Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) Adds $100 Million to its Venture Capital IT Fund

By: Jeff Stewart  |   December 1st, 2012   |   Business, News, O Canada

On the eve of allocating $400 million in funds in support of private sector investment in prospective start-ups during the 2012 budget, the federal government of Canada also did not forget to reiterate its previous commitment to shore up the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) Venture Capital, providing them with $100 million in investment funds.

 

BDC Venture Capital has supported numerous early stage companies over the period of time while also remaining successful in gaining impressive returns from these investment. The secret behind its success is that this organization always seems to be on a mission, as over the past year BDC Venture Capital has made investments in 11 Canada based tech companies through its IT fund.

 

These 11 tech companies of Canada are either series A-sized or primary seeds that have used the investment funds from BDC Venture Capital to grow, and the Development Bank is hoping to find other tech companies like Q1 Labs or Radian6 because they have earned remarkable returns from their respective liquidity events.

 

Robert Simon, head of the IT Fund at BDC Venture Capital, has to spend the $100 million in funds within the next two to three years. Surprisingly, Simon has quietly exhausted half of this $100 million, promising $50 million to the 11 tech companies they have chosen for investment thus far. Because the deployment of funds has been taking place for quite some time, Simon unveiled the investments at this stage with the following words, “We like to announce things after we have some proof points,” and his proof is 11 new investments.

 

These new investments include share in Vancouver based LemonStand and BuildDirect, an e-commerce startup. Both represent popular and growing startups.

 

Source: FinancialPost