BDC Venture Capital Invests $1.5 million In 10 Accelerator Graduates, Expands Support For Maritimes

BY: 

Dave Forde
July 15, 2013

 

BDCEastern Canada, or the Maritimes is starting to show a lot of growth from its startup community, and as a result we’re starting to see more funding as they continue to create startups that get acquired such as GoInstant who was picked up by Salesforce.com for $70M or Radian6 for $326M. Today, BDC Venture Capital announced that it is committing $1.5 million to 10 recent graduates of three Canadian technology accelerators, including, for the first time, two graduates of Launch36, an accelerator for Atlantic Canadian startups. This brings to 49 the number of accelerator graduates supported since BDC Venture Capital launched this program in mid-2011, totalling investments of $7.35 million.

“Making first-time investments in such promising startups is part of our strategy to build a healthy Canadian ecosystem,” says Senia Rapisarda, the vice-president at BDC Venture Capital in charge of these initiatives. “We’ll also be looking at connecting these entrepreneurs with angel and venture capital as well as providing them with other forms of non-financial support.” BDC Venture Capital undertakes several other strategic ecosystem-building activities and intends to amplify the support it has been providing within the Canadian early-stage venture ecosystem. “We continue to explore additional ways we can support Canadian graduates of top accelerators both within the country and abroad,” says Ms. Rapisarda.

BDC Venture Capital is investing $150,000 in RUMAnalytics and AnalyzeRE respectively, two of the companies that completed Atlantic Canada’s Launch36 accelerator program this past March. Members of future cohorts will also be eligible for $150,000 seed investments. A joint BDC Venture Capital and Launch36 committee will identify the most promising investment candidates among the companies judged to be “venture-ready” upon completion of the program.

BDC Venture Capital is also investing $150,000 in five graduates of Kitchener-Waterloo-based Communitech HYPERDRIVE’s April cohort (BeanEvo, ViewsIQ, Groupnotes, Dandy and Cream.hr) and three companies who recently completed Toronto’s Extreme Startups accelerator program (BRIKA, Instaradio and Koge).

Investments in these companies are in the form of convertible notes, which are short-term loans that are usually converted into shares later on in the company’s life. The seed investments are intended to help these very early-stage startups weather a period that can be very tough for them, as they continue working to generate revenues and position themselves for more substantial rounds of financing.

 

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Dave Forde


Dave “The Connector” Forde has been involved in the marketing, public relations and technology industry across Canada for over 20 years in various sales and marketing roles, he launched The Connected One network of business sites which connects buyers to the right sellers. Profectio and PR In Canada covers news about the marketing and public relations industry each day helping professionals advance their career and businesses. He also serves as an advisor to a number of businesses across the country. Find Dave on LinkedIn and Twitter.


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