Pablo Srugo

Sidewalk Labs (Part of Google), another showcase of Canadian politicians bending over for a big US corp, with ZERO tangible results 💩 Roxana and I attended a "private investor demo" session in 2019. A block of wood was passed among the audience, supposedly the NEXT BIG BREAKTHROUGH in urban development! Demo concluded, by observing a piece of wood! Building blocks of future skyscrapers! The promise? With this, Google will build a "Smart City" for us, the peasants of Toronto, in Queens Quay 🏖️🏢 Sidewalk Labs' website now points to a newer Google scam, it reads: "Build Sustainably with Google Earth"! Bait and switch, but let enough time pass so no one remembers 🤢 https://lnkd.in/gd3B-a6m Guess now the investors and Ontario Government | Gouvernement de l’Ontario have shit loads of these wooden blocks, ready to shove up somewhere, to find a use for! All because the name "Bloomberg" sounds authoritative enough to our ears? Surely that's capital well spent, instead of investing in local talent! 🤔 Will Canada's tech ecosystem ever crawl out of Silicon Valley's shadow, and stand on its own? ⌚👀⛔

46

2 Comments

What's happening in Canadian Fintech funding right now? Trolley, a Montreal based payment company focused on compliant business payouts raised $32m led by Wavecrest Growth Partners. runQL, a Waterloo based devops tool for data scientists to more easily query databases, raised $1.6m from Mistral, MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund, Inovia Capital, and Velocity Fund. Wealthsimple’s valuation is now higher than it was in 2021 according to Power Corporation of Canada, the Montreal based financial services investor that owns 55% of it. Power Corp valued Wealthsimple at $2.1b in 2021 then $1.1b in 2023 and now $2.2b. Klarna, a Swedish Buy Now Pay Later with operations in Canada is gearing up for an IPO. -- Want more? Subscribe to the Canadian Fintech Newsletter in the comments below 👇

95

4 Comments

As a founder, have you ever been curious about this whole angel investing thing? This week's findfunding.vc spotlight is on an investor who's an expert in it you simply have to know: Matt Wilson, MBA from Allied Venture Partners. He: 🇨🇦 Is Calgary based 😇 Manages one of Canada's largest angle investor syndicates (now at 1,800+ members!) 🏒 Worked as a professional ice hockey referee, which he says shares remarkable similarities with investing Amongst founders, Matt Wilson, is known for bringing empathy and perspective as a former founder himself. Aside from financial support, his goal is to be the 'right' investor - one that aligns with a founder's vision, shares his network, and provides strategic insights when asked. ✉️ Make sure to pitch him, invest, scout, advise and more at https://linktr.ee/alliedvc For more, check out our funder spotlight card below along with Allied Venture Partners' profile on findfunding.vc (link in comments).

24

6 Comments

Below is a good summary and context for the Q3 quarterly report released by the CVCA. On the surface, it seems like it was a good quarter for venture investment in Canadá. But a quick look under the surface paints a potentially very different picture: - the 130 deals closed in Q3 matches the lows during COVID in 2020 - the $2,651MM in deal value appears fairly robust other than the heady days of 2021. But it includes both the Clio deal of $1,240MM and the Cohere deal of $616MM leaving the remaining 128 deals totalling $795MM, matching the levels last seen during COVID in 2020 - the vast majority of the source of the capital invested in Q3 are from US or other foreign sources of capital - early stage investments continue their trend of performing poorly this year What does this all mean? Not really sure yet. It certainly was not a good quarter of activity but it’s too early to call this a trend. But is it a leading indicator that deal activity will continue to be constrained? Is there evidence of a lack of Canadian source capital required to invest in startups, and in particular, early stage opportunities. When the Federal government decided to increase capital gains taxes, many people in the innovation community sounded the alarm bells. The fear was that such an increase will further take the air out of the sails of funding startups in Canadá. While it is still too early to conclude the impact of such a move, it is clear the timing of this decision is very unfortunate because there is a clear trend that the activity in venture from Canadian sources of capital is slowing down materially.

