Information Venture Partners Reaches $96M with Fund II

Canada’s first FinTech focused venture capital fund, investing in North American companies with global ambitions

TORONTO – September 9, 2016 – Information Venture Partners, an early stage venture firm that invests in FinTech and enterprise software companies, announced today that it has completed a subsequent close for its second investment fund. Information Venture Partners Fund II, at $96 million, validates the growing appetite for early stage investment opportunities in North American financial technology and enterprise software.

Subsequent to the initial close announced earlier this year, additional institutional and strategic investors have committed to Fund II including BDC Capital (BDC), Export Development Bank of Canada (EDC), RBC and Power Financial Corporation.

“We are excited to announce the latest close of our second fund at $96 million and are proud to be supported by an important group of Limited Partners,” said Robert Antoniades, Information Venture Partners’ Co-Founder and General Partner. “There are emerging opportunities across many categories within financial technology and enterprise software and we are uniquely positioned to invest and partner with early stage companies looking to solve substantial business problems.”

“Information Venture Partners is bringing financing to an underserved segment in Canada: scaling B2B and FinTech companies,” says Dominique Bélanger, Managing Director of Fund Investments at BDC Capital. “We’ve been particularly impressed by the team’s track record in VC, its deep understanding of the banking sector and its command of investment best practices. Information Venture Partners has what it takes to help early-stage Canadian B2B and FinTech companies grow.”

Led by Co-Founders and General Partners, Robert Antoniades and David Unsworth, the Information Venture Partners team brings nearly 35 years of combined venture investing experience and domain expertise in FinTech and enterprise software, having previously led RBC Venture Partners, the in-house fund of RBC, Canada’s largest bank.

“Many of the world’s most exciting financial innovations are currently being developed by Canadian start-ups,” said Gabriel Woo, Vice President, Innovation, RBC. “Robert and David have proven experience in spotting and advancing these businesses. We are pleased to continue our relationship with them; partnering with FinTech focused venture fund managers is an important part of our strategy to help access and shape the technologies that will define the future of financial services.”

Global FinTech investment dollars have increased by 57 per cent between 2014 and 2015. In that same period, global FinTech investments have increased by 25 per cent. Venture capital continues to play a huge part in global FinTech growth. VC-backed companies made up 72 per cent of overall FinTech investment dollars last year.

With Toronto as our home, the city hosts two of the world’s largest life insurers, three of the world’s top 25 banks, three top global pension funds, nine of Canada’s top 10 mutual fund companies and the third largest equity exchange in North America. With more than $200M of assets under management across Fund I and II, Information Venture Partners is extremely well positioned as Canada’s first FinTech focused venture capital fund, investing in North American companies with global ambitions.

“Helping young companies with ambitions on growing internationally is a focus of EDC’s investment thesis,” said Paul Day, VP EDC Investments.‎ “With the team’s longstanding experience in venture capital, Information Venture Partners has developed a strong reputation of rapidly scaling the growth of early stage FinTech and enterprise software companies in Canada. We look forward to leveraging our strong international network and developing new growth opportunities with their portfolio companies.”

To capitalize on the attractive investment opportunities to date, the firm has made three investments from Fund II, including:

• eSentire: an innovative managed security monitoring service for mid-sized enterprises, including the world’s most prominent hedge funds and asset management firms, protecting high-risk assets from the complex threats that technology alone can miss;
• PostBeyond: an employee advocacy platform that empowers employees to share approved company content across social media in an efficient, consistent and measurable way; and,
• Q4: A SaaS platform that provides advanced communication and intelligence solutions to investor relations officers, the C-suite of public companies and institutional investors

The investment team has also expanded recently with the addition of Alex Tong as an Associate. Alex has prior experience in investment banking at BMO Capital Markets in the Mergers & Acquisitions and Financial Institutions groups, leveraged finance with CIBC and most recently in corporate development with Hootsuite.

If you would like to learn more about Information Venture Partners, please visit us on the web at www.informationvp.com or follow us on twitter @informationvp

About Information Venture Partners:

Information Venture Partners (IVP) is a Toronto-based venture capital group investing out of its $96 million second fund. IVP is focused on fast-growing enterprise FinTech and enterprise software companies based in North America. As a Series A investor, IVP looks for rapidly growing companies with differentiated technology solutions addressing significant market opportunities. Portfolio companies include Adaptive Insights, Verafin, Igloo Software, eSentire, PostBeyond and Q4.