brad meikle
Thoughtexchange has raised $7 million in follow-on financing, bringing its total funding to $12 million. Committing to the latest round were new investors, including Marin Investments and Kingswood Capital, as well as existing investors First Generation Capital and JNKS Investments. Based in Rossland, British Columbia, Thoughtexchange provides software and services to let customers lead group conversations with 5 to 50,000 people. It said it has tripled year-over-year sales since inception in 2009. Thoughtexchange has a post-investment valuation of over $50 million, the company said.
Québec City-based biotechnology startup Feldan has secured $1.723 million in a fourth round of financing. The round adds to the $1.2 million in funds raised in March 2015. Members of Anges Québec, the Anges Québec Capital Fund, and other angel investors committed to the latest round, which was led by Xavier Harland, president of Gestion GFX. Feldan, whose technology is focused on cell therapy and regenerative medicine, will use the investment's proceeds to finalize its preclinical development of two products, and move them into the first clinical trial phase within two years.
The GreenSky Accelerator Fund I LP, a venture capital fund formed earlier this year, has led a $790,000 financing of Pyrowave Inc. The other investors were members of GreenSky President’s Club. Pyrowave, which is based in Mississauga, Ontario, is the developer of a microwave recycling technology that can convert plastics into high value chemicals. The round's proceeds will be used to commercialize the technology in initial market segments. In March 2015, Pyrowave received funding from BDC Capital and Foresight Clean Technology Accelerator. The GreenSky Accelerator Fund is an affiliate of GreenSky Capital, a Canadian boutique finance advisory firm.
Payfirma, which raised $13 million in Series A funding in May, has been named "FinTech Company of the Year" at the Canadian FinTech Awards, part of the annual Digital Finance Conference in Toronto. The award recognizes a Canadian financial technology company that has shown "the most entrepreneurial success" in the past year. Vancouver-based Payfirma is a payments software provider. A recent Reuters report said the company is considering an initial public offering in 2016.
MaRS Discovery District has made new appointments to its board of directors. They include Michael Serbinis, the former head of Kobo Inc, and the founder and CEO of LEAGUE Inc, a digital health and wellness platform funded last November. The other appointees are: Annette Verschuren, Chair and CEO of NRStor Inc; Stefan Larson, an entrepreneur-in-residence at Versant Ventures and the founding CEO of Northern Biologics; and Martha Tory, a former partner at Ernst & Young LLP. Toronto-based MaRS is an innovation hub that supports startups in health, clean-tech and information technology sectors.
Flixel Photos Inc has secured $2.2 million in a seed-stage financing led by Extreme Venture Partners and Cranson Capital Securities. Several angel investors joined the round. Based in Toronto, Flixel has developed technology that allows users to easily produce cinemagraphs, or still photos that contain a repeated movement. It has an in-house production group that creates custom cinemagraph campaigns for partners like the Emmy Awards. Flixel said it plans to use the investment's proceeds to expand its suite of products and build on brand partnerships. The startup's other backers include the venture investment arm of U.S. fashion company The Tyra Banks Co Inc.
Investors on clean energy crowd-funding platform CoPower have provided a $1.15 million loan to fund community-level solar energy projects in Minnesota. The projects are being developed by two solar energy companies: OYA Solar of Windsor, Ontario and Novel Energy Solutions of St. Charles, Minnesota. Founded in 2013, CoPower has its headquarters in Montréal. It was recently named one of Canada's 10 “most game-changing” clean technology companies by CIX Cleantech.
Canadian specialty finance firm Wellington Financial has officially launched its fifth fund, Wellington Financial Fund V, with a hard-cap target of $300 million of re-circulating equity commitments. Fund V, which had its first close this week, is targeted to bring in 50 percent more than Fund IV, closed at $200 million in 2013. Toronto-based Wellington, which had its 15th anniversary in August, provides term, venture and amortizing loans to Canadian and U.S.-based companies, the bulk of which are in technology sectors. The firm also announced the hire of Ash Vaidya as a partner in its Silicon Valley office. Wellington President and CEO Mark McQueen was recently interviewed by PE Hub Canada.
Canadian clean energy products company Ballard Power Systems Inc (TSX: BLD) has closed its previously-announced acquisition of Protonex Technology Corp. The transaction had a total value of $30 million. Based in Southborough, Massachusetts, Protonex is a manufacturer of advanced power management products and portable fuel cell solutions. Founded in 2000, it was backed by a number of venture capital investors, including Commons Capital, Conduit Ventures, In-Q-Tel, Solstice Capital and Windsail Capital Group.
Eguana Technologies Inc (TSX-V: EGT), formerly known as Sustainable Energy Technologies Ltd, has completed a private placement offering that generated gross proceeds of about $3.5 million. About half of the offering was accounted for by senior management and Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures, a British venture capital firm and Eguana's largest shareholder. Headquartered in Calgary, Eguana designs and manufactures intelligent power electronics for distributed smart grid and micro-grid applications. It said the funding will help it to meet growing demand for the company's technology in the United States and Europe.