52

7 Comments

If you're a Canadian entrepreneur, investor, or founder then this past week has made it painfully clear that when it comes to innovation and economic recovery the calvary won't be coming and is in fact running in the opposite direction. The federal government and associated regional innovation support agencies (ie Invest Ottawa) are failing to look at solutions aimed at effectively addressing an overall decrease in entrepreneurship and economic activity across the nation and it is now on us, as resilient Canadian entrepreneurs, to empower those who can bring the most value to the table if we are to strive for the quickest path forward towards economic recovery and helping the average Canadian family better their quality of life. I am proud to announce that RHA Ventures Inc. has answered that call 👏 In the face of rising costs for domestic businesses in Canada and competition from abroad, RHA Ventures, an Ontario-based venture capital firm specializing in cutting-edge technologies, announced today its investment in Real Life Robotics, a Waterloo-based company designing real robots for real businesses. This investment marks a significant milestone in the development of Real Life Robotics and underscores RHA Ventures' commitment to supporting true, tried, and tested founders and Ontario’s growing startup ecosystem despite an overall decrease in entrepreneurship across the rest of Canada. “Real robots, real people, and real-world challenges are what differentiate RLR as a technology company. We could not be more thrilled to have RHA Ventures, a group of experienced founders and problem solvers, on board as strategic advisors and investors as we help elevate Ontario globally as a home for first-in-class robotics and automation technology - empowering businesses with transformative robotics solutions that unlock new levels of efficiency, reliability, and scalability,” - Cameron Waite, CEO of Real Life Robotics. The numbers clearly show that the cost of getting involved in a business or launching a new product is too high for the average inexperienced Canadian and our economy has slowed in growth accordingly. On a macro level, we are placing too high an importance on new founders in a down market when we should be rewarding and doubling down on our true, tried and tested investors, founders and legacy businesses who have shown they are willing to take the risk. Thank you, Brian Foster and the rest of the team at RHA Ventures Inc. for taking this first step of the journey with us 🙏 https://lnkd.in/gSr5TP48

63

8 Comments

If you are a #Canadian #startup frustrated by the lack of #investment opportunities and wondering if #SiliconValley is worth the trip ... I wanted to share a few notable comments from #startups that recently participated in our CELS - Canadian Entrepreneurs in Life Science Showcase. To the companies that participated, I won't drop the F bomb and risk being banned from LinkedIn 😆 but feel free to chime in and share, in your own words, why you think your peers need to take a leap ✈️ and visit #SiliconValley. It's really close to 🇨🇦 but in so many ways, a 🌏 apart. ✍️ "A lot of the people we met with will be relevant in the future. CELS made the introduction. We now have to build the relationship." 💰 "Everyone we met with had a friend or a contact that is relevant to us, even if they were not in our space, so basically everyone we met with was relevant!!" 🚀 "The biggest take away was the different mentality. Risk taking is seen positively here! Innovation is seen as a value driver. Investors want to see the BIG idea!" 🎙 "The Showcase format allowed us to have meaningful conversations. There was lots of time for real networking. Everyone asked, 'what is your ask?'. That was so refreshing!" ⏰ "It's just more sophisticated here. Time to market is faster in the US. We didn't have to spend our time explaining the tech and it felt like conversations got progressively better". So the next opportunity to leverage Connection Silicon Valley to build your network here is May 14th to 16th - open to #FemaleFounders. Don't let fear stop you. If you are looking for global capital, #SiliconValley is where you need to be to build the right connections. Register here - https://bit.ly/48SDuzF Or DM me to chat!

