back to slower, more realistic growth and building stronger companies. A clearer understanding of the fundamentals – honesty, integrity and force of character – will show. I think many older fund managers will take this opportunity to retire, giving more room to younger more energetic managers to step in. And hopefully they will do things right and slow and understand they need to bring the confidence back, the circle of trust.

This global crisis is a savior for some, as it basically gave all fund managers a free “Get out of Jail” pass for returns!

“In these times unique skills are required, different tools are needed, and Canada is better equipped to delicately take advantage of the opportunities created by the numerous short-term stimulus packages” Thomas J. Barrack Jr., Colony Capital, LLC

Download your full copy of the CVCA Private Capital Privé magazine – Summer 2009 edition

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New blog post: Now it's our time baby! an interview with Tim Draper

2009-08-06T05:30:00.001-07:00

By Chris Arsenault, Interview with Timothy C. Draper, Founder and Managing Director, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, for the CVCA Private Capital Privé magazine – Summer 2009 edition

The outspoken and energetic Silicon Valley investor icon Tim Draper storms the stage at the 2009 CVCA Annual Conference.

The theme of this year’s CVCA Annual Conference was “Embrace our Energy.” Well, keynote speaker Tim Draper did just that. He had more energy than any other venture capitalist in the room that evening – his eyes were sparkling and he saw opportunity everywhere.

When asked about the current state of the venture capital industry, Draper, who is Founder and Managing Director at Draper Fisher Jurvetson, focused on two core issues. First: we need to break down the borders and enable free trade, he said, and second, we need a new private stock market. While Draper offered no solutions on achieving free trade, he continues to actively advocate for borderless markets. He regularly takes time out of his busy schedule to speak with government officials, the private equity industry, politicians and industry leaders to convince them the world will be a better place if we dropped our commercial borders.

On the second issue, Draper expects to be able to launch a new private equity exchange market. Oh yeah, and Draper also sings! He not only sings, he wrote the lyrics to the “The Riskmaster” and gave CVCA attendees a taste of his singing skills right there and then. Good thing we had the lyrics on the screen to sing along!

“While some people are panicking, or even worse clinging to the past, I think that crisis creates opportunity. And that’s a VC’s job, to identify the opportunities” Tim Draper, DFJ

Chris Arsenault: What makes these times so exiting for you?

Tim Draper: Timing is now! The current crisis is creating huge liquidity problems. The venture backed IPO market is inexistent and it’s tough for entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, limited partners and future entrepreneurs. While some people are panicking, or even worse clinging to the past, I think that crisis creates opportunity. And that’s a VC’s job to identify the opportunities.

Arsenault: You said earlier that our time was now, why is that?

Draper: I’m talking about the cycle of high returns for venture capital funds versus private equity funds. It’s a cycle. One goes up while the other goes down. The last cycle was owned by the private equity guys, from 2000 to 2008, and they had an amazing run. Until last year that is. We just now embarked on the venture capital cycle and will be coming out of the recession. That means good business for us. It’s the best time ever to invest venture capital money: we are going through a recession/depression, there are low company valuations, liquidity solutions are near, there’s less competition for VCs and entrepreneurs, and new technologies will be game changers.

Arsenault: How does your experience guide you through these times?

Draper: My father and my grandfather pioneered venture capital in Silicon Valley and I’ve been in the business for over 25 years. Some of the greatest companies in the world have started in recessions or depressions, such as GE, IBM, HP, Adobe, Skype and Johnson & Johnson. And now is the best time to invest in start-ups because existing companies are reeling, smart people are out of a job, new technologies are going to change the way we work and play, and there are fewer start-up competitors.

Entrepreneurs are now more enabled by technology than ever before. Entrepreneurs don’t require as much cash either. So we need to support these entrepreneurs, but we now get a larger stake in the company because of the more reasonable valuations. I do fear that there will be less VCs out there though. I also think that the markets will come back. They are slowly creeping back, but we need a new platform for liquidity.

Arsenault: So tell us more about XChange.

Draper: Awesome. This is the greatest thing to happen in the liquidity markets in a long time. XChange is a new springboard to an IPO. Companies can post their profile, raise money, control access and communicate with shareholders. Investors can peruse, connect with companies, buy and sell shares. The technology behind the platform answers today’s communications needs.

My company Draper Fisher Jurvetson is a substantial investor behind XChange. We need more liquidity. Liquidity is what drives deals. The current markets don’t offer solutions for companies under $250 million. This platform will enable companies to remain private while providing liquidity to investors. It will allow entrepreneurs to raise cash for their ventures while enabling investors to get their money out short of an IPO. Investors will need to be qualified trading institutions. Big names will be backing this new platform. We expect to launch in September.

Arsenault: What do you see in Canada?

Draper: Well first, the XChange platform won’t be available in Canada, at least not at initially, but it would be great to find a partner to do so. The Canadian government should drop the borders and have real free trade with the U.S. Lower friction to do business is needed. Aren’t we are both socialist countries now?

We want to bring our DFJ network to Canada and do more deals here. Canada has a history of great technologies – RIM, Sierra Wireless, OpenText, Sharepoint – great universities, a strong entrepreneurial community and a better perspective from outside Silicon Valley, more creative.

This is our time now!

“There are no better times to be a VC. It’s our time now, PE is down and VC is up!” Tim Draper, DFJ

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The Changing Face of the Canadian VC industry

2009-05-25T11:14:00.001-07:00

By Chris Arsenault Managing Partner & COO, iNovia Capital

http://twitter.com/chrisarsenault

New yet familiar faces are marching into the Canadian VC landscape with different approaches towards supporting tech entrepreneurs in their endeavour to change the world. At last’s year CVCA annual conference, the theme was utmost appropriate: The Face(s) of Change! Only one year has gone by, yet so much has already changed, new and familiar faces are showing leadership and paving the way for an industry revival.

Today’s BDC announcement of its commitment of $75M in the newly created Tandem Fonds d’Expansion (link to French press release), is yet another example of how the Canadian venture capital landscape is being reshaped from an entrepreneurial angle. The managers behind this $300M later stage fund are experienced operators, with investment backgrounds and core entrepreneurial values. Interesting enough are the powerhouses that will provide global networks behind this new fund: Charles Sirois (Telesystem Ltd) and Brent Belzberg (Torquest). I know Charles Sirois and the Telesystem Ltd group pretty well, having worked for Charles for a few years in the past and for having co-invested with his other VC funds (note: Telesystem is a small investor in iNovia Capital’s second fund). I have much respect for Charles, not only because he founded and managed companies, some he built from scratch and lead them to several hundreds of millions and even billions in value, but rather because Charles has been a fervent and active supporter of entrepreneurship, understanding what drives entrepreneurs and accepting that they have the right to try, to fail, adjust, and succeed.

What does Tandem means to me?

It means that many great Canadian companies and strong tech entrepreneurs having built their businesses up to the point where a substantial amount of capital is needed to either help them consolidate a market segment, or to simply support their growth, won’t be obliged to only look south for a strong financial partner. For iNovia Capital, it means that in some cases we will have a later stage co-investor able to lead those few $10-20M rounds required to further fuel the growth of our most successful companies.

The Tandem Expansion announcement comes on the tail of Quebec based Cycle Capital – who has recently launched its cleantech investment activities with the addition of new partner/recurring VC fund managerBernhardt Zeisig; Western Canada’s warming up to the recent formation of an interactive entertainment venture capital fund called Vanedge – the team are all gaming industry veterans from Electronic Arts and Dreamworks Interactive - Paul Lee, Glenn Entis, Owen G. Mahoney and Jason Chein; Celtic House’spreparation for their new fund IV fund raising activities with the addition of entrepreneur and VC experience Pierre-André Meunier; and Steven Hnatiuk and his team out in British Columbia at Yaletown Venture Partnerswho announced not too long ago the first closing of a second early stage cleantech & IT fund.

Interesting enough, many new VC faces are in fact venture capital knowledgeable operators and entrepreneurs. Others, like Bud Kirchner of Kirchner and Company are not only showing leadership, they are taking ownership! The Kirchner and Company team havebeen extremely active and involved on both sides of the equation: as a VC, by partnering up with existing fund managers to raise funds and actively oversee direct investments such as with Avrio Ventures where Bud joined as a Partner; then, by being one of the most active investment bankers doing M&A and divestitures in Canada, sometimes representing the buy-side and other times assisting the sell-side; and finally, as a key partner to secondary fund managers, acquiring and managing the exit process for a broad range of portfolio companies (rumour is that they recently came to an agreement withColler Capital for the management of the old portfolio of Innovatech Montreal which was sold to to Coller in a secondary transaction a few years ago).

