During its Invest Canada 2018 conference, the CVCA announced the launch of CVCA Intelligence, its new investment data portal replacing its original InfoBase.
“By making it easier for our members to submit data, there’s less of a resistance to doing it.”
– Darrell Pinto, research director of the CVCA
The data portal is powered by Hockeystick, which announced its partnership with the CVCA back in September 2017 to rebuild the platform. Hockeystick as a company is working to building a transparent data hub tracking the Canadian startup ecosystem, having partnered with the Lazaridis Institute for the feat in April 2017 (Lazaridis Institute received $2.5 million from FedDev Ontario towards building it out). It released a database on over 7,000 companies in early May.
“Powering other databases, like the CVCA, is another step in Hockeystick becoming the new data standard in private markets,” said Raymond Luk, CEO of Hockeystick. “Our recently-signed contract with the Angel Capital Association is bringing this model to over 100,000 angel investments in the US. We’ll be announcing more international database partnership soon.”
For the CVCA, it means a less manual process to submit data, and a more intuitive interface for accessing data on investments, exits, and fundraising. The platform will also include benchmarks meant to improve returns for investors.
Because they’re joining the Hockeystick platform, it also means that CVCA members can join a wider network of startups and investors for data, rather than custom-building a solution that would require a paywall.
“The challenge really is with the asset class — and this is true whether it’s in Canada or the US or Australia with VC — it’s private, so no one is required to disclose data in their deal, which is problematic if you’re trying to aggregate what’s happening in a particular time,” said Darrell Pinto, research director at the CVCA, about the current climate of data sharing in the Canadian ecosystem.
“By making it easier for our members to submit data, there’s less of a resistance to doing it, so we’re hoping the greater transparency as a result of that is what the CVCA intelligence database will allow,” he said.
The organization is asking anyone with questions about the platform to get in touch with the CVCA directly.