74

9 Comments

Spent a wonderful week in Canada with family! Now back to business.. Here's your weekly AI update: 🔙 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐁𝐚𝐜𝐤𝐰𝐚𝐫𝐝 𝐏𝐚𝐬𝐬: 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐓𝐡𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐈 𝐖𝐞𝐞𝐤 Week 51 | August 5 - August 11 The OpenAI Brain Drain Industry: 🚨OpenAI co-founder John Schulman leaves for Anthropic; President Greg Brockman is taking extended leave through the end of year. What's interesting is that three of their most technical co-founders (Ilya Sutskever, John Schulman, Andrej Karpathy) have all left the company now. This then begs the question - is this a result of natural silicon-valley attrition, or is there something deeper going on here? And moreover, how will this impact the technical moat that OpenAI has built over the years? (https://lnkd.in/gztRKhwV) 🚨Google announced that new Gemini AI-powered features will be incorporated in a variety of home devices, such as Google Home and Nest (https://lnkd.in/gV2QacAQ?). It also announced a significant reduction in token cost of Gemini 1.5 Flash (https://lnkd.in/gbNe6yNU?) 🚨Figure releases Figure 02, it's newest humanoid robot. Figure has been actively testing robots with BMW at a manufacturing plant. Figure last raised $675M Series B in February 2024, valuing the company at $2.6 billion. (https://lnkd.in/gZnPSke4) 🚨Mark Zuckerberg said on Meta's Q2 earning call that to train Llama 4, the company will need 10x more compute than what was needed to train Llama 3. (https://lnkd.in/g5pEPrTw?) 🚨Elon Musk filed a lawsuit against Sam Altman and Greg Brockman, renewing claims that the company is betraying its founding aims of benefiting the public good rather than pursuing profits. (https://lnkd.in/gAk5grU6) Financing and M&A: 🚨Groq raises $640m in Series D at a $2.8B valuation. The round was led by Blackrock Private Equity Partners with participation from other investors such as Neuberger Berman, Type One Ventures, Cisco, KDDI, and Samsung Catalyst Fund. (https://lnkd.in/gRtKQKvW?) 🚨Hugging Face acquires Seattle data storage startup Xethub. The HF team plans to integrate Xethub's backend storage technology, enabling developers to host more large models and datasets than currently possible. CEO Clem Delangue 🤗 confirmed this was the largest acquisition the company has made thus far. (https://lnkd.in/g8fJ-BjT) 🚨OpenAI is leading a $60m Series B funding round for Opal Camera, a maker of professional-grade webcams(https://lnkd.in/gMT9dkTG) 🚨ProRata.ai a company that has invented an attribution technology to properly compensate content owners, has raised a $25m Series A, led by Prime Movers Lab, Mayfield Fund and Revolution Ventures. (https://lnkd.in/gumjbWmj) R&D: 🚨Alibaba Group releases Qwen2-math, a SOTA model for math-specific tasks. (https://lnkd.in/g8Jh3M7T?) Other Interesting Resources: 🚨 Between May and August, more Humane AI Pins were returned than purchased (https://lnkd.in/gy56qpKm?). 😯

67

3 Comments

THIS is one of the best analyses I've read on the VC ecosystem as of late. While John Rikhtegar spends the report covering the Canadian ecosystem, I find it as useful - and lots of parallels to the US VC ecosystem and where LP dollars went - for the broader global economy. It's a longer read, but I promise, worth every minute. Some of the notes that stuck out most for me: 1/ 50% of the past decade's exit values were generated in 2020 and 2021. Great liquidity for LPs, but that forced LPs to have an unprecedented amount of capital to redeploy, which made them redeploy quickly to VC, but caused a vacuum and left 2023 and 2024 years far drier for GPs fundraising in market. 2/ From peak in 2021/2022, there's been a 76% drop in exit value in the Canadian ecosystem, 85% drop in Canadian VCs fundraising, and a 77% drop in capital Canadian VCs invest into the ecosystem. 3/ The median exit age of for the top 50 Canadian companies is 12 years. The median time between first financing and its exit for the top 50 is 8 years, leaving a median time of 4 years from a company's founding to their first financing. As such, if a Canadian VC's deployment period is 4 years, it's right to assume as an LP, that you're not going to see the end of the fund till 12 years after you invest. Even if the GP pitches a 10-year fund. 4/ Not all exits are created equal. The top quartile of top 50 exits raised more capital than the lower quartile. The median exit capital efficiency for Canada's top 50 companies for was 7.7X. Meaning the median company exited for $7.70 on every $1 they raised. 5/ Median US exit values are 2X Canada's. That said, Canada is catching up. In the past decade, the US produced $2.6T in exit value, compared to Canada's $56B, only a 46X. Lowest delta on record.

