Chango has announced today that they have closed a $4.5 million B round that includes their existing investors as well as lead participation from Rho Ventures (Canada) and iNovia. Roger Chabra lead the deal for Rho and this represents his first placement since joining Rho Ventures last year.
Christopher Dingle has also joined Chango from his role as EIR at iNovia (although he seems to have joined in October, so I am just catching up it seems). Notably absent from this round as well as the Series A is MantellaVP, who seem to be participating in the form of sweat equity but not in the form of capital placements as Duncan Hill is actively operating on the management team. Perhaps I am unclear as to Mantella’s model, I thought they were operating as a traditional fund but perhaps their model is changing. That could make sense as both Duncan Hill and Robin Axon have a lot to contribute in terms of operating capability.
Chango is an AdWords style platform for display (banner) advertising which is focused on low-latency ad targeting and serving across networks. As inventory has become realtime they are able to distribute highly targeted ads across that inventory. This sort of targeting was not possible in past models and Chango seems to be utilizing capital to stay ahead of the curve as more players enter the space. Chango also has the unique ability to automatically generate the banner ads being served.
The most important aspect of this deal is that Canadian capital is being put to work to power a high-potential company that otherwise likely would have closed a US focused deal. This type of growth capital was much less active just up until recently and it represents the critical role that iNovia, Rho and others are going to play in the Canadian landscape in the coming 5 years. The health of these funds is critical to our ability to create value based in Canada that can attach US and international markets with a comparable amount of resources. Albert Lai famously made a splash about the lack of growth capital in Canada in 2008 and it is my hope that the situation is now changing.
Thanks Jevon,
We are thrilled to be backing the team. It is a good example of the Canadian VC’s stepping up to the plate with growth capital and we have enjoyed working with Rho Canada on the round.
John
Thanks Jevon,
We are thrilled to be backing the team. It is a good example of the Canadian VC’s stepping up to the plate with growth capital and we have enjoyed working with Rho Canada on the round.
John
It will be interesting to see how the MantellaVP and Basecamp Partners/Labs (http://basecamplabs.com/ now redirects to http://mantellavp.com/labs/ ) evolves. Robin and Duncan are 2 great individuals. Assets to any company.
They seemingly had done what no other firm in Ontario had done, raised money without Northleaf and the OVCF http://www.northleafcapital.com/. I’m hopeful that this is just a stage of corporate development and that the Mantella portfolio continues to expand from the 2 companies that have been there for the past year. PushLife and Chango – http://www.startupnorth.ca/2010/03/02/mantella-venture-partner-launches/
It will be interesting to see how the MantellaVP and Basecamp Partners/Labs (http://basecamplabs.com/ now redirects to http://mantellavp.com/labs/ ) evolves. Robin and Duncan are 2 great individuals. Assets to any company.
They seemingly had done what no other firm in Ontario had done, raised money without Northleaf and the OVCF http://www.northleafcapital.com/. I’m hopeful that this is just a stage of corporate development and that the Mantella portfolio continues to expand from the 2 companies that have been there for the past year: PushLife and Chango – http://www.startupnorth.ca/2010/03/02/mantella-venture-partner-launches/
They are a great asset to the Toronto ecosystem and it’s beneficial to see them deploy capital. It’s beneficial to entrepreneurs to have additional choices for seed funding, however entrepreneurs can be worse off when the perceived value and the actual value are substantially different (cash for equity versus services for equity).
World class set of investors with @rhocanada and @inoviacapital involved at Chango. Congrats Chris, Roger, everyone involved.
A great company with a great group of Investors. Really great news for the local startup scene. I’ll stop saying “great” now…. Congrats to Chris and the team
A great company with a great group of Investors. Really great news for the local startup scene. I’ll stop saying “great” now…. Congrats to Chris and the team
Thanks Jevon for continuing to be a great champion for Canadian startups. We really appreciate the coverage and your commentary here.
Thanks Jevon for continuing to be a great champion for Canadian startups. We really appreciate the coverage and your commentary here.
That’s a great news for Canadian startups, you guys are world class investors. keep up the good work.
That’s a great news for Canadian startups, you guys are world class investors. keep up the good work.
This seems to be a very good move indeed. Chango has been known to making very sound decisions in the past. It cares a lot for its investors and wouldn’t want them to land in any kind of soup. I am totally kicked up after reading about it. Pretty good decision I must say. Good post.
Thanks for the post Jevon, we’re definitely excited about the opportunity!
Given this latest round we are expanding our team. We’re hiring in Toronto, San Fran, Chicago & NY – Please checkout http://www.chango.com/about/jobs