The Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA) recently announced the winners of its annual Deal of the Year, Private Capital Regional Impact, and Ted Anderson Community Leadership awards, during the Invest Canada ’19 conference in Vancouver.
The awards recognize the year’s achievements in deal-making, returns, and community service.
The CVCA Awards recognize the year’s achievements in deal-making, returns, and community service across the country. Each CVCA Award, with the exception of the Community Leadership Award, is evaluated on industry performance and impact over the year.
Life science VC firm TVM Capital Life Science won the Venture Capital Deal of the Year Award for its investment in AurKa Pharma. AurKa Pharma was established in 2016 to develop an oncology compound with the potential to treat certain types of solid tumours. The project has been fully funded by TVM Life Science Ventures VII since its launch. Pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly acquired AurKa Pharma in 2018, with TVM Capital receiving an internal rate of return of 348 percent and 9.3x multiple of invested capital. TVM Capital also recently participated in a $15 million CAD Series C with Montreal-based healthtech Emovi.
The Private Capital Regional Impact Awards recognize member firms that have made a meaningful impact on their community through job creation, growing skilled talent, and community engagement. The awards are given to investments relevant to two regions, Western Canada and Atlantic Canada.
The Private Capital Regional Impact winner for Western Canada was Montreal-based Novacap for its investment in Onstream Pipeline Inspection Services, founded in Calgary in 2005. Onstream uses advanced tech to provide pipeline inspection results to producers and pipeline operators. The CVCA said Onstream contributed to the prioritization of safety standards and has created 75 jobs in Western Canada. Novacap was acquired by BDC Capital and Vertu Capital in February.
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The New Brunswick Innovation Foundation (NBIF) won the Private Capital Regional Impact Award for Atlantic Canada in the venture capital category for its investment in Fredericton-based Envenio. Envenio, specializing in Computational Fluid Dynamics, has created 15 jobs since NBIF’s first investment and the CVCA said the company has been able to successfully attract capital into a non-traditional tech hub in Canada.
Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, an investor that manages several pension plans and insurance programs, won the Private Equity Deal of the Year Award for its investment in Camso. Camso serves the material handling, construction, agriculture and power-sport industries by manufacturing and distributing off-the-road tires, wheels, rubber tracks and track systems. In November, Caisse took an equity interest totalling $200 million in Plusgrade, a provider of revenue solutions to the global travel industry.
Finally, the Ted Anderson Community Award was given to Jeff Parr, vice chairman and managing director of Toronto-based PE firm Clairvest. Parr has worked with a number of charitable projects, including the Shaw Boxing Fundraising Committee, Education Trust Funds for the children of the fallen RCMP officers, and Parkinson’s research at the University of British Columbia.
Image courtesy Invest Canada ’19