The following chart (on the right) outlines what Kirchner & Company say makes them different. Funny thing is that it doesn’t sound any different, right? Wrong. Its different because Kirchner and Company, like many new entrants in the VC ecosystem, are building their business on new paradigms, where the people in the team are less alike, more complementary and more driven by entrepreneurial fuel. Just take a look at Kirchner’s recent additions to the team: Barry Gekiere (ex-Ventures West), Les Lyall (ex-Growthworks), Claude Vachet (ex-Multiple Capital), Andy Agrawal (entrepreneur), Chris butlin (entrepreneur), Mike Cooke (entrepreneur)... and I can keep going. Doesn’t this start to sound way more like a next generation VC fund than the typical investment banking firm?

It will be interesting to see how these new and returning faces in the venture capital landscape will affect the type of VC transactions we were once used to seeing.

My recent post about our industry being at a turning point is more and more appropriate. With the recent announcement of Teralys Capital, a $700M + Fund of fund, managed by Jacques Bernier, an entrepreneur turned VC who then turned Fund of Funds Manager for the largest Quebec based labour sponsored fund (Fond de solidarité FTQ), and who now manages Canada’s largest Fund of funds, it seems like we are witnessing change within change.

For Tandem Expansion as well as for Teralys Capital, our governments (both federal and provincial) are playing key roles of being “enablers”. By participating as pure investors, by expecting full return of capital in addition to reasonable returns, at the same rate and on the same terms as their private co-investors, our governments are setting a new tone: where they aren’t providing any bailout, any grants, any loans; they aren’t selecting or politically influencing the type of companies these funds should invest in; they aren’t trying to save any specific industry by giving tax credits for job creation; they are enabling sophisticated fund managers to attract important amount of capital into their funds (as we all know size does matter) as well as providing the level of commitment necessary to attract foreign co-investors into investing in promising Canadian tech companies. Anyway we look at it, having the means to invest and to support our entrepreneurs, directly creates high paying jobs, clusters of expertise and put Canada on the map (just think of what would of happened to these industries without venture capital: Quebec’s gaming and media production industries; British Columbia’s Biotech industries; Ontario’s semiconductor and telecom industries; Toronto’s software industries, Montreal’s aerospace industry, and I can go on and on). Our governments are doings the right things, now it’s up to our fund managers to do things right!

What is next?

Our governments and our large Canadian institutions alike, need to further value the impact that the venture capital and private equity industry has on the competitiveness of Canada on the world markets. One day, soon enough, I hope to see our Canadian government, as well as other provincial governments, follow in the footsteps of the Teralys Capital model and allocate substantial amounts of capital ($300-500M each) towards enabling private fund managers in their endeavour to attract local and foreign institutional capital, in order to better support our tech industry and our entrepreneurs, and by the same means, generate important returns on capital over the next ten to 15 years, while, as a result directly impacting the success level of Canadian innovation commercialization and job creation.

As the Canadian Venture capital industry matures, we will witness higher returns, recurring entrepreneurs and an increase in local success stories. More high growth companies will not be obliged to be acquired by a foreign entity in order to provide exit opportunities to its stakeholders and with the recognition that this class of investment (venture capital), although considered high Risk, will prove to generate High Rewards. That should be enough to attract more Canadian pension funds, banks, insurance companies and private institutions, with allocations of a fraction of their capital towards Canadian venture capital funds.

With this year’s CVCA annual conference, themed “Embrace our Energy”, being once again sold out, I take it that allot of the above will be subject of discussion in Calgary.

Thoughts and comments welcomed.

P.S. for the latest and greatest industry headlines, follow the CVCA on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/CVCACanada

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Canada's growing second generation of tech-entrepreneurs FP article on Airborne Mobile

2009-05-16T05:11:00.001-07:00

Canada's growing second generation of tech-entrepreneurs. National Post article on Airborne Mobile @andynulman @garnerbornstein disclosure: iNovia is an investor in Airborne and I’m a serial-re-investor in Garner & Andy!

National Post extract below. Full article here: http://bit.ly/448MN

Graham Hughes/National Post CEO of Airborne Mobile, Garner Bornstein, pictured in Airborne offices, Saint Laurent Boulevard, Montreal, Thursday, May 14, 2009.

Airborne a prime example of the accelerated boom-and-bust nature of the high-tech world

Karen Mazurkewich, Financial Post Published: Friday, May 15, 2009

Garner Bornstein has been involved in risky high-tech ventures in the past. But his latest project, Airborne Mobile, is different. That's because it's not a start-up; it's a make-over...

In 2005, Mr. Bornstein made a fortune from selling his high-tech firm, Airborne Entertainment, for $110-million to Cybird Co. Ltd. of Japan... But the company's take-off under its Japanese owners was a bust...

Chris Arsenault, who once managed direct investments for Charles Sirois' Telesystem Ltd., and arranged two rounds of financing for the original firm, is backing the reincarnated company with a $2-million round. "I made a lot of money with them and liked and respected the entrepreneurs," says the investor. "So, when they said they were restarting something they already owned, it made it even more interesting; it was like creating a start-up on steroids," he adds.

Airborne is a prime example of the accelerated boom-and-bust nature of the high-tech world. But it is also an example of how Quebec's second-generation tech industry is quickly growing up.

...

Complete article in Saturday’s May 16^th 2009 National Post – Financial post

http://www.financialpost.com/news-sectors/story.html?id=1600728

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PBS Kids provides fun for preschoolers - 5 stars USA Today

2009-05-15T06:29:00.001-07:00

Awesome, 5 stars! Tribal Nova www.tribalnova.com powers the PBS Kids Play and together, PBS & Tribal Nova, are providing a safe Internet Harbor to preschoolers. Thumbs up! Disclosure: I'm a board member and investor in Tribal Nova http://pbskidsplay.orgLaunched in March 2008, PBS Kids Play! is a subscription service of exclusive, high-quality educational computer games and activities for kids ages 3 to 6.

read more | digg story

A turning point for VC fund raising in Canada?

2009-04-27T15:52:00.001-07:00

By Chris Arsenault, Managing Partner & COO at iNovia Capital

Definitely, this is great news for the Canadian VC industry and for tech entrepreneurs alike. Today, Teralys Capital was born, with at its helm Mr. Jacques Bernier (an experienced entrepreneur, executive and investor), and with $700 million in capital (as a first closing), making it the largest Fund of Funds of its kind in Canada.

The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDP), the Fonds de solidarité FTQ (the Fond), and the Québec government (via Investissement Québec), announced the creation of Teralys Capital, a new Quebec based Canadian Fund of Funds, which will invest in private venture capital funds (VC Funds) that in turn will invest in technology companies in sectors that include Infotech, Cleantech and Life Sciences. CDP announcement here (link).

The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and the Fonds de solidarité each contributed $250 million and Investissement Québec contributed $200 million to Teralys Capital, all as part of the Fund’s first closing. Mr. Bernier expect to raise an additional $125 million from other institutional and private investors, bringing the first fund size up to $825 million.

The Government versus the role of the VC Fund in funding entrepreneurs.

I don’t believe in having our governments involved in every aspect of our businesses and especially not calling the shots on who should receive funding and who shouldn’t. And I don’t believe in bailouts per say. I believe in intelligent investments that can generate strong returns by enabling and by levering, knowledge, networks and expertise.

We live in a very competitive technology driven environment that requires our best entrepreneurs to not only have the best ideas, the best innovations but also the best business models and a unique competitive edge that is, more often than less, far from obvious to the venture capital firm looking to invest. Canada needs a strong community of privately driven VC Funds with industry expertise and broad networks of partners and co-investors to provide the insight and support our Canadian entrepreneurs need to succeed. These VC Funds need capital (just like entrepreneurs do) and today’s announcement will somewhat facilitate, for the few, their fund raising efforts and will hopefully create more awareness and interest towards this investment class.

Over the last 12 months, many provincial governments (British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario) and even some cities (Ottawa) announced their intent to actively support the Canadian venture capital industry by playing a direct or indirect role as an investor or co-investor in existing and upcoming VC Funds. It was refreshing to start hearing about their concrete investment commitments into VC Funds, and not just read about it in the budgets! You can read more about the positive impact of these initiatives in an article ported on the Montreal Tech Watch blog (link).

