Fund aims to capitalize on the committed support of twenty of Montreal’s most successful entrepreneur and angel investors.
MONTREAL, Quebec, March 10, 2008 – Montreal Start Up, a venture investor dedicated to supporting Montreal based entrepreneurs in their quest to create and build successful companies, today announced the closing of its $3 million venture capital fund, Fonds Soutien Montreal s.e.c, the first of a number of funds it plans to establish. Participating in the fund are twenty of Montreal most successful entrepreneurs and investors, complemented by strong support from institutional investor, Investissement Quebec.
Whilst almost $3 billion of new capital commitments have poured into Quebec’s venture capital industry since 2005, the limited availability of funding and mentoring for seed stage opportunities has led to a drought of venture ready companies; as such, much of this capital remains un-invested.
Montreal Start Up will focus on deploying seed and advisory capital into early stage opportunities. By leveraging its capital with its investor base’s experience in building successful information technology, communications and media companies, it will be able to nurture ambitious internet, wireless and multi-media entrepreneurs in their quest to become venture ready.
“Whilst Quebec is not short of venture capital, Montreal Start Up is distinct in that it focuses exclusively on funding very early stage startups. This is the stage when entrepreneur’s financial needs are often smaller than their needs for strategic input or operational support.” said Rene Bousquet, a Partner at Trio Capital and an investor in the Fund. “By providing enough funds to allow a company to launch its offering and show initial signs of success, the company will be much better positioned to raise capital from more traditional VC’s.”
Austin Hill, a serial entrepreneur and angel investor who sits on Montreal Start Up’s investment committee added, “With the availability of open source software, utility based computing and simplified software development tools, many start-ups do not require substantial venture funding to prove their ability to gain market traction.”
These recent innovations in the startup environment, coupled with the energy coming from within the local Montreal technology community have created an opportunity on which Montreal Startup intends to capitalize.
“Working so closely with start up companies it is essential that Montreal Start Up embodies the entrepreneurial spirit.” commented John Stokes, managing partner, Montreal Start Up. “With a management team and advisory board full of battle hardened entrepreneurs we understand the risks associated with starting businesses, but intend to harness our collective experiences to create Montreal’s next generation of globally successful companies.”
Jean-Sebastien Cournoyer, Entrepreneur in Residence at Vantage Point Venture Partners and Montreal Start Up board member explained the precedent being set by the fund’s structure, “In the world’s most vibrant start-up hubs a significant amount of funding and mentoring comes from successful entrepreneurs turned angel investors.” he stated. “Montreal has traditionally lacked this culture of reinvestment and thus not benefited from this valuable bridge between aspiring startup entrepreneurs and some of the city’s most successful technology executives; the structure of Montreal Start Up’s entrepreneur backed venture fund provides a visible sign that the investment culture of our city is evolving”.
In addition to working with those individuals who have invested directly into the Fund, Montreal Start Up has committed itself to forming partnerships with other members of Canada’s venture eco-system:
• Co-Investment Partnerships; Its professional investment team will actively structure investment consortiums that will include angels and early stage investors.
• Venture Partnerships: Seed and advisory capital will be deployed to nurture companies for other venture capital funds operating in Quebec and thereby create opportunities to unlock and deploy the provinces un-invested capital.
Composed of former operational executives with entrepreneurial experience, Montreal Start Up’s partners and advisory board have held top roles at companies including Terrascale, Telesystem, AskMen.com, Generation Flash, Fox Interactive Media, Microcell, RadialPoint, Canoe.ca, BCE, Nortel, FremantleMedia, Rogers and Hewlett Packard. The firm’s general partners are John Stokes, Alan MacIntosh, Jean-Sebastien Cournoyer, Austin Hill and Daniel Drouet.
About Montreal Start Up
Founded in 2007, Montreal Start Up is a venture investor committed to supporting Montreal based entrepreneurs and their companies during their start-up phase, with the investment focus being on companies developing innovative software based services in the Internet, wireless and multi-media sectors.