Stéphane Drouin is stepping down as CEO of Anges Québec nearly a year after assuming leadership of the provincial angel investor network.
Board director and Anges Québec member Marc-Antoine Cantin is taking over as CEO on Monday, Aug. 3, Cantin told BetaKit in an interview, after a two-month transition period.
Drouin told BetaKit his departure was not planned and that he left the organization for personal reasons. “Nothing to do with the organization, which I really value,” he said. Drouin left on good terms with the board, Cantin confirmed, to pursue other opportunities.
Cantin said his priority lies in nurturing the angel network and providing members with tools to grow their angel investing expertise.
Drouin left provincial agency Investissement Québec in September 2024 to take over the CEO role from Geneviève Tanguay, who recently joined Montréal-based firm Panache Ventures as a partner.
Founded in 2007, Anges Québec consists of roughly 175 Québec-based angel investors, many of them former entrepreneurs. The non-profit organization is partnered with venture fund AQC Capital, which often invests alongside Anges Québec members.
The executive change comes on the heels of other staffing changes at Anges Québec. Directors Pedro Herrera and Geneviève Wiedmann-Harland announced they would be departing for investing roles at provincial agency Investissement Québec. Their replacements will round out Anges Québec’s operations team to eight people when they join at the end of this month, Cantin said.
Cantin is coming into the top job with a background in entrepreneurship, mergers and acquisitions, and business development, he said. After earning his chartered professional accountant certification in the late 1990s, he acquired and scaled the Québec-based fireplace manufacturing company Stove Builder International, where he is still a board member. Cantin has also invested in nearly 30 companies as an angel, including influencer platform Heylist and medtech company Puzzle Medical Devices, both of which are Montréal-based.
Cantin said his priority lies in nurturing the angel network and providing members with tools to grow their angel investing expertise, whether their experience lies in entrepreneurship, venture capital (VC), or governance. He plans to do this by running educational and networking events, as well as formalizing the resources Anges Québec provides into a streamlined curriculum.
“I’m thrilled to do these kinds of things,” Cantin said. “I’m not a guy who wants to sit behind a desk all day.”
The incoming CEO, who is moving from Québec City to Montréal for the role, also said he plans to run a “tight ship” at the non-profit, which relies on government subsidies and memberships to fund its operations.
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Part of Cantin’s vision includes expanding access to the VC asset class through vehicles such as the recently announced Elevia fund. Led by Herrera and Wiedmann-Harland, the co-investment fund allows Anges Québec members and external investors to invest in pre-seed and seed-stage Québec companies while leaving the due diligence to other angels. The fund, which will renew annually, is looking to raise up to $3 million from a maximum of 60 investors.
Cantin added that the Anges Québec members and external investors will act as limited partners in Elevia, with the Toronto-based private investment portal Equivesto playing the general partner role. Equivesto is only given the green light to invest in a company once a minimum of six Anges Québec members have invested a total minimum of $300,000, and provided an investment memo. Anges Québec itself will have an oversight and administrative role.
The incoming CEO said he thinks Elevia provides an opportunity to diversify investor portfolios amid an uncertain economic climate, which he said is making investors more risk-averse.
Québec has seen a dip in pre-seed and seed-stage investments this year that experts have called worrying, mirroring a national trend. Meanwhile, angel investing is on the rise nationally: a National Angel Capital Organization (NACO) report found that angel investment increased by 20 percent year-over-year to hit $137.3 million in 2024.
Anges Québec’s fiscal Q1 report, released in November 2024, noted that its team received 210 investment opportunities in the quarter, considered 11, and ultimately only participated in two. The report said investors hoped the early-stage market would rebound and noted they have increasingly sought opportunities to invest in non-Québec companies.
Cantin expressed optimism that the market would cycle out of this tough period. For Anges Québec members, he said, the smart play is to reduce the spread of investments across companies to secure strong positions early on.
“We still have a good flow of companies coming our way who need funding,” Cantin said. “Maybe you reduce the funnel a bit, you’re a bit more selective on opportunities, and you’re still able, with less capital, to have a good position.”
Feature image courtesy Anges Québec via LinkedIn.