We get our capital from pension funds, funds of funds, family offices, and sophisticated individual investors in Canada.
Absolutely. In fact, we prefer to lead or co-lead the initial funding of our portfolio companies. We typically partner with other funds to form an investment syndicate with the financial stamina to go the distance.
Entrepreneurs find us, or we find them. Often, opportunities are referred to us through our network of tech angels, entrepreneurs, executives, researchers, economic development partners, and service providers.
Our emerging growth portfolio investments are usually between $2 million and $4 million initially, with capital reserved for follow-on financings for a total of $7.5M to $15M. We also participate in select early stage deals in Alberta as manager of the $10 million Accelerate Fund II.
We’re open to co-investing with any like-minded funds. Partners we’ve worked with to date include GE Capital, GrowthWorks, BDC, EDC, Ventures West, Cisco, and Austin Ventures.
It’s our goal to exit our investments in three to four years. We’re upfront about discussing exit objectives and strategies with entrepreneurs and co-investors, and we review those objectives periodically as the business develops.
In Canada, there’s a persistent imbalance between the increasing number of companies seeking emerging growth financing and the amount of capital actually available to them. Simply put, many Canadian tech companies don’t have the financing to achieve their growth potential. This emerging growth financing gap slows development, delays exits, and limits how businesses scale. We’re dedicated to closing the emerging growth investment gap and supporting the innovation of Canadian tech entrepreneurs, while offering investors an attractive risk-return opportunity. By concentrating our investments on two tech sectors—sustainability innovation and intelligent enterprise—we’re empowering innovative Canadian companies to transform industry and enterprise.
We invest in privately owned emerging growth tech companies in Canada, empowering innovative Canadian tech entrepreneurs to transform industry and enterprise. The companies we invest in must have revenues, in-market product and experienced leadership, and be headed towards commercialization. While most of our investments are at the emerging growth stage, we also make select early-stage investments in Alberta as manager of the Accelerate Fund II.
Yaletown invests in promising tech companies with a customer focus in two dynamic sectors: intelligent industry and intelligent enterprise.
1) Intelligent industry focuses on companies that help enhance physical capital productivity for industrial businesses and their customers. These companies tend to rely on the Smart Grid or Internet of Things technologies, innovating traditional industries such as natural resources, manufacturing, transportation, and agriculture. Intelligent industry has massive potential to enhance environmental sustainability by reducing resource consumption and improving energy efficiency.
2) Intelligent enterprise focuses on companies that help customers increase productivity and enhance the competitive fitness of medium and larger enterprises. These companies tend to rely on a variety of existing and emerging information technologies such as cloud computing, as-a-service, and subscription business models, as well as big data.
Canada is home to vibrant and fast-growing tech businesses that benefit from established infrastructure, including global industry anchor companies, corporate and government research institutions, a sizeable entrepreneurial talent pool, and a growing international reputation for innovation.
Ask around. We have a reputation for being approachable, straightforward, and committed. We also have a strong track record of realizing growth. When we invest in a company, everyone on our investment team becomes a material investor alongside the institutional and individual investors in our funds. That means our investment team makes money only if you make money. We dedicate one lead partner to each portfolio company, but behind the scenes the unique skills and perspectives of everyone on the Yaletown team are shared with all of our portfolio companies.
We’re always interested in meeting standout tech innovators. If you’re a good fit with our investment focus and are at the revenue growth stage, get in touch with us. Or, better yet, get introduced through our network.