Q-News
May 2010
Posted in Private Equity
There were 14 financings reported
in May with the total amount of capital raised by the 12 companies that
disclosed the details of their transactions being $84.7 million. That is a substantial improvement over the
six deals and $20.6 reported in May 2009, or the five deals and $52.5 million
reported this past April. Most of the
activity took place in Ontario and BC, with
five announcements from each province Alberta
and Quebec
following up with two transactions each.
Seven of the companies being financed are in the technology sector while
five cleantech companies and two life sciences startups accounted for the
remaining investments. There were only
two transactions in which US
investors participated; one of these was in the technology sector while the other
involved a water company. There were
four foreign companies that received capital from Canadian investors – all of
which are technology-focused.
Financings of Canadian
Companies
Vancouver’s based Delta Q Technologies, which provides
components for electric drive vehicles, secured $17 million in funding from Tandem Expansion Fund.
Growthworks, Walsingham
Fund, and the BDC made a $14.3 million follow-on investment
in Toronto’s Blueprint
Software Systems. Blueprint develops requirements-focused
lifecycle software for software programmers/developers.
Sidense, a fabless
semiconductor company based in Kanata, Ontario, raised $5 million in financing
from VentureLink
Funds of Canada, Trellis
Capital of Canada, Tech Capital
Partners, and Vertex
Venture Capital (Israel).
Toronto-based Syncapse reported receiving
a $3.3 million VC investment. The
company’ is best known for its SocialTALK product, a social media tool that helps
companies to aggregate and track interaction with online audiences.
BEST Funds
announced a follow-on second round investment of $3 million in XPI. XPI is the company behind DisclosureNet, an online tool aimed at
helping public companies with online disclosure.
Montreal’s Woozworld raised $3
million in its first round of financing from iNovia Capital, and ID Capital. The financing will allow the online virtual
world portal for tweens to be spun off as a standalone business, independent
from Tribal
Nova, the company that originally developed the platform.
Vivonet, a
Vancouver-based company that has developed a SaaS-based point-of-sale solution for
the restaurant industry, reported an $8.5 million investment by Maxam Opportunities Fund LP
which involved the issuance of new shares as well as existing shareholders
taking some money off the table.
Enerkem Technologies
raised $3.35 million in project funding from the Alberta
government to build a waste-to-biofuel plant in Edmonton.
The company will use a clean thermo-chemical technology platform to
convert waste into transportation fuels and chemicals. The funding earmarked for the plant comes
from Alberta’s
Biorefining Commercialization and Market Development Program. The company had already raised $53.8 million
in February of this year from Waste Management (NYSE: WM), Rho Ventures
(NY), Braemar Energy Ventures (NY), BDR
Capital and Cycle Capital.
GenoLogics Life Sciences Software,
Inc. raised $1 million of a planned $1.5 million venture capital round
from Yaletown
Venture Partners, GrowthWorks Capital, and OVP Venture
Partners.
Home energy management solutions
and demand response company Energate announced that it secured $7.2 million in
Series B financing from new and existing investors, including the Cycle Capital Fund I, L.P.,
and the Ontario Capital Growth Corporation's (OCGC)
Ontario Emerging Technology Fund (OETF). The company intends to use the
funds to solidify its position in the Demand Response and Smart Grid market, as
well as to scale operations.
GrowthWorks Capital provided seed
financing to newly-incorporated Valocor Therapeutics (Vancouver),
in order to finance its acquisition of a select number of therapeutic treatment
programs from QLT (NASDAQ: QLTI; TSX: QLT), a biotechnology company based in Vancouver
with a focus on treatment of dermatologic conditions.
Vancouver-based PAKIT, a cleantech company that
produces recyclable consumer product packaging using primarily renewable energy,
raised $5 million from Fairfax Financial
Holdings Limited (TSX: FFH / NYSE: FFH).
US and International Activity in Canada
Tudor Ventures (MA), JK&B
Capital (IL), Innovacom SA (CA), and Entrepia Ventures (CA) participated in a $14 million third
round financing for Vantrix, a Montreal-based company that
has developed a mobile video optimization and delivery platform. The Canadian firms involved in this round
were Summerhill Ventures and BDC
Ventures,
Enertech Capital (PA) was one of
the investors involved in a new financing announced by Calgary’s FilterBoxx Water and Environmental,
which provides water treatment systems to the oil and gas industry. The Canadian participants in the round were XPV Capital Corporation and Walsingham Fund.
Canadian Investments Abroad
Rho
Canada participated in a $5.2 million venture round by Enquisite,
a San Francisco-based search analytics firm. The other VC firms involved in
this round were Castile Ventures (MA), Formative
Ventures (CA), Retro Venture Partners (CA), and The Entrepreneurs
Fund III (CA).
BDC
Capital was the lone Canadian investor involved in a $23 million
financing announced by New-York based INVIDI Technologies Corporation, which
develops targeted advertising solutions for cable, satellite and IPTV operators.
The round was led by Google (CA), and included participation from GroupM
(UK), Motorola
Ventures (IL), Westbury
Equity Partners (NY), Menlo Ventures (CA), InterWest
(CA), and EnerTech (PA) as participants. The reason that the BDC is financing a US-based company is because INVIDI has an office in Edmonton,
Alberta.
Celtic
House Venture Partners led a $7.5 million Series B financing by Movidius
of Dublin, Ireland. The fabless semiconductor company’s
technology facilitates editing user-generated video on mobile phones.
MMV Financial provided an undisclosed
amount of venture debt financing to Washington-based UIEvolution, whose
software is used to integrate and deliver web applications to mobile phones and
other consumer electronics devices.
Fund News
Two Labour-Sponsored Venture Capital
Corporations (LSVCC), Golden
Opportunities Fund & SaskWorks
Venture Fund, announced that they raised a combined $63.5 million from Saskatchewan residents
who will receive a tax-credit for their investment. The funds both target small and medium
businesses in the province
of Saskatchewan.
The BlackBerry Partners Fund
announced the launch of a $100 million fund which will target companies in the
dynamic mobile space in China.
When it closes before the fall of this year, The BlackBerry Partners Fund
China will be a joint venture between the BlackBerry Partners Fund and China
Broadband Capital Partners.
Having attracted investors like Teralys
Capital, BC Renaissance Capital Fund,
BDC
Venture Capital, Nicola Wealth Management Ltd., as well as institutional and
individual investors, Vancouver-based Vanedge Capital
announced the closing of its first fund. With over $100 million in committed
capital, the fund will target early-stage digital media companies.
Canada’s Edgestone Venture Capital
Fund, a subsidiary of GMP
Capital Group (TSX: GMP), merged with Silicon
Valley based Bridgescale
Partners. As part of the
transaction, a new joint entity will be formed to manage Edgestone’s two
existing funds as well as Bridgscale’s new fund. Bridgescale has completed 25 IPOs and
40 M&A transactions to date.
IPOs
Montreal-based Amaya Gaming, which
develops automated/electronic gaming technology for casinos, filed for an IPO
on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The company plans to issue between 5 million and
7.5 million units at a price of US$0.95.
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