Toronto-based GreenSky Ventures has closed its sixth fund after raising $23.5 million CAD to invest in early-stage Canadian business-to-business (B2B) deep tech and enterprise software startups.
This comes in closer to the upper end of GreenSky’s initial $20-million to $25-million target for the fund, despite continually tough venture capital (VC) fundraising market conditions. This final close makes Fund VI the VC firm’s largest to date, topping its $21-million fifth fund.
GreenSky secured this amount from more than 100 limited partners (LPs), including a mix of undisclosed high-net-worth individuals, family offices, and wealth management firms. Returning GreenSky LPs provided over half of the total dollars committed to Fund VI. Keeping with prior funds, the Greensky team and their families were collectively the largest investor in the fund.
“I can be a good resource for our portfolio companies.”
The firm hit its mark thanks in part to first-time LP, the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation (NBIF), and Jeff Brunet, who joined GreenSky as a managing partner in December following its $15-million first close of Fund VI.
Brunet is a five-time founder and long-time angel who has sold multiple tech companies, including Clickfree, Mobile Diagnostix, and Wysdom, made early investments in acquired businesses like Locationary (bought by Apple), PushLife (bought by Google), and SurfEasy (bought by Opera Software), and holds about 30 patents across artificial intelligence (AI), wireless tech, and consumer electronics.
In an exclusive interview with BetaKit, Brunet said he hopes to leverage some of that expertise to help GreenSky-backed startups navigate both “the good and bad times.”
“The bulk of the value I bring is I’ve just been there so many times, and done it so many times, that I can be a good resource for our portfolio companies,” Brunet said.
RELATED: Market recovery Canadian VCs expected still on the horizon, experts say at Startupfest
This was also what drew GreenSky to Brunet. GreenSky founder and managing partner Mike List described Brunet as “a Canadian unicorn,” citing his “deep background” in AI and previous exits as some of the factors that led the firm to bring him aboard.
“It would be difficult to find someone with a more exceptional blend of operating experience, technical expertise in the commercialization and use of [AI] and who had successfully built and sold multiple Canadian technology businesses,” List told BetaKit. “Jeff’s addition to the GreenSky team not only provides our portfolio companies with an invaluable resource as they scale towards an ultimate exit, but rounds out a deeply experienced GreenSky team.”
Brunet first met GreenSky through the firm’s investment in Toronto business internet access software startup Ethica Channel Enablement—Brunet had already independently invested in Ethica, and chairs the company’s board. He said he was particularly impressed by the strength of GreenSky’s team and due diligence process. Brunet became an LP in Fund VI before becoming managing partner late last year.
Brunet rounds out the GreenSky leadership team’s expertise, joining List, who brings experience as a merger and acquisitions lawyer, and fellow managing partner Marian Hoffmann, who has a background in capital markets. This trio is supported by partners Greg Stewart and Neil Peet, chief technologist Valdis Martinsons, principal Moien Giashi, senior associate Justin Dunnion, and investor relations manager Victoria McCowan.
GreenSky was founded in 2010 by List as a company that primarily invested its own capital and money drawn from its immediate network, and took equity from businesses in exchange for advisory services, including help fundraising. In 2015, GreenSky transitioned away from this advisory model with the launch of its first fund. Since then, GreenSky has focused on backing early-stage Canadian tech startups, raising smaller VC funds from LPs more often (typically once every two years) than many of its peers.
Including its sixth fund, GreenSky has now raised a total of approximately $78.5 million to date and built a portfolio of 32 Canadian tech startups, including Captain AI, Direct-C, Funnelytics, Mesosil, Micharity, Mission Control, PhenoTips, ProNavigator, Pulse Industrial, Symboticware, and WiseDocs, and exited Akira Health, Cyclica, Mirexus Biotechnologies, Ontopical, and Rank Software.
RELATED: GreenSky’s $15-million first close of Fund VI puts VC firm in rare company
As BetaKit previously reported, Fund VI puts GreenSky in some rare company. RBCx research from 2024 found only one percent of Canadian VC firms have graduated to a sixth fund over the past decade. Speaking with BetaKit last year, Hoffmann—who joined in 2023—attributed this to GreenSky’s consistent strategy, team continuity, and performance.
GreenSky held its final close of Fund VI in June, six months later than initially planned, which Brunet attributed in part to tariff- and trade-war-related uncertainty and the increased scrutiny from potential LPs resulting from it.
Fund VI looks a lot like GreenSky’s prior funds, with a focus on companies at the seed and Series A stages, typically making lead investments of between $1 million and $2 million. It focuses on deep tech, backing intellectual property-rich, technically complex, and science-based ventures.
Fund VI gives GreenSky “the optionality of going out and maybe going a bit deeper on the institutional side on Fund VII,” Brunet said.
GreenSky has already invested in six of a planned 12 to 15 startups (up slightly from the eight to 12-company portfolio it initially targeted) through Fund VI, including Sherbrooke, Que. water quality monitoring tech company BioAlert Solutions, Toronto-based energy management software developer Edgecom Energy, Montréal video content analysis platform Rivr, and Toronto-based construction-focused IoT and data analytics firm Brickeye.
With NBIF’s involvement, Brunet said the firm plans to explore more potential deals in Atlantic Canada, noting the two organizations are already looking at co-investment opportunities.
NBIF marks GreenSky “dipping our toes into the institutional capital side” and expanding a bit beyond the core group of LPs who have served the firm well to date, Brunet said.
“That at least lays the framework [and] gives us the optionality of going out and maybe going a bit deeper on the institutional side on Fund VII,” he said.
Feature image courtesy GreenSky Ventures.