34

1 Comment

Next one up, Glide! In an attempt to demystify some of the non-obvious elements we found when we first met the founders of our fastest growing portfolio companies at 186 Ventures, here is the third edition of the "idiosyncratic phenomenon". This highlight will be on Gautam A., Sameer Kapur, and Vishnu Chakroborty and their journey building Glide to bring world class, unparalleled enterprise grade infrastructure to the much overlooked market of credit unions and community banks-- some of the most important financial institutions across virtually every community in the US. Since we invested in their Winter, 2021 seed round, the company has built an incredible technology stack and has outpaced revenue projections by multiple orders of magnitude. This story is a *fantastic* reminder that it takes time to build incredible product and technology; the Glide story is a quintessential example of this startup proverb, in almost every regard. https://lnkd.in/e8b32CR2

39

2 Comments

"Entrepreneurship is painful and sometimes rewarding." This quote naturally came out during a check-in call with my good friend and fellow entrepreneur, Gilad, who is building a great product at Sequence (I just wish they were available in Canada) 😢 As soon as I said it, both Gilad and I reflected on how true that statement is in describing the journey of building something. Shoutout to all the business owners and entrepreneurs out there taking the pain with a pinch of reward. #startupjourney #pain #entrepreneurship #grit

8

1 Comment

Are you a B2B software startup founder at the very start? Then you have to meet this early-stage investor! This week's findfunding.vc spotlight is on Dominic Lau from Ripple Ventures. He: 🇨🇦 Is Vancouver and Toronto based 🎣 Loves to fish 🎶 Founded the RippleX Fellowship - a platform to help underrepresented founders access mentorship, intros, and the tools to get from idea to revenue to funding Amongst founders, Dominic and his team at Ripple Ventures, including Matt Cohen, are known for being hands-on partners who open valuable networks, navigate challenges together, and assist in closing crucial revenue and funding deals. Make sure to: ✉️ Pitch him at [email protected] 👀 Look into the RippleX Fellowship - they take 10 companies 2x a year through the Founder Fellowship program and also back companies through the Fellow Fund For more, check out our funder spotlight card below along with Ripple Ventures' profile on findfunding.vc (link in comments).

25

6 Comments

How to invest in a Venture Fund? Calling all Limited Partners (LPs) and Family Offices! 📢 Are you looking to dive deeper into the world of venture capital? Want to understand how to invest in venture funds? This is a fantastic opportunity for you! We are excited to invite you to Venture Summit: Toronto Collision, where industry leaders and experts will share insights & strategies in venture capital investing. Event Highlights: 🔹 Engaging Panels: Gain practical knowledge on structuring investments, managing portfolios, and navigating the VC landscape. 🔹 Networking Opportunities: Connect with like-minded investors, LPs, family offices, and founders to build valuable relationships. 🔹 Meet Fund Managers Starting their next Fund: meet emerging managers and learn about their experience, thesis, strategy, expertise and passion for venture investing. 🔹 Startup Spotlight: Listen to shortlisted startup pitches & and connect with founders throughout the event. Date: Thursday, June 20th Register: https://lnkd.in/garRw37p Message me for a free investor ticket if you are interested in attending (limited quantity)! Don’t miss out on this exclusive chance to enhance your investment strategy and expand your network. #VentureSummit #TorontoCollision #VentureCapital #Investing #LPs #FamilyOffices #Networking #Innovation #InvestmentStrategy #VC #startups #fundraising #deals #founders #investors #limitedpartners #innovation #diversification

37

Some interesting thoughts in the inexorable march forward of each AI generation, but also the limits to where AI really shines. In terms of repurposing exisitng content, there seem to be some real value adds here - but exactly how useful this 'professional' podcast really is remains to be seen.