But today’s joint announcement from the CDP, the Fond and the Government of Québec I believe is setting new standards in Canada by all means. And I think they are calling it right!

·         First, they put together a substantial amount of cash for this type of activity to be effective;

·         second they named an experienced management team, making the fund privately managed in its self, that can lead the investment process without the direct involvement of the government (and I expect this to be the first of many Funds to come under Teralys Capital’s management);

·         And finally, they acted fast (within 2 months from the Government of Québec 2009 budget).

So with this announcement, we can expect Teralys Capital to announce its first commitments into VC funds within the two quarters. This is great, but let’s not forget that these VC Funds managers will likely be required to attract further capital from other Fund of Funds, Pension Funds, Institutional and Private investors before themselves start investing into tech companies. Therefore, we should see the first few $ in the hands of promising technology companies and entrepreneurs by this time next year.

Now, we haven’t seen any traction from the Federal Government front yet, nor do we see enough traction for this class of investment from Canadian and Foreign institutional investors. The CVCA also welcomed the Quebec Fund of Fund initiative today, but highlighted the situation our industry in their press release (link), stating: The Canadian venture capital industry has endured several years of declining fundraising. Thus, the industry raised $1,718 billion in 2005 and only $1,028 billion in 2008, a precipitous drop of 41%. So allot still needs to be done.

Yet, I applaud today’s announcement and welcome the path of action taken by the Government of Québec, by not trying to substitute itself for a VC Fund manager, but instead, by acting quickly, partnering up and leveraging the expertise and knowledge of industry leaders in order to have a more substantial impact.

Other related posts:

$5 billion to end up in the hands of Canadian entrepreneurs, nothing less!

CVCA’s Comprehensive Study on The Impact of Venture Capital in Canada on Economy, Jobs and Innovation

CVCA English press release Communiqué en Français ci-joint

Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec press release

Download now or preview on posterous

Quebec Fund of Funds April 27 2009-fre.pdf (42 KB)

Download now or preview on posterous

Fond de Fond du Quebec - francais.pdf (42 KB)

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Times they are changing... at the cross roads of yet another evolution!

2009-04-21T03:35:00.001-07:00

Yep! Times are changing, like it or not, they are changing, and it’s all for the good! I’ve been reading allot lately, about the lack of funding for entrepreneurs, the poor VC returns, the lack of VC funding, the lack of recurring entrepreneurs, the “broken VC model”, what to do & what not to do from deep experts and deep commentators alike, even the incubator model has resurfaced again!

Yet, while all that is being said, what I really like to see is what is being done. People taking action. I love leadership, in every form it takes, right or wrong, I highly respect leadership. So, without re-writing what has already been said over the last few weeks, I thought I would share with you a few interesting post I've read, which provides views of our industry from different angles, from players within our industry (but from both sides of the table), with unique comments which are representative of the times we live in, times that are changing... And yes, even though we have witnessed two positive tech-IPO’s (Language software Rosetta Stone and online college Bridgepoint Education) it’s not bringing us back to the heydays. Entrepreneurs are realizing that not all great Companies are made for the VC high growth model and not all VC’s are made for funding entrepreneurs... don’t miss the comments, sometimes even more revealing than the post itself.

First angle, some hard facts:

Venture Capital Investing Hits 11-Year Low

The Wall Street Journal, produced by the editors of Dow Jones VentureWire

Venture capital investment plunged 50% in the first quarter from a year ago, signalling what could be a fundamental shift in the industry’s size and direction.Venture-backed companies raised $3.9 billion in the first quarter of this year down from $7.78 billion in the first period of 2008, according to VentureSource, an industry tracker owned by VentureWire publisher Dow Jones & Co. It was the lowest quarterly investment since 1998. The total fell significantly below the $5.95 billion invested in the fourth quarter of last year when the collapse of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and other economic shocks took their toll on the venture business.

For the whole story please go to The Wall Street Journal http://bit.ly/BTLLW

Second angle, the entrepreneur turned investor:

Reid Hoffman: My Rule of Three for Investing

Reid is the founder and CEO of Linked-in and an investor in over 60 web ventures including Digg, Facebook, Flickr, Friendster, FunnyOrDie, Ning, Last.fm, Six Apart and Technorati.

As a serial investor, I’ve enjoyed backing some good Web 2.0 companies, and it’s helped me develop a shortlist of criteria to cut the wheat from the chaff. After five minutes of a pitch, I know if I’m not going to invest, and after 30 minutes to an hour, I generally know if I will. Many entrepreneurs are product-focused, which leads them to pitch the brilliance of the product. Others are money-minded, so they can over think the business plan. But neither of these approaches answer the first few questions I want to know as an investor:

For the whole story please go to Techcrunch at: http://bit.ly/EhYWK

Third angle, the entrepreneur:

Incubators, accelerators, and ignition

by David Crow

I am still curious about startup incubators. Mostly because I think that they do a great job focusing attention and driving buzz around the startup activities in a community. ReadWriteWeb has a great summary of seed fund incubators. Maybe we don’t need an incubator. But LaunchBox and DreamIt have been successful in building the local communitiesin Washington, DC and Philadelphia respectively. And there are local entrepreneurs heading to Y Combinator, there is a need and a desire for the benefits these programs bring for the entrepreneurs and the community.

For the whole story please go to StartupNorth.ca at: http://bit.ly/11dZMb

Fourth angle, from the top tier VC:

Venture Capital Under Attack

The Wall Street Journal, by Adam Grosser, a general partner with Menlo Park, Calif.-based venture capital firm Foundation Capital

As a venture capitalist, my job is to find great ideas and turn them into great companies. The journey to find these ideas has taken me from inventors’ basements, to obscure research labs, to, in one case, a smoky Milwaukee bowling alley renowned for its fried Twinkies. With a lot of hard work and a little luck that journey ends on the floor of a stock exchange, witnessing a company you helped build go public. It’s a helluva ride.

For the whole story please go to The Wall Street Journal http://bit.ly/HXVS0

And finally, the fifth angle, the evolutionary VC point of view:

A VC Revolution In The Making

PEHub, Georges van Hoegaerden is the Managing Director at The Venture Company

Venture Capital is broken in some fundamental way. So much so that PCG predicts a revolution and a complete redesign of the Venture Capital model, with CalPERS nodding in agreement. CalPERS has gone from a yearly review of their asset allocation to quarterly and is currently debating new hybrid asset allocation models. That means less dependency on VC, and more on other vehicles. At the same time it is looking to reduce its relationships to only the top quartile VCs and getting out of the mid and bottom tier ones altogether. Annex funds, created to fill the void of fleeing late stage investors, are not found to be interesting as the majority of the funds currently in the pipeline will not produce positive returns anyway.

For the whole story please go to PEHub http://bit.ly/MamWo

So, after reading the above angles on the current state of affairs of the VC industry and tech-entrepreneurs world, what do you think? Is the VC model broken, dead?... or is it just evolving... just like any other business!

Good times lay ahead, and yes those times they are changing, great entrepreneurs and great VC’s alike are building the next generation of tech companies and venture capital funds, new approaches, new models... I feel we are at the cross road of yet another evolution!

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Twitter For Business - tips

2009-04-19T17:39:00.001-07:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation: Twitter for Business, some uses of Twitter from a Corporate perspective, by Ian Greeen of GREEN Communications.

I like!

Twitter For Business

View more presentations from iangreen.

Leveraging Non-Existing Networks Into

2009-04-14T09:38:00.001-07:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation: Leveraging Non-Existing Networks Into Guerilla Revenue Generating Strategies by Jacqui Murphy of tech Capital

Leveraging Non-Existing Networks Into Guerilla Revenue Generating Strategies

View more presentations from Jacqui Murphy.

OUR INDUSTRY IS ALIVE AND KICKIN’ – So lead, follow or get out of the way!

2009-04-07T15:43:00.001-07:00

First posted for the CVCA Capital Rants blog

By Chris Arsenault, Managing Partner & COO at iNovia Capital

Within 3 days I probably saw more Tweets and Blogs about the Canadian Venture Capital Ecosystem and Canadian Entrepreneurship than I’ve seen in any given month! Rants, Raves, Criticism and Support, some comments were without any deep while others provided insight. Over the last few weeks, we started hearing about the different provincial government initiatives to support, as investors, the venture capital industry, thus addressing in part the lack of equity financing for existing and new promising technology companies across Canada. Following the CVCA publication earlier this year of a Comprehensive Study on The Impact of Venture Capital in Canada on Economy, Jobs and Innovation (link), many provincial governments jumped on the bag wagon and were announcing fund commitments, new fund creations and/or new budget allocations to VC in order to show their support and help in addressing this crying need for more venture capital funding for Canadian businesses.

