First Published for Private Capital magazine 2013-05-20 Crowdfunding?will likely be one of the top trending search words on Google this year ? as well as within the Venture Capital Community. It?s somewhat easy to understand the buzz around crowdfunding when reading about crazy-successful campaigns such as the $10M raise by Canadian-founded Pebble ...

Private equity and venture capital can provide exactly what investors are looking for today: strong returns and companies that will take a leadership position in an increasingly competitive global economy. This is the opportunity to create new companies and transform existing ones. Active management by highly skilled private investors is the secret...

GrAsce à de forts engagements des secteurs public et privé envers les industries du capital privé et du capital de risque, Montréal est également en pleine redéfinition comme centre international de l’entrepreneuriat et des activités d’investissement. Le capital entrepreneurial canadien favorise un environnement fertile pour la création d’occasions...

Cette chimie est comme le facteur inconnu, x, que nous cherchons chez les entrepreneurs que nous appuyons, chez les coinvestisseurs avec lesquels nous collaborons ainsi que chez les partenaires de l’industrie auxquels nous nous fions. La chimie est ce qui fait qu’une relation fonctionne. J’ai déjà cru qu’il fallait surtout trouver la bonne occasion...

Voici ma courte réponse à NextMontréal qui m’a demandé mes prévisions pour Montréal en 2012. Je suis de l’avis que l’année 2012 sera de loin la meilleure pour Montréal. Plusieurs facteurs de succès clés seront mis en place pour contribuer au développement d’un écosystème pour les entreprises en démarrage plus solides, basés ici, dans la région de M...

Below is my short response to the nextMontreal request for ?2012 Predictions for Montreal?. I think 2012 is Montreal best year yet, because many key success factors will further be put in place to help build a stronger tech and startup ecosystem here. Montreal?s entrepreneurial DNA is spreading to more than just the few. And I expect to see an incr...

In the same vein as what we tell our companies, we don?t see this funding announcement as an affirmation of our past success, but rather an opportunity to prove what we are really capable of accomplishing. Like any growing company, we are improving over time. There are natural ?flywheel? effects in venture capital, which we are leveraging as our ne...

Dans le m?me esprit, nous disons ? nos entreprises que nous ne consid?rons pas cette annonce de financement comme une illustration de nos succ?s pass?s, mais plut?t comme une occasion de montrer ce que nous sommes capables de faire. ? l?instar de n?importe quelle entreprise en croissance, nous nous am?liorons avec le temps. Le capital de risque pr?...

Au Canada, une ?tape de financement moyenne en technologie est inf?rieure ? 4 millions de dollars. Par cons?quent, les trois entreprises mentionn?es ci-dessus ont en fait amass? autant d?argent que l?ensemble de 20 entreprises de d?marrage canadiennes dans le domaine de la technologie. ?videmment, je deviens nerveux quand je vois une entreprise (av...

The last few weeks have certainly proven to be extremely promising for Canadian Tech Entrepreneurs. Almost $80M of equity financing has recently been secured from some of the top investors in the world to help build our next generation of massive tech companies. It?s even more exciting when you realize that these funds are going

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

This morning I was browsing nextMontreal news and reviewed the most recent presentation from?Tara Hunt:??So you want to do a startup, eh?? And for those who don't know Tara, well she is pretty outspoken, and she often says out loud what other say tend to only share behind closed doors. I admire that, right or

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 tha...

Canadian investors push for a Startup Visa to compete with aggressive new policies in other parts of the world Curated content:?First written for the Summer 2011 edition of the?Private Capital Prive?Magazine No entrepreneur wants to start a business if he runs the risk of being expelled from thevery country in which it has been launched.

An entrepreneur is a person that is driven toward success. Keep ahead of the startup game with these important tips. Curated content:?Canada Business Review on May 9, 2011??and the?Toronto Star – Media Planet Magazine Insert – New and Modern Business, May 2011 Entrepreneurship is first and foremost a ?state of mind?. It is less of

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 industr...

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...

Originally posted February 16th 2011 for MRI blog When I first heard of the MaRS Discovery District initiative to put together a delegation of Ontario digital media companies with the objective of storming down to New York to connect with the Madison Avenue influencers, I was somewhat sceptical of the true impact it could have:

First posted on the CVCA vcrants.com blog on February 21, 2011 I had the pleasure of meeting Miriam Varadi, author of Merchants of Enterprise, in 2008 and had the pleasure of participating in her research on the Canadian Private Equity landscape. Since then, the book ?has been doing extremely well, and continues to be the

?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...

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

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

This post was?originally?written for the??Private Capital Priv?? 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 ?...

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...

By Chris Arsenault, iNovia Capital Posted on October 28th 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

Cross border deals by C100ers already account for over $40M in funding: 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. Also worth noting, Toronto based Bumptop acquisition by Google was also co-funded by two C100ers.

Keynote by Charles Sirois, an entrepreneur, angel, venture capitalist and chair of CIBC and panelists Chris Arsenault of iNovia Capital and

We?ve been planning to re-launch our web site (www.inoviacapital.com) over the coming few months. As a firm, we really believed that it was time to finally upgrade our Web 1.0 online presence to a more interactive environment for our partners, collaborators and entrepreneurs alike. But, we?ve been a little busy lately and just weren?t ready...

Oggifinogi, the leading provider of advanced rich media solutions, today announced that it has closed a Series A funding round of $2 million. The round was lead by Greycroft Partners, with participation from iNovia Capital, Contour Venture Partners, and several prominent individual investors. The company will use the funds to grow its national fo...

Well, it happens! Sometimes, even in today's "always-on" hyper-connected world, web hosting companies can fail to deliver (of course for all the right reasons!!) and your web site goes down. And that is what just happened to our corporate web site. It went down. But our web presence is omnipresent and there is always a

StatusNet Inc., the company behind the open source microblogging server, StatusNet? has taken on additional investment led by New York-based FirstMark Capital joined by BOLDstart Ventures, iNovia Capital and Montreal Start Up. The round brings StatusNet's total investment to date to $2.3 million. Founder of open source ad platform, OpenX, angel in...

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,

?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

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, h...

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 (ventu...

The Caisse de d?p?t et placement du Qu?bec and the Fonds de solidarit? each contributed $250 million and Investissement Qu?bec 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...

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 roads of yet another evolution!

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 rec...

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...

?tude sur la contribution du capital de risque ? l??conomie canadienne commandit?e par l?ACCR et la BDC.

I feel confident that the recent Quebec initiatives (link to budget) will ignite a flurry of positive impacts that will solidify Quebec?s entrepreneurship foundation, and that we will see numerous successful companies be launched, existing companies be financed which otherwise would not exist or would not be able to further their development becaus...

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