News Briefs

Sandpiper Ventures nabs C$20m-plus for women-focused debut fund

The fund's limited partners include four of Canada’s big-five banks and all Atlantic Canadian provinces.

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  • Other investors include institutions, family offices and individual investors
  • The Halifax-based venture capital firm invests in women-led, early-stage companies
  • Sandpiper Ventures was founded in 2020

Sandpiper Ventures, a Halifax-based women-focused venture capital firm, has closed its inaugural fund, raising more than C$20 million.

The fund’s limited partners include four of Canada’s big-five banks and all Atlantic Canadian provinces. Investors also include institutions, family offices and individual investors, among them Annette Verschuren, Gerry Pond, Mark Dobbin, Frank Sobey’s Firinn Investments, Technology Venture Corp, CFFI Ventures, Scotiabank’s Roynat Capital, BMO, TD and CIBC.

Along with investing in women founders, the fund is committed to growing the proportion of women investors. Within the Sandpiper portfolio, more than half of the LPs are new to the asset class.

Sandpiper was one of the first venture capital firms in Canada investing in women-led companies at the seed stage, and the first on the East Coast.

“We have arrived at an exciting nexus point for women in the investment space and we are here to change the narrative around traditional VC,” Sandpiper Founder and Managing Partner Rhiannon Davies said in a statement. “The close of this fund is a commentary around priorities in the investment landscape and how those decision makers are connecting their investments to performance, with women at the helm.”