Even though we still haven’t resolved the fundamental issue of having private capital flow to entrepreneurs with high growth businesses via more LP commitments towards privately managed venture capital funds, I was pleased to read about the initiatives, the interest and comments from the various players of our ecosystem. The level of comments I received (online and directly via email) from my recent post about the indirect benefits of the recent Quebec government commitments towards venture capital (first posted on Montreal Tech Watch) $5 billion to end up in the hands of Canadian entrepreneurs, nothing less! told me one thing: Yes, people care, people want change, people are showing leadership, support and interest. I’m not saying that everybody agreed with what they understood was going on and how the challenges are being addressed, many had their own views on the Canadian funding issues and had very different opinions, and that’s a good thing, I respect that, as long as those who are voicing their opinions can show leadership by causing action and are participating in the debate by building our industry, not purposely demolishing it.

I suggest you checkout the following blogs for more views and angles, some are more positive than others, yet they all offer additional insight, such as Suzanne Dingwall: Ont. Gov’t As A VC: In with a Whimper, Not a Bang; Mark McQueen’s OVCF dips toe in Ontario waters with “commitment” to Georgian Partners; and entrepreneur start-up CFO Mark MacLeod’S Unfair Advantage only to name a few.

The article from The Canadian Press, and interview with Edmee Metivier, the Business Development Bank executive vice president of financing, gave a glimpsed of the importance of the continued support needed for our Canadian technology ecosystem and the role some government agencies (such as the BDC) play ‘Lost generation’ of technology threatens Canada: official; The techvibe Canada's Venture Capital industry is bad?blog posted comments and perspective from Brian Sharwood. Which in itself was interesting because it was a pure entrepreneurs’ view on the VC industry and start-up related government economic development agencies, questioning the way the system works from his angle.

But then... then... came the infamous WSJ article with as interviewee: Mark Skapinker. Ouch! That one hurt. Why? Because the message that came across was wrong, the burning Canadian flag was an insult, and it created a false generalized impression that we, as Canadian Entrepreneurs and VCs had failed. No the Canadian Venture Capital Community is not dead nor broken, it’s evolving and that’s a good thing! The Canadian Venture Capital Community, like in any other country, needs to adapt to its own national realities while at the same time face global competition. And secondly, we do have great new and recurring entrepreneurs, that have proven time after time that we can built great companies (even though we end up selling most of them to foreigner). Can Canada afford to have more proven and successful Canadian Tech CEO's and Entrepreneurs? Of course, 10 times more, easy! Do Canadian Venture Capital Fund have enough financial resources to fund all the great deals out there? No, and we need to convince more institutions to allocate funds to VC & PE and we need toshow then hard results and strong IRRS!

For those of you who missed some of the action, here are the few must read links related to the infamous article:

1. The Wall Street Journal article itself: O Canada VC, We Stand On Guard For Thee

2. The reaction, among others of Mark McQueen: Skapinker gives his homeland the Bronx Cheer

3. The clarification blog by Mark Skapinker: Say it like you see it – and get kicked in the ass

4. The Rick Segal reaction: Owww! I hate getting hit from behind

5. The clarifying-clarification of Mark McQueen: Skapinker gives his homeland the Bronx Cheer part 2

I personally think that we can wish and want, complain and comment as much as we want. But the only way to build a successful business, a successful fund, to build a strong ecosystem, to innovate in an ever-changing environment, is by showing leadership. No one person, nor firm nor government will make any true difference “alone”. We can’t expect everybody to agree on “how” our ecosystem should be built or how our industry should thrive. But we can agree to respect the leadership of others, to work towards building a strong ecosystem and support those who take initiative in paving the way towards solidifying our Entrepreneurship and Venture Capital base.

Call to action! If someone doesn’t agree on how things are being done, then instead of complaining, show leadership and take action. Everybody, in its own capacity, can provide leadership, do his/her part, or at the least, support the leadership it believes is right.

I look forward to read more about what SHOULD be done, yet I sincerely expect to witness more of what WILL be done.

Chris

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Calling movers & shakers! Inviting active VC's, repeat CEO's, passionate entrepreneurs and VC & PE industry leaders to year's Annual CVCA Conference

2009-04-06T15:13:00.001-07:00

If you attend ONE private capital conference this year, this is the one you should attend - CVCA’s Annual Conference is the premier networking and professional development event for Canada’s venture capital and private equity industry and repeatedly attracts over 400 industry professionals and influencers from across the country, the U.S. and around the world.

I highly recommend that you attend CVCA’s Annual Conference as it is the premier networking and professional development event for Canada’s private capital industry and repeatedly attracts over 400 industry professionals and influencers from across the country, the U.S. and around the world.

High profile speakers include Thomas Barrack, Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Colony Capital, LLC, Tim Draper, Founder and Managing Director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson, Leo de Bever, Chief Executive Officer of Alberta Investment Management Corp. Marc Beauchamp, President & Managing Partner at NOVACAP, Michael Nobrega, President and CEO of OMERS and Mark Wiseman, Senior Vice President, Private Investments, Canada Pension Plan Investment.

CVCA’s Conference attendees return year after year for the invaluable benefits of networking, with key industry leaders and for the topical issues presented and discussed at the various organized presentation. Participants and sponsors include the following:

· Private Equity Investors

· Venture Capitalists

· Institutional & Corporate Investors

· Investment Bankers/Intermediaries

· Leveraged Lenders

· Commercial Banks

· Service Providers – Lawyers, Insurers, Accountants, Strategic and Financial Advisors, Executive Search

· Security Exchanges

· Government and Academia

You may visit the conference web site for the full agenda and on-line registration.

www.cvca.ca/news/events/2009AnnualConference.aspx

Please also find a copy of the full length brochure in .pdf format.

Sincerely,

Chris Arsenault

Editor of the CVCA Capital Rants Blog

Board member of the CVCA - Canada’s Venture Capital & Private Equity Association

Managing Partner & COO - iNovia Capital Inc.

Twitter: http://twitter.com/chrisarsenault

Download now or preview on posterous

2009 Conference Brochure Final at April 2 2009.pdf (7446 KB)

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2009-04-02T06:55:00.001-07:00

Here is a copy of the letter sent out by Réseau Capital to all its Members, which below links to download either a French or English version of the report.

Best,Chris

Text en français au bas

***

Letter sent out April 1t, 2009

To all members of Réseau Capital,

We are pleased to attach the study on the impact of Venture Capital on the Canadian Economy sponsored by the Canadian Venture Capital Association (CVCA) and BDC. Aimed at a wide audience, it explains how venture capital works, reviews the major impact studies conducted in the United States and measures its impact on Canadian employment, growth, innovation and exports. Going beyond such quantitative impacts, it also illustrates by way of case studies the “snowball effect” of venture capital, whereby one success spurs the birth and growth of a new generation of technological enterprises. Finally, it highlights the risks to the entire ecosystem of the industry’s shrinking ability to attract more investment at this time.

Québec and Réseau Capital were active participants in this initiative, funded jointly by the Ministère du Développement économique, de l’Innovation et de l’Exportation, the other provinces and Industry Canada. Summit Capital provided additional funding that led to four success stories in Québec: Axcan Pharma, BioChem Pharma, Positron Fiber Systems and Taleo. Annie Thabet, Charles Cazabon and Hubert Manseau were on the steering committee for the study, which was presented at the Réseau Capital convention in February and served as the basis of discussions between Réseau Capital and Raymond Bachand, Minister of Economic Development, Innovation and Export Trade, when the Québec budget was being prepared. It is a fine example of partnership between Réseau Capital and the CVCA, which we intend to maintain.

