Georgian Partners, a Toronto-based seed stage venture capital fund has completed the first close of its second fund. It came with a little help from the government’s newest innovation kickstarter project, the Northleaf Venture Catalyst Fund.
Georgian Partners invests in expansion stage enterprise software, Internet and information companies, and the first close of Georgian Partners Growth Fund II comes in at $100 million. BMO Financial Group, Kensington Capital Partners, Fondaction and a large strategic software investor also took part in the close.
“We are very pleased to have reached this first milestone for Fund II.” said Justin LaFayette, a cofounder at Georgian Partners. “To have so many of our investors returning for Fund II is a great validation of our Applied Analytics thesis.”
The close is significant because it appears to mark the first time the new, publicly-funded fund-of-funds, Northleaf, is committing some of its (expected) $300 million in seed capital. On January 21 representatives from the governments of Canada and Ontario, Northleaf Capital Partners, Waterloo-based startup company OpenText, the Canadian Pension Plan Investment Board and several Canadian financial institutions, all announced the landmark Canadian venture capital commitment.
Now it looks like the brains at Northleaf have already started their work in assisting with Georgian Partner’s new fund.
Georgian Partners typically invest’s in expansion stage Enterprise Software, Internet and Information companies “that are exploiting Applied Analytics: the convergence of Cloud-based business solutions, Big Data, and broad Information Rights.” The group has already invested in Canadian companies like Shopify, TeamBuy.ca, Polar and ScribbleLive. It also invested in internationally-based 41st Parameter, the global leader in device recognition and intelligence. It was acquired in 2013 by Experian.
“We have a strong, long-standing relationship with the team at Georgian Partners and have witnessed first-hand their impressive track record of helping developing enterprise software companies grow to the next level,” said Ian Carew, Director of Northleaf Capital Partners. “Northleaf is excited to be leading the investment in Georgian Partners Growth Fund II.”
