For nearly a decade, Vena Solutions focused squarely on North America.
Founded in 2011 in Toronto, the company built software to help businesses plan, budget, and forecast, tools meant to replace bloated spreadsheets with something structured, cloud-based, and collaborative. By the end of the decade, its corporate performance management platform had become a fixture in North American finance departments.
“Ignoring it would frankly be leaving money on the table.”
Patrick Pichette, Inovia Capital
Then came a pull from across the Atlantic.
Resellers in Europe began asking for access. Prospective customers, including banks, consultancies, multi-market corporations, wanted demos. Hunter Madeley, Vena’s new CEO at the time, recognized a market opening already aligned with Vena’s strengths.
“Most companies based in Europe operate in a number of countries and markets within the region, and that makes for a more complex operating environment than comparable Canadian or US organizations primarily serving their own shared market,” Madeley said. “Our platform easily scales for planning in complex multi-market environments, so we saw Europe as a wonderful opportunity to grow.”
Across Canada’s tech sector, it’s no longer unusual for companies to prioritize Europe. With over 450 million consumers and $20 trillion in gross domestic product, Europe’s size and sophistication have long been attractive, but recent global tensions are now accelerating Canadian interest.
“Europe offers a massive, sophisticated market opportunity beyond North America for founders to pursue their global ambitions,” said Patrick Pichette, London, UK-based Partner at Inovia Capital, and the former Chief Financial Officer of Google. “Ignoring it would frankly be leaving money on the table.”
First moves matter
Vena’s move to Europe began in earnest in 2019 with the opening of its London office and the hiring of a regional sales leader. At the time, the platform was only available in English, making the United Kingdom and Ireland natural entry points. But from the outset, the company planned to expand into new languages and markets across the continent.
According to Madeley, market selection is highly contextual. There’s no universal starting point, he said. Instead, companies need to weigh where their product creates the most value, and make deliberate investment decisions based on that.
As an investor, Pichette sees early planning as critical. Inovia, which has been active in Europe for nearly a decade, focuses on giving portfolio companies the connections to navigate regulation, local norms, and commercial relationships. “We know everyone, and everyone knows us,” Pichette said.
That includes early coordination with banks, something Pichette sees as essential for managing tax, legal, and hiring frameworks. “Don’t try to DIY this,” he added.
He said banks like CIBC, through its Innovation Banking group, support cross-border expansion by helping startups set up multi-currency accounts, manage foreign exchange, and access international growth capital. CIBC also has offices in the UK, which positions it to be a strong support to companies expanding to Europe. Services like venture debt and export financing can also support hiring and scaling across European markets.
One continent, many markets
While Canada’s proximity to the US has historically made expansion south feel straightforward, Europe introduces a different set of dynamics. For Vena, the primary challenge was fragmentation.
“Having led expansion throughout Europe more than once, I know it’s easy to get really excited by the size of the aggregate market, but each market requires focus, and you can’t spread your organization too thinly,” Madeley said.
Pichette agreed. He noted that success demands deep localization, supported by boots on the ground.
“Success in Europe depends on adapting all aspects of the business operations on a market-by-market basis,” Pichette added. “If you have a restaurant solution, it needs to work in a UK pub, a French bistro, an Italian trattoria, a Spanish tapas bar, all with their own fiscalization.”
There are also cultural nuances to navigate. Madeley said companies need to align with local expectations, whether that’s around risk appetite, communication style, or purchasing processes. Sales approaches need to feel familiar to the buyer, Madeley added, or they’ll fail to gain traction.
“Even if you aren’t a local company, you need to be selling your solution the way organizations prefer to buy them, or you won’t even land on their shortlist,” Madeley said.
Shifting the default
Historically, Canadian tech companies have looked to the US to scale. But trade tensions with the US and broader political shifts have prompted founders and investors to reconsider that default. Calls to build a domestic ecosystem that is less reliant on American markets are growing louder.
Vena’s expansion was driven by demand long before the trade war began, but today, its European division is its fastest-growing business unit. The company, which reached centaur status last year by hitting $100 million USD in annual recurring revenue, is now planning to expand across the DACH region, which comprises Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, through a mix of internal hiring and external partnerships.
“Europe is a key component of our market diversification strategy and will be an important growth lever for us for years to come,” Madeley added.
Beyond market size, Pichette pointed to Europe’s artificial intelligence and FinTech ecosystems as major draws for Canadian startups. In nations like the UK, open banking frameworks have created fertile ground for startups and scaleups—frameworks introduced under the oversight of Canada’s prime minister during his time as Governor of the Bank of England.
Together, these factors have made Europe a compelling alternative to the US for Canadian tech founders with global ambitions.
“It’s a huge opportunity for the right team and the right product,” Pichette said.
PRESENTED BY
Whether you’re expanding internationally or scaling at home, CIBC Innovation Banking offers the financial tools and expertise to support your growth. Learn more.
Feature image courtesy Unsplash. Photo by Benjamin Davies.