Janie C. Béïque François Chaurette

Co-President Co-President

Réseau Capital Réseau Capital

___________________________________________________________

À tous les membres de Réseau Capital,

Vous trouverez ci-joint l’étude sur la contribution du capital de risque à l’économie canadienne commanditée par l’ACCR et la BDC. Destinée à un large public, elle explique comment fonctionne le capital de risque, passe en revue les grandes études d’impact qui ont été conduites aux États-Unis, mesure l’impact sur l’emploi, la croissance, l’innovation et les exportations au Canada et, au-delà de ces effets quantitatifs, illustre par des histoires à succès « l’effet boule de neige » du capital de risque par lequel un succès alimente la naissance et la croissance d’une nouvelle génération d’entreprises technologique. Elle met également en lumière les risques que fait courir à l’ensemble de l’écosystème la contraction de la levée de fonds à laquelle fait actuellement face l’industrie.

Le Québec et Réseau Capital ont pris une part active à cette entreprise. Le MDEIE l’a financée aux côtés des autres provinces et d’Industrie Canada. Sommet Capital a ajouté un financement supplémentaire qui a permis de porter à quatre le nombre d’histoires à succès du Québec : Axcan Pharma, Biochem Pharma, Positron Fiber Systems et Taleo. Annie Thabet, Charles Cazabon et Hubert Manseau ont fait partie du Comité directeur de l’étude. Enfin, l’étude a été présentée au Congrès de Réseau Capital en février et elle a servi à supporter les discussions que Réseau Capital a pu avoir avec le Ministre Raymond Bachand lors de la préparation du budget. C’est là un bel exemple de partenariat entre Réseau Capital et l’ACCR que nous entendons poursuivre.

Janie C. Béïque François Chaurette

Coprésidente Coprésident

Réseau Capital Réseau Capital

Réseau capital http://www.reseaucapital.com

CVCA http://www.cvca.ca

Download now or preview on posterous

CVCA Impact Study FRENCH March 2009.pdf (531 KB)

Download now or preview on posterous

CVCA Impact Study ENGLISH March 2009.pdf (496 KB)

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Repost from Startup CFO - The Skinny on SRED tax credits

2009-03-26T08:10:00.001-07:00

Startup Cfo + Flow Sred Presentation 032409

View more presentations from Mark Macleod.

The Guy Kawasaki Top 10 rules

2009-03-25T11:58:00.001-07:00

Guy Kawasaki was back in Montreal today, speaker at the Capital Innovation 2009 conference. As usual, charming, friendly and very entertaining. Below is a summary of his learnings, shared in the form of a "Top 10 rules" for entrepreneurs:

1. Make meaning - the why!

2. Make Mantra - the what (in lieu of your mission statement)

3. Jump to the Next curve - do it 10 times better

4. Roll the dice - offer something w/depth, intelligence, complete, elegance, emotive

5. Don't worry - ship early, fix it later

6. Polarize people - some will like it other will hate it, that's good! no in-between

7. Let 100 flowers blossom - let people use you product as they feel fit

8. Churn baby churn - keep innovation coming... fast

9. Niche yourself - unique and valuable

10. Follow 10 20 30 rule - 10 slides... 20 minutes presentation... Use 30 points fonts in your power point

11. Don't let the Bozo grind you down! - too often the successful entrepreneurs is too deep in his expertise to see or even understand the next wave, or was part of the 50% that were Lucky! Not smart.

Of course, most points are all obvious rules, especially w/20-20 hindsight, but I must admit that it was very pleasant to hear guy's examples and views.

P.S Guy still feels bad for not investing in the "save bubba" business, focused on saving drowning people w/a red tape bracelet (which is actually a very successful business today!). But clearly it doesn't beat his decision not to take up the CEO position at Yahoo back in 1995! Oups!!!

P.P.S. Kawasaki also gave a nice plug for Canadian image stock company iStockphoto and Montreal based startup Atelier Transfert (they do 1 min summary videos about your company).

Best, Chris

Message sent via wireless device - thumb typo's included! Sorry.

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Cooling the Future of electronics with liquid - iNovia's most recent investment - CoolIT Systems

2009-03-24T06:48:00.001-07:00

We (iNovia Capital) just now announced our most recent investment in a Calgary based Liquid Cooling technology company – CoolIT Systems.

This is yet another great example about what a great management can do when brought together under the right circumstances. I my mind, Management is the utmost critical success factor for any early stage company. CoolIT’s co-founders Jason Myers, Brydon Gierl & Sandy Scott – built a really nice company from scratch with a nice story/mission: To change the world by addressing the electronic performance market via advanced liquid cooling, not just for super computers, but going right down to mobile electronic devices as well as graphic card GPUs. Not an easy task! Yet, when we starting working with the founders, their team and angel investors, we quickly realized how sharp these guys are.

Jason didn’t hesitate when building up the team around its founders, and quickly brought in as its CEO Geoff Lyon (ex-VP Sales & Marketing Harmony Remote), joined by John McDaniel and Doug Reid. This team knows what it takes to success, especially when going after the market gorillas such as HP, AMD and Dell.

Check out CES 2009 interview with Geoff Lyon (full screen video link)

CES 2009: CoolIT Sealed Water Cooling Unit

CPU running a bit too hot? Air cooling not working but you’re scared of using a water cooled unit? This baby is sealed tight!

For more info you can also take a peek at their web site at http://www.coolitsystems.com. I’ve also attached a copy of the press release below.

Chris

PRESS RELEASE

CoolIT Systems Closes $6.2 Million financing

Capital plan supports mainstream performance-computing adoption of liquid cooling

Calgary, Canada, March 24, 2009 – CoolIT Systems, the industry leader in advanced electronics cooling solutions, has completed a CDN $6.2M financing package. The investment was led by iNovia Capital, a leading venture capital fund manager, and included existing angel investors and AVAC Ltd.

CoolIT recently launched its breakthrough Domino Advanced Liquid Cooling (ALC) solution for desktop computers to industry acclaim at the Consumer Electronics Show (Las Vegas) and CeBIT (Hanover). This financing was timed to support that launch and accelerate the completion of a number of development projects for OEMs based on patented CoolIT technology.

"Electronics performance is now governed by thermal design more than any other factor. Customers are demanding quiet, reliable and efficient equipment that can only be delivered with advanced cooling solutions of the caliber provided by CoolIT", said Shawn Abbott, partner with iNovia Capital. “In addition to technology excellence, CoolIT has a world-class management team with the proven ability to lead high-volume, quality technology design and manufacturing organizations.”

Geoff Lyon, CEO of CoolIT, said, "We selected iNovia because our business needs a strong, long-term capital partner that understands the market as well as the operational challenges due to rapid order growth from both channel and OEM partners. With the PC industry rapidly shifting towards liquid cooling, this financing allows CoolIT to expand the sales channels internationally and additionally facilitates strategic corporate initiatives including a key acquisition we are negotiating."

"The CoolIT team exemplifies the entrepreneurial leadership we look for in companies," said Ross Bricker, CEO of AVAC Ltd. "They are thinking and operating globally, while leveraging the experienced talent and access to international markets unique to Alberta. We are delighted to have iNovia join us in our support of CoolIT."

About CoolIT Systems

CoolIT Systems has been working with industry leaders in the computer industry to research, design, and deliver next generation cooling products that provide a comprehensive solution while exceeding high OEM standards for reliability and maintenance-free operation. This carefully designed and patented technology unleashes the full potential of a PC, providing superior cooling performance while reducing system level noise and improving reliability of vital components. The CoolIT MTEC Technology can be found in the top names in performance computing like Dell, Alienware, Velocity Micro, MAINGEAR, CyberPowerPC, Hypersonic, Commodore Gaming, Biohazard, Ultra, Ultraforce, Systemax, BFG, War Machine and Shuttle. CoolIT also works with the AMD engineering group to provide the Reference cooling solution for the latest high performance video cards. For more information, visit www.coolitsystems.com.

About iNovia Capital

iNovia Capital manages seed and early stage venture capital funds, with a focus on helping entrepreneurs build successful companies in information technology, life sciences and cleantech. iNovia’s value-added approach to early stage investing provides portfolio companies with capital, unique access to intellectual property from its extensive network of industry and academic partners, advisors and sector-specific co-investors. For more information, visit www.inoviacapital.com or follow iNovia on Twitter at http://twitter.com/inovia.

About AVAC Ltd.

AVAC Ltd. is a private not-for-profit company that invests strategically in promising early-stage commercial businesses focusing on the expansion of Alberta’s value-added agribusiness, ICT, life sciences, and other industrial technology sectors. AVAC also participates in commercially-relevant agricultural research and is a strategic fund-of-fund investor in early stage venture capital. Created in 1997, and with the support of the Alberta and Canadian Governments, AVAC has invested in over 110 early-stage companies who have reported over $325 million in aggregate project-related sales to date. AVAC has also invested in 38 agriculture research programs and projects, and 3 venture capital funds including iNovia Capital. For more information, visit www.avacltd.com.

