MTLinTECH – June 11, 2018 – Partnered with Multiple Financial Institutions – Will Also Include Early Stage & Seed Investments
Some major players in Canada’s financial services sector have banded together to finance Canada’s newest venture capital fund. Brought together by General Partners David Nault in Montreal and Karim Gillani in Toronto, Luge Capital is dedicated to investing in statrups focused on fintech and artificial intelligence. The idea for this new fintech fund was initially floated by leadership at the CDPQ, who first went to Desjardins for preliminary discussions. Once they decided to proceed as partners, conversations with Nault and Gillani began.
“Opportunities for funds like this don’t come along every day” according to Nault, a former Vice-President of Investments at iNovia. “I openly discussed it with iNovia, and the opportunity to co-run a fund and doing it in partnership with iNovia was the next logical step in my career”. iNovia is a partner of Luge Capital, providing access to the iNovia team, insights and resources for entrepreneurs, as well as co-investment opportunities.
The Luge fund was initially planned to start off with $50 million in funding coming equally from Desjardins and CDPQ, but launched on June 11 with a war chest of $75 million. This after Sun Life Financial, the Fonds de Solidarité FTQ and La Capitale all decided to participate as well. Luge states in a press release that they may receive additional investment in the coming months, which would then bring the total amount invested in the fund to a full $100 million. “The remaining $25 million allocation would help make sure that we bring in the right partners and the right investors to round out the fund, and add on partners who extend our reach geographically” according to Gillani.