It seems fitting that as 2011 winds down and the Canadian startup landscape celebrates an amazing year of activity, iNovia has unveiled a new $110-million fund.
Inovia III will focus on investments ranging from a few hundred thousand to as much as $10 million over the life of a particular company. The capital was raised from Teralys Capital, BDC Venture Capital, AVAC Ltd., Alberta Enterprise, the BC Renaissance Capital Fund and the iNovia General Partners.
For people not familiar with iNovia, its portfolio includes Well.ca, Beyond the Rack, Collective and Fixmo, which recently raised $23-million.
iNovia’s new fund provides more support for Canada’s startup community, particularly seed investments, which are being fuelled by an increasing number of startup incubators that have popped up here, there and everywhere.
At the same time, iNovia’s ability to support and participate in series A investments will be important because this is the biggest hole in the Canadian venture capital landscape. Without vibrant participation from institutional investors, many Canadian startups have no choice but to look south of the border if they want to raise anything more than $5-million.
While it is not a terrible situation given there appears to be more U.S. VCs willing to invest in Canadian startups, there still needs to be domestic support for startups looking for growth capi