-30-

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A new $825M Fund for Venture Capital to be put in place by Quebec Government

2009-03-19T15:12:00.001-07:00

I believe this is great news for Quebec, for Canada and the whole Venture Capital Community. Earlier today, the Quebec Finance Minister Monique Jérôme-Forget presented here budget in which she outlines the $15-billion stimulus package. Budget 2009-2010.

We find in this Budget many changes and numerous proposed solutions for critical sectors of the economy. But the two initiatives that captured my attention are 1) the creation of the new $825M Venture Capital Fund (or will it be a Fund of Fund?) and 2) a $500Memergency Fund for businesses. Of course we have yet to see the details and inter-workings of such a Fund, but I would guess that these monies will provide some level of continuity to Venture Capital Fund managers and potentially direct investments as well. This is great news as long as the capital being put at work is done through proper management of such funds.

Over the last few years, The Solidarity Fund, the FondAction CSN, Desjardins Capital and the Caisse de Dépot have been hard at work figuring out ways to help entrepreneurs and business owners out. They have played a crucial/leading role in support of the Canadian Private Equity & Venture Capital industry. Their efforts are now joined by a clear and strong commitment to Venture Capital by the Quebec Government. This news comes a day after the Ontario Budget and announcement of their own co-investment fund in the amount of $250M.

I look forward to soon be witnessing a revived Canadian Venture Capital Ecosystem through (mostly) an indirect involvement by our governments into businesses through their direct commitment as limited partners into leading private venture capital fund managers across Canada.

Here are a few key highlights of 2009-2010 Quebec budget (as outlined by the Montreal Gazette):

- $15-billion economic stimulus package;

- $3.9-billion deficit budget;

- Quebec Stock Savings Plan, returns, tax deductions for stock market investments;

- Quebec sales tax will rise to 8.5 per cent in 2011;

- Indexing of fees, from birth certificates to driver’s licences, in 2011;

- $500 million more for job re-training;

- $1.5-billion more for health, $490 million more for education;

- A $500-million emergency fund, for businesses;

- A $825-million venture-capital fund, for businesses;

- $2,000 increase in tax credit for child-care expenses;

- Program to eliminate elder abuse;

- $1.6-billion more for Generations Fund over two years, to offset Quebec’s growing debt;

- Crack down on “aggressive tax planning” to curb tax evasion;

- 3,000 more low-cost housing units.

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Entrepreneurs, start-ups and venture capital together, provide the utmost promise of returning confidence and results by addressing the global economy crisis from its roots

2009-03-18T15:53:00.001-07:00

Funding innovation by helping promising technologies get into the hands of the consumers is by far the most tangible route towards creating sustainable wealth for all. As a society, we need to promote and encourage entrepreneurship. Our governments need to look into their own backyards and realize that the Venture Capital and Private Equity Industry plays a crucial role in the building of our future. From my own experience both as an entrepreneur and as a venture capitalist, clearly VC is a unique class of financial resource that only the most dynamic entrepreneurs with global ambitions can access. These entrepreneurs are the ones that deliver the most results in any economy. They create Jobs, new products, sustainable growth, and most importantly that provide everybody else with a reason to believe that anything is possible!

Through a straight equity participation or venture debt financing, entrepreneurs are the ones who can realistically convert great ideas into amazing businesses. In a recent study by the CVCA on the economic impacts of venture capital, the study clearly showed that venture capital activity in Canada has resulted in the creation of close to 150,000 jobs and an additional 1% to Canada’s GDP. In addition, according to the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC), 700,000 Canadians work in the broader information technology and communications technology sectors.

How was this possible? Because of entrepreneurs. How did they do it? Because they had access to Venture Capital funding.

Earlier today, the Ontario Government officially announced its response and support to the aching Canadian VC & PE industry by launching what they call a $250M matching fund for Emerging Technology Companies. More on McGuinty Government commitment towards supporting Ontario's research and innovation activities can be found at: http://www.mri.gov.on.ca/english/news/ETF031809.asp

Mark McQueen, one of Canada's most prolific and well read bloggers on Canada's private equity has been voicing the urgency to act and to support the Canadian VC & PE industry, and to actively deploy capital to innovative companies for years. Check out what Mark has to say on his recent blog posts at: http://www.wellingtonfund.com/blog

Meanwhile, we are doing our part and will be announcing our 2 most recent deals shortly!

To all of you entrepreneurs, I salute you!

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Angel & Venture Capital Finance: Where is the Money Moving?

2009-03-16T06:22:00.001-07:00

Check out this SlideShare Presentation.

Also please send me any updated presentation on the state of the Canadian Venture Capital and Angel Community you may come to cross.

Thx

Angel & Venture Capital Finance: Where is the Money Moving?

View more presentations from dbeisel.

I had loads of fun at the MaRS District Entrepreneurship VC interview (Ochard, iNovia & Rosetta) watch the webcast

2009-03-09T11:52:00.001-07:00

Last Wednesday I had the pleasure of participating in one of the MaRS District courses up in Toronto – CIBC Presents Entrepreneurship 101.

I had allot of fun. Peter Tolnai is a good friend and one of the original private VC fund managers in Canada in the mid ‘80s, and is currently Managing Partner at Orchard Capital. Peter put together this session and acted as moderator and started the VC interview by forcing his two VC guests (Chris Arsenault of iNovia Capital & Michael Midmer of Rosetta Capital) to drink some “Truth Serum” just to make sure we share real thoughts and comments with the crowd.

So if you have time to watch a fund and very interactive session (Q&A went on for 30 minutes post the 60 minute session) take a look at the Video:

MaRS District Collaboration Centre in Toronto

CIBC Presents Entrepreneurship 101.

March 4^th re-webcast of the session titled: How to Get Money From a VC

Every entrepreneur wants to know the secrets for successfully pitching a VC or an angel. Join guest lecturer Peter Tolnai from Orchard Capital along with Chris Arsenault of iNovia Capital and Michael Midmer of Rosetta Capital, all prominent VCs who tell you their secrets for making a successful pitch. They also host a Q&A session in which the panel answers your questions directly without saying, "Come back in a few months when you've made some more revenue traction!"

http://www.marsdd.com/Events/Event-Calendar/Ent101/2009/what-investors-look-for-03042009.html

Enjoy!

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Speaking in a few minutes at the Toronto MaRS DistrictEntrepreneurship series

2009-03-04T14:06:00.001-08:00

I’m walking over to Toronto MaRS District for a speaking engagement, I was invited by Peter Tolnai to a panel titled “What do Investors Look for?”.

Peter is one of the great investor entrepreneurs I know. He doesn't want me to refer to him as the dean of VC so I won't... but I will mention that his VC background goes back to the ‘80’s when there was only 2-3 VC’s active across Canada! Hummm, sometime it feels like we are back in the ‘80’s !

Pretty impressive what Ilse Treurnicht, CEO of the MaRS Discovery District, has done with the building and the network that spawns across all areas of innovation. The main building is the host to numerous VC’s, IP agents, incubators, the CVCA and many promising young start-ups. http://www.marsdd.com/MaRS-Home.html <http://www.marsdd.com/MaRS-Home.html>

Now, let’s go talk about What Investors Look for!

Best, Chris

Message sent via wireless device - thumb typo's included! Sorry.

See and download the full gallery on posterous

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Just finished my CVCA Board meeting. I must say: Canada has a passionate and very dedicated VC & PE community!

2009-03-04T13:56:00.001-08:00

Similar to other industries, the implication and passion of its Members is the main driver for its success and capability to adapt to change!
The debates and topics covered at the board level are truly driven and lively. What's good is that VC's have high expectation of its portfolio company CEO's, so in turn, the CVCA board has high expectation of its VC's!

Interesting fact: The CVCA – Canada’s Venture Capital & Private Equity Association – http://www.cvca.ca represents the large majority of all private equity companies in Canada, with over 1600 members now! CVCA members have over $75 billion in capital under management, in three distinct market segments:
-       Buyout
-       Mezzanine
-       Venture Capital

Best, Chris

Message sent via wireless device - thumb typo's included! Sorry.