10

2 Comments

Despite a growing and robust Canadian tech ecosystem, the country has minted fewer than 30 unicorns in the past decade compared to the US's 700. Should Canadian VCs look to invest internationally? If so, what's the optimal approach to accessing global opportunities, navigating financial and cultural differences, and providing meaningful value? Alternatively, should they focus on strengthening the Canadian tech ecosystem? Is the lack of unicorns primarily a cultural, structural, or financial issue, or a combination? Can VCs play a role in addressing these challenges? Happy to participate in the Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (CVCA) webinar with Mana Hosseini, JD/MBA and Kim Furlong addressing these topics. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Registration link in the comments #venturecapital #startups #investing #canada

23

6 Comments

Mergers and acquisitions are currently outperforming last year's figures, with activity levels tracking 10 per cent to 15 per cent higher. This improvement is evident both in the overall number of deals being completed and in the total value of these transactions. Read More Here: https://lnkd.in/eHaAXw5G. Branded Hospitality Ventures Hospitality Headline Newsletter #MandA #Mergers #Acquisitions #finance Matthew Lerner Michael Schatzberg Noah Stern Dylan Challenger

8

Come join the Future of Frontier Technologies AI & blockchain event panel in Santa Monica! ✨ We are hosting an event on Friday, May 3rd during @Farcaster's FarCon weekend. Which will bring many blockchain experts & builders to LA! Emerging LA is collaborating with Lightspeed's Faction VC as a co-host, with Partner Timothy K. moderating a panel. The panel will discuss the questions that you are probably wondering about these technologies: • How can AI and blockchain work together? • How will these frontier technologies impact industries today? • What are the real-world use cases that these technologies solve? • What are the current dynamics between innovation and regulation? ​One on hand, AI offers the promise of abundance, democratizing content creation but will open the door to (deep)fakes and mistrust. On the other hand, ​Blockchain offers digital scarcity, authentication, and trust in a world inundated with digital replicas. --- The audience will be filled with founders, technical builders, investors, and industry executives in sectors that are most relevant to these trends: Gaming, media, content, finance, social. The early bird ticket sold out quickly last week and the general admission tickets expire on Wednesday, so don't miss out and grab yours soon! Partners for this event include Sunset Ventures and AI LA as well as others in town: • LA schools & clubs: Wharton Club of Southern California, Wharton Digital Assets Club, Harvard Kennedy School, Harvard Blockchain , and Blockchain at USC • CPG startups & Brands: Studio TBD, doorsa, Red Bull --- PROMO CODE DISCOUNTS! If you are a student or alum from Penn/Wharton, Harvard, USC, reach out and ask for code!! 😉 See you on Friday! (Link to event in comments) #ai #blockchain #farcon #web3 #LA

63

19 Comments

As of today, founders have 70 days to speak to investors. Founders have until the 15th of July to build relationships with investors and pitch to them before they go to Ibiza for summer vacation 😁 I believe that 70 days is more than enough to build a relationship and possibly raise capital from an investor. Prateek Sanjay says that the formalities could be a thing of the past and pitching to investors could happen anywhere and anytime. On average it takes from 3 to 9 months to raise a round of financing, and Stéphane Nasser delves deep into the details on strategies that could be employed by founders to do so. Certainly, booking a flight ticket to Ibiza to pitch to investors is the way to go if your investor pool spends their vacation there and I know founders who did this, but not all founders can. All I am saying now is the time to start these conversations with investors 😄 #startups #venturecapital #startupfunding #startupinvesting #earlystagestartups

11

Congrats team Lodestar Space to closing this £2.5M pre seed round! Off to the (new space) races. At Inflection.xyz we are committed to pioneer sovereign computation as the biggest leverage for human progress. The space economy will help us provide valuable services from imagery and connectivity on earth all the way to in space semiconductor production, energy harnessing, regulating the earths climate and becoming an interplanetary species in the long run. Object manipulation is a very present bottleneck for repair, refuelling and other services. As opposed to tele operated robots that come with high latency, connectivity issues, human failure and high costs Lodestar Space is taking a different approach. By leveraging new materials, additive manufacturing and advancements in AI and in-space „edge“ compute capabilities (see our portfolio Cryptosat) they enable autonomous robotics operating in real time and far beyond human precision. Based on their space specific data set - robots and objects behave very differently at 0 gravity, extreme light conditions and temperatures - new applications and interfaces become possible. Data network effects are expected to accelerate development across verticals. Read more about the company’s value propositions, team and vision on https://www.lodestar.space Reach out if you see room for collaboration!

13

2 Comments