brad meikle

Canadian startup Influitive, a marketing software provider, has raised $30.5 million in venture capital funding as it looks to finance growth and expand into Europe and Asia, its top executive told Reuters. Mark Organ, founder and CEO of the Toronto-based Influitive, added that the company wants to be ready for a potential initial public offering by 2019.

Merchlar, a Canadian digital creative agency specializing in augmented reality, has secured funding from Speed of Trust Ventures, an angel and private equity investment firm based in Montréal. The value of the financing was not disclosed. Merchlar, which operates from its headquarters in Montréal, is focused on re-defining the user experience in all aspects of mobile and web development for businesses and individuals. Founded in 2010, the company said it has experienced rapid growth in the past year and is working with an increasingly wide range of industries and brands.

Toronto-based molecular diagnostics company Xagenic Inc has secured a total of $15 million in follow-on funding. Each of the Canadian and U.S. investors in Xagenic's Series B financing, which had a second close at $25.5 million in July 2014, participated in the latest round. They included: Domain Associates, CTI Life Sciences Fund, BDC Capital and the Ontario Capital Growth Corp. Xagenic President and CEO Timothy I. Still said the new capital injection will help "accelerate our development efforts in bringing our point-of-care diagnostic platform to market.” The company was founded in 2010.

Natural Systems Utilities, a U.S. water and energy infrastructure company, has raised follow-on funding. The undisclosed round was led by U.S. clean energy investor New Energy Capital Partners. It was joined by existing backers of Natural Systems Utilities, including Canadian firm XPV Capital Corp, which led the company's Series C financing in 2012. With headquarters in Hillsborough, New Jersey, Natural Systems Utilities provides high-value, low-impact water treatment, water re-use and organic waste-to-energy solutions for communities and businesses. Based in Toronto, XPV Capital invests in emerging water companies.

The 2015 IESE VC/PE Country Attractiveness Index has ranked Canada among the top countries in the world for venture capital and private equity. The index, created by the IESE's Center for International Finance and EMLYON Business School, analyzes countries according to such variables as most promising markets, strongest institutions, most entrepreneurial support, best protections and strongest corporate governance practices. Other countries ranked highly among the 120 countries in total include: the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore and Japan.

Influitive has secured $30.5 million in Series B financing. The round was led by Georgian Partners and was joined by new and existing investors, including Atlas Venture, BDC Capital, CommonAngels Ventures, Docomo Capital, First Round Capital, Hummer Winblad Venture Partners, Illuminate Ventures, OurCrowd, Relay Ventures and Resolute Ventures. As part of the deal, Georgian Partners' Simon Chong will join the company's board of directors. Based in Toronto, Influitive helps business-to-business companies identify, mobilize and recognize advocates to accelerate growth. It will use the latest funding to expand its technology platform and advance new product offerings.

Online emergency network ePACT Network Ltd has received close to $1 million in funding from the federal government's Western Innovation Initiative (WINN). WINN, which is administered by Western Economic Diversification Canada, provides repayable contributions to Western Canadian companies that are developing cutting-edge technologies and services. Founded in 2012, the Vancouver-based ePACT is backed by Canadian venture capital firms BDC Venture Capital and Yaletown Venture Partners as well as other investors.

RSVP Technologies Inc has secured a total of $2.85 million in funding. The deal included a $950,000 commitment from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), as well as a $1.9 million investment from the Golden Triangle Angel Network. Based in Waterloo, Ontario, RSVP is a developer of question answering software for speakers of Chinese and English. The funding's proceeds will help the company to further develop and customize its technology and advance marketing and distribution strategies that target the Chinese market.

Canadian boutique finance advisory firm GreenSky Capital has launched its previously announced early-stage venture capital fund, GreenSky Accelerator Fund I LP. The fund, which will leverage GreenSky's deal flow to make investments in Canadian technology startups, completed an initial close of $3.25 million. It is targeted to raise $4 million in total. It was also announced that the fund has entered into a term sheet for its first investment in Cyclica Inc, a data interaction platform that simulates the interaction of pharmaceuticals with the body’s proteins. The company, which is based in Toronto, secured financing from GreenSky President's Club in 2013.

In the coming weeks, the Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (CVCA) and Thomson Reuters will issue their reports on Canadian venture capital market activity in the second quarter of 2015. In the meantime, peHUB Canada has compiled a list of the likely top 10 (disclosed) financings completed between April and June.