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CVCA Annual Conference coming up in Calgary May 27-29th - Pure VC&PE networking delight

2009-03-03T08:35:00.001-08:00

It’s time to stop looking at the stock markets and start building successful VC funded companies! Think I’m joking? I think not. We have been so absorbed here at iNovia working on new deals, exchanging and collaborating with some of the most amazing entrepreneurs I’ve come across (2 new deals were announced earlier this year and 2 more to come shortly) that we didn’t have much time to further build our network within the VC community!

So I’m taking a few minutes to inform you that the main VC & PE networking event in Canada is coming up May 27-29^th in Calgary. I’ve been either a member of the board of directors of the CVCA and/or on the Organization Committee for the last 6 years. And I cannot express how much energy and commitment the CVCA get’s from its members. And that, says allot about our VC&PE community strengths up here in Canada. The “hot off the press” CVCA Annual Conference agenda can be found below. With everything that is going on, you can’t afford to miss out on this pure networking delight. Check out the agenda, register and bring some energy!

More details visit www.cvca.ca

See you there!

Chris

AGENDA

The conference will kick off with a welcome cocktail event on the Wednesday evening and include a Gala dinner on the Thursday featuring the CVCA’s “Entrepreneur of the Year” Award presentation followed by our popular scotch-tasting networking event. We will also offer attendees an optional golf day on Wednesday at one of Alberta's premiere courses: The Links of GlenEagles in Cochrane. We have a Cyber Cafe throughout the conference sponsored by Enterprise Saskatchewan to further enhance networking opportunities.

Wednesday May 27, 2009

6:00 am – 2:00 pm	Golf Day - The Links of Glen Eagles, Cochrane, Alberta Bus Transfer to and from the Hyatt Regency, departs for the course at 6:00 am with estimated travel time 45 minutes to 1 hour. Tee-off at 7:45 am. Estimated return time to hotel is 2:00 pm.

3:00 – 7:00 pm	Conference Registration

5:00 – 7:00 pm	Welcome Cocktail Reception Sponsored by Coller Capital Ltd.

Thursday May 28, 2009 7:00 am	Breakfast Buffet Sponsored by Avrio Ventures Management

8:00 am	Welcoming Remarks

8:10 am	Session 1 – The Outlook for the Industry: Facing Head Winds The panelists will present the most recent data on the venture capital and private equity industry: performance, fund raising, and investment. They will touch upon structural and cyclical issues which are presently affecting the industry in Canada and globally and point to responses presently in the making to face our difficult times, but also benefit from the opportunities they present. Moderator: Dale Botting, CEO, Enterprise Saskatchewan Panelists: Gilles Duruflé, Independent Consultant Sacha Ghai, Partner, McKinsey & Company

9:10 am	Session 2 – Asset Allocation – Role of Private Markets Debate The current volatility across all investment classes has created unique challenges for pension funds around the globe and current asset allocation theories are being put to the test. The objective of this session will be to discuss the role of Private Markets in the overall investment portfolio of leading pension funds in Canada and the US . The session is also intended to address questions such as “Does the traditional asset allocation model work or a more opportunity based approach is needed”? Moderator: Stephen Hurwitz, Partner , Choate Hall & Stewart LLP Panelists: Leo de Bever, Chief Executive Officer, Alberta Investment Management Corp. Michael Norbrega, President and CEO, OMERS Clinton P. Harris, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Grove Street Advisors LLC

10:10 am	Session 3 – Giving Back – Canary Foundation A 25-year veteran of the technology industry – Don Listwin was CEO of Sana Security, Openwave and had been the #2 executive at Cisco Systems. In 2004 Listwin walked away from his high profile technology career and launched Canary Foundation in order to dramatically accelerate early cancer detection research activities. http://www.canaryfoundation.org Don Listwin, Founder & Chairman, Canary Foundation

10:40 am	Coffee / Networking Break

11:00 am	Session 4 – State of the Union – what the future holds for PE from a global perspective Given the phenomenal growth in PE in the last decade, have we reached the end of the road for PE investing or will the PE asset class withstand the current storm and come out of it even stronger? Hear three of the most influential and well respected PE fund managers address the role of their firm in relation to the current global financial situation and what the future holds for the PE market in general. Moderated by one of Canada 's most respected PE investors, Mark Wiseman Head of Private Equity at CPP, this panel brings together a world class perspective with unique Canadian ties. Moderator: Mark Wiseman, Senior Vice President, Private Investments, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board Panelists: Michael Phillips, CEO Germany, Apax Partners Beteiligungsberatung GmbH Seth M. Mersky, Managing Director, ONEX Corporation Anthony J. (Tony), Dinovi, Co-President, Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P.
noon	Keynote Speaker
12:30	Lunch Sponsored by Deloitte

2:00 pm	Concurrent Session 5A – VC – A Global Perspective Venture capital firms are facing unique challenges as they confront the global economic downturn. While leading global VC firms such as Accel and NEA have managed to raise billions of dollars of fresh capital over the past 6 months, the fundraising environment for many VC firms and their portfolio companies is challenging. A panel of global VC players discusses what the economic downturn means for venture capital investing, how they are adapting, where they see opportunities, and why VC firms that invest across geographies have a competitive advantage. Could 2009 be an exceptional vintage year for venture? Moderator: Robert Antoniades, Managing Director, RBC Venture Partners Panelists: Yoram Oron, Founder and Managing Partner, Vertex Venture Capital Chua Kee Lock, President & CEO of VVH Bill Bryant, Venture Partner, Draper Fisher Jurvetson Jennifer Brooy , Vice President and Head of Equity, Export Development Corporation

2:00 pm	Concurrent Session 5B – PE – Current update on Debt Markets. Come hear from the leading financial institutions that actively provide senior and junior debt to the Private Equity community in support of new acquisitions and portfolio company re-financings. Very timely market cases will be discussed to flush out current pricing, leverage, terms and conditions available in today's highly volatile business environment. Moderator: Michael Badham, Partner, Financial Advisory Corporate Finance, Deloitte & Touche LLP Panelists: Bill Addington, Executive Vice President. Canadian Western Bank Blair Cowan, Team Leader, Leveraged Finance, CIBC Commercial Banking Richard Kinlough, Managing Director and Group Head, CIT Corporate Finance , Canada Dan Howat, Senior Vice President, JPMorganChase Vipon Ghai, Managing Director, Private Equity & Mezzanine, Manulife Financial Glen Gibson, Head of Credit Origination Investment Banking, TD Securities

3:15 pm	Coffee / Networking Break

3:45 pm	Concurrent Session 6A - VC Fund raising environment – the future that lies ahead 2009 and 2010 is expected to be the most significant fundraising period for Canadian VCs in the last decade as a number of funds have announced their intention to raise their next fund in this period. How do LPs see the environment and are their objectives aligned with the GPs looking to raise their next fund? In this session, the panelists will outline the opportunities and challenges they are currently facing in the current fundraising environment. Moderator: Daniel Dupont, Partner, Coller Capital Ltd. Panelists: Ian Carew, Vice President, TD Capital Private Equity Investors Jacques Bernier, Senior Vice President - TI, Telecom and Ind. Innovations, Fonds de solidarité (FTQ) Pat DiPietro, Managing General Partner, VenGrowth Private Equity Partners Inc. Beniot Hogue, Managing Partner, Propulsion Ventures Inc. Stephen Hnatiuk, General Partner, Yaletown Venture Partners

3:45 pm	Session 6B PE – Current State of the Canadian M&A Market – Where Will Private Equity Play the Largest Role in 2009? With the current economic crisis eliminating financing options, reducing public valuations to levels not seen for years and eroding business confidence Canadian M&A activity has slowed dramatically. Please join our panel of seasoned dealmakers as we explore the role of private equity in 2009 in relation to the M&A markets. Where will the best opportunities lie for private equity funds? Will privatizations present opportunities for funds and how will these deals get financed? What outlook should private equity funds expect in terms of exits, both in the public markets and privately? Moderator :W. Ian Palm, Partner, McCarthy Tétrault LLP Panelists: Andrew Federer, Managing Director and Head of Canadian Financial Sponsor Coverage, RBC Capital Markets John Sherrington, Vice Chairman, Global Head - Private Equity Coverage, Scotia Capital Inc. Tony Ianni, President, Ernst & Young Orenda Corporate Finance Inc. Trevor Gough, Managing Director & Head of Investment Banking, CIBC Mid-Market Investment Banking Dirk Leasure, Managing Director, BMO Capital Markets

6:30 pm	Gala Cocktail Reception Sponsored by HKMB HUB International and Chubb Insurance

7:30 pm	Gala Dinner Sponsored by RBC Royal Bank of Canada CVCA's ‘Entrepreneur of the Year Award' presentation

9:30 pm	Scotch-Tasting Sponsored by Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP

Posted via email from Chris's posterous

We just completed an investment in a new portfolio company - Tynt - the creators of the Tynt Tracer!

