Montreal-based super angel fund BCF Ventures has announced that it has increased its potential fund size from $5 million to $12 million, and has invested in six companies.
BCF Ventures is a fund created by Montreal law firm BCF this year that earmarks $500,000 for 10 startups annually. The fund was initially capitalized with a $5 million investment over a ten-year period by the partners at BCF Business Law, the company said it’s added addition of family offices and accredited investors as LPs, meaning that the ever-green fund has reached $12 million in commitments.
“The enthusiasm and the need for funding at the pre-seed and seed stage are huge in the US/Canada, and BCF Ventures’ unique model has filled that gap, allowing us to quickly develop promising partnerships with major international co-investors,” said Sergio A. Escobar, the CEO and partner at BCF Ventures. “We are committed to helping our portfolio companies grow their corporate expansion and leverage the remarkable capabilities of Montreal as a global hub in artificial intelligence.”
As a core investment thesis, the fund believes in investing in cloud and SaaS companies leveraging AI, big data, analytics, and security. The six BCF Ventures portfolio companies—which raised rounds totalling $7.6 million—are:
- Alpin (Colorado, USA), which provides a SaaS data monitoring and management platform for cloud enterprise software applications in one dashboard. The deal was made in co‑investment with US-based venture funds like Next Frontier Capital (Montana) and Rocky Ventures (Colorado).
- BRIDGR (Montreal, CA), a data‑driven project management marketplace for manufacturing companies to find Industry Experts 4.0 (AI, Robotics, Industrial IoT, Smart Factories). The round closed alongside co‑investor Right Side Capital (San Francisco).
- CareTeam (Vancouver, CA), an AI‑enabled digital health platform allowing patient‑centered care collaboration for individuals suffering from chronic illnesses. Many venture funds such as Right Side Capital (San Francisco), Globalive Capital (Canada), Atrium Ventures (Canada) as well as renowned angel investors such as Barney Pell (associate founder of Singularity University and co‑founder of Moon Express) and Ajay Agarwal (founder of Creative Destruction Lab) helped close the round.
- FightCamp (Los Angeles, USA), an AI‑powered interactive at-home boxing subscription service that allows users to train at home. The round closed alongside co-investors such as Panache Ventures (Canada), Y Combinator (San Francisco) and StreetEdge Capital (San Francisco).
- FleetOps (Toronto, CA), an AI-enabled freight transportation and logistics marketplace that allows instant matching of trucks to shipments. The deal was made in co‑investment with Hike Ventures (Japan), Fenox VC (San Francisco) and Panache Ventures (Canada).
- Prospectify (Tempe, USA), a data-driven enterprise that provides a sales management platform for sales leaders worldwide and has clients including as Facebook, Informatica, HubSpot, and ScaleFactor. The round closed alongside many co‑investors such as Techstars Ventures (Colorado), Loup Ventures (New York) and Stout Street Capital (Denver).
“Our partnership with BCF Business Law firm gave us the expertise to develop a strong due diligence process through its certified scientific IP and patent experts,” said Escobar. “To obtain valuable intellectual property rights for our entrepreneurs and to protect their core proprietary technologies are key components to BCF Ventures’ distinctive approach. Ultimately, we want our founders to become world leaders.”