In high school, the stereotype goes, jocks and computer geeks sit at separate lunch tables and socialize as little as possible.
Real Ventures recently signaled a new direction for the six year-old venture capital firm – a direction that will soon be made manifest by the first close of its third, $100 million partnership, Real Ventures III, peHUB Canada has exclusively learned.The fund’s launch will cap what has been an exceptionally active period for the Montréal-based Real Ventures, one of Canada’s foremost early-stage IT and Internet-focused investment specialists, and the most active private investors in domestic seed-stage and startup financings in 2013, according to Thomson Reuters.
The most recent Forbes' 30 Under 30 list points to the youthful energy that is currently powering many venture-backed technology startups. Among those recognized are several notable Canadian company founders, entrepreneurs and investors. Examples include Vancouver's Brian Wong, the founder and CEO of San Francisco-based mobile rewards network Kiip, Eric Migicovsky, the University of Waterloo engineering graduate who launched smart-watch maker Pebble Technology , and Ted Livingston, who helped found Waterloo, Ont.-based KiK Interactive, a developer of mobile messaging applications for smartphones.
Canadian venture capital firm Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital intends to raise a fourth clean-tech fund, eyeing a fund size of US$150 million to US$250 million, reports peHUB Canada affiliate publication VCJ. According to the firm’s co-founder and CEO, Wal van Lierop, the timing is right because investors are coming back to the clean-tech sector.
Since 2008, 33 U.S.-based venture-backed companies have launched billion-dollar offerings
Mobile Data Technologies Ltd (MDT), a designer and builder of data acquisition and control systems for the oil and gas industry, has been bought by an unidentified U.S. energy services company. That report comes from merchant banking services firm The Kirchner Group. The firm did not disclose the financial terms of the transaction. The Acheson, Alberta-based MDT was less than four months ago the recipient of an undisclosed financing from Accelerate Fund LP, an angel co-investment fund managed by Canadian venture capital firm AVAC.
It looks like analytics are becoming the crystal ball of venture capital.
Arista, Box, Lending Club and other high-profile tech companies are likely on the fast track, on the heels of Twitter’s debut.