2009-03-02T09:36:00.000-08:00

Novia Capital recent VC investment in Calgary based social network monetizing company - Tynt http://www.tynt.com

This is our first investment in Western Canada. Tynt develops leading edge hosted solutions for online publishers, social networks and online communities. Their value is their capability to help generate revenue and increase user engagement. Tynt has developed really cool technology put together an amazing management team to deliver. Derek Ball, Dayton Foster and Allan MacKenzie are the founders of the Company.

The ideas is great and the technology is solid, the management team on the other hand, is just amazing:

Derek Ball – CEO – has been a leader in the emerging technology industry for over a decade and a half. Prior to Tynt, Derek was CEO of Sonic Mobility Inc. which built software for mobile handheld devices and was acquired by Avocent Corp (NASDAQ: AVCT) in 2004. In between Sonic Mobility and Tynt, Derek served as Entrepreneur In Residence for Calgary Technologies Inc. coaching dozens of early stage tech ventures. Derek has extensive experience in early stage ventures having raised millions of dollars in capital for his own start-ups and working with strategic partners such as Microsoft, RIM, HP, Lockheed Martin and the US military. Derek has also published over a dozen books in emerging technology and has been a noted speaker worldwide for over many years.

Dayton Foster – COO – Dayton has over a decade of experience growing start-up technology ventures. At Tynt, Dayton is responsible for guiding product development. Prior to Tynt, Dayton was Vice President of Research & Development for Sonic Mobility Inc. which built software for mobile handheld devices and was acquired by Avocent Corp (NASDAQ: AVCT) in 2004. In between Sonic Mobility and Tynt, Dayton served as Director of Mobile Technologies for Avocent Corp. Dayton has also co-authored 3 books in emerging technology for McGraw-Hill and is asked to speak to technology startup companies on topics as diverse as pricing theory, channel development and software development process.

Allan Mackenzie – Executive Chairman - Allan has an exceptional investment and operational track record within the high technology and other industries. Allan is a high profile investor in the Calgary community having led or participated in the financing of several successful start-ups (Exits include Teamplate, Sonic Mobility, WestJet Airlines, Quack.com, SideStep) Along with this, Allan has also had the personal experience in building a rapid growth technology company. Allan was the CFO at Quack.com which was sold to AOL for $200 million one year after it was incorporated. Allan is presently a partner in Calgary based Octane Venture Partners.

I’ve attached a copy of the full press release below for those interested.

Chris...

Tynt Multimedia Closes $5 Million Series A Investment

- Tynt enters beta with key partners -

Calgary, Canada, March 2, 2009 - iNovia Capital, a manager of seed and early stage venture capital funds, today announced its investment in Calgary-based Tynt Multimedia to complete the closing of a $5 Million financing round that included existing angel investors and the Alberta Value Added Corporation (AVAC Ltd.).

Tynt addresses the biggest challenge online publishers and site operators face today in achieving revenue goals; understanding, evidencing and driving user engagement. Tynt’s Tracer service can monitor and track when users copy content from a web site and further attach attribution to the copied copyrighted content. This provides actionable indication of the content most valued by users, drives additional traffic back to customer sites and enhances search engine optimization strategies. Tynt’s annotation tools further increase user engagement by enabling in-context discussion on customer sites.

“Having iNovia as a capital partner is a key strategic development for us”, said Derek Ball, CEO of Tynt, “In this challenging market online content publishers must find ways to benefit when their content is spread across the Internet by their readers. Our self-service enrolment allows publishers and bloggers to start gaining insight into audience behaviour in minutes.”

“Derek has assembled a world class team and they are laser focused on a huge, unaddressed problem with unique and patent pending intellectual property” said Shawn Abbott, Partner with iNovia Capital. “Tynt fits our digital media strategy and also has a high degree of synergy with our existing portfolio.”

“We are thrilled that iNovia has joined AVAC in supporting Tynt,” said Ross Bricker, CEO of AVAC Ltd. “One of the markers of success for companies within AVAC’s portfolio is the securing of subsequent investment from firms like iNovia. We saw Tynt’s potential to be a disruptive force in the global social networking marketplace and we are delighted by the company’s progress to date.”

About Tynt

Tynt develops leading edge hosted solutions for online publishers, social networks and online communities to increase user engagement and maximize revenue. Tynt was founded in 2007 by serial entrepreneurs Derek Ball, Dayton Foster and Allan MacKenzie in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. For more information, visit www.tynt.com

About iNovia Capital

iNovia Capital manages seed and early stage venture capital funds, with a focus on helping entrepreneurs and innovators build successful companies in the sectors of information technology, life sciences and cleantech. iNovia Capital's value-added approach to early stage investing provides portfolio companies with capital, unique access to intellectual property from its extensive network of industry partners and academic partner institutions, advisors and sector-specific co-investors. For more information, visit www.inoviacapital.com

About AVAC Ltd.

-30-

Warren Buffett is back on the hunt!

2009-02-28T15:20:00.001-08:00

Download now or preview on posterous

2008ltr.pdf (125 KB)

Here is an interesting Warren Buffett statement in his annual letter to shareholders: "The opportunities make me feel like a mosquito in a nudist camp".

So where does that leave everybody else?

Is it time to start making moves?

When you look outside... What do you see?... What do you feel?

I feel the wind will be turning around this year, if you aren’t ready, you might miss the next wave.

Plan for tomorrow but prepare for today.

Posted via email from Chris's posterous

I'm looking for a Canadian Web Design Solution Company. Design, Hosting, Tools - to be a partner

2009-02-25T05:59:00.001-08:00

All – Request for recommendations

I’m currently helping out an important industry association with 1,600 members, redefine their online presence and communications tools (web site, newsletter, RSS feed, blog, community section)...

In this context, we are looking for a sharp, yet low cost, web design solution company, that offers design, hosting and tools to let the company further add or change content. Ideally, this Company would need to be Canadian and willing to be more of a partner (we aren’t looking for a standard client-service provider relationship) and interested in receiving major visibility in return of services, and being promoted to a captive and active set of members.

Additionally, as a venture capital fund manager, I would be please to introduce the chosen Web Design Solution Company to our portfolio companies!

Many business opportunities will be generated through this relationship. If you do know of such a firm please have them contact me at inoviacapital2009@gmail.com

Best regards,

Chris Arsenault

iNovia Capital Inc.

Posted via email from Chris's posterous

My buddy Austin Hill pitched Akoha - pay it forward - at TED - cool background pic

2009-02-24T15:03:00.001-08:00

Akoha on stage at TED2009

Austin is one of the few truly amazing people I’m proud to be associated with (he also happens to be an investor and a Venture Partner here at iNovia Capital). If he has something in mind, he doesn’t stop until he gets it done. A presentation at the highly praised TED annual event was one of them

Good job Austin!

Posted via email from Chris's posterous

movers & shakers: Collective Media & Eyewonder partner for in-stream ad formats http://tinyurl.com/c2cskz

2009-02-24T06:04:00.001-08:00

Disclosure: Collective is one of iNovia Capital’s portfolio Companies. They have developed a unique advertisement tracking and management technology platform.

More on their recent partnership: Collective Media & Eyewonder partner for in-stream ad formats http://tinyurl.com/c2cskz

Posted via email from Chris's posterous

New Mobile App for home seekers

2009-02-23T05:48:00.000-08:00

Sneak Peak: Airborne new app - Homes on Mobile Phones application http://tinyurl.com/bqao6v Pretty Cool!

Marc Andreessen Q&A w/Charlie Rose.

2009-02-22T18:14:00.001-08:00

I like Marc. I wonder if Marc remembers me? His look changed, not his opinions http://tinyurl.com/bw23jp

Posted via email from Chris's posterous

Yes! VC's can still have fun in this market...

2009-02-22T08:04:00.001-08:00

Part of the iNovia team enjoying a break on the slops... Yes! VC's can still have fun in this market...

Posted via email from Chris's posterous

Now on blogger

2009-02-22T06:57:00.000-08:00

It's a start... let's see where it brings us