StartupNorth

More seed funding for Canada – Founder Fuel gets their first commitment

Written by

Jonas Brandon

in

, , , ,

I first met John Stokes a few years ago when he landed on to the Canadian startup scene and started talking about his new fund Montreal Start-up. In March 2008 they raised a small initial fund which they quickly deployed in to some nice deals in Montreal including Status.net and Whatsnexx.

John and the team, which includes Austin Hill, announced today that they will be taking commitments from the Quebec Government (through Investissement Quebec) at $50 milion, Solidarity Fund QFL, which is investing $33 million, and by FIER Partners, which plans to invest $17 million.

The fund still needs to raise over $8million directly from LPs, which Investissement Quebec seems to think will be a snap and done in 4 months, but I am not so sure. I hope I am proven wrong.

In case any potential LPs are reading this right now, here is my advice: Do this one. Do it because this team is going to do more than just pass the time humming over deals — you will get hustle, an aggressive attitude and a group that understands that Canada needs more hustle and less of the same old.

John and the team are connected and tuned in to the community. Early stage entrepreneurs trust this team and they are the kind of guys who can get your money in to some great opportunities.

Congrats and good luck.

Comments

29 responses to “More seed funding for Canada – Founder Fuel gets their first commitment”

  1. Chrisarsenault Avatar
    Chrisarsenault

    Good job guys! Great team effort from MSU and its founding Investors to get this new fund going. Founder fuel has a key role to play in the early stage startup community. going from $5M fund I to a $50M fund II is no easy task!

    Alan, JS, John, Congrat's!

    Reply
  2. dannyrobinson Avatar
    dannyrobinson

    “Do this one.” – here here

    Reply
  3. Jonas Avatar
    Jonas

    Just do it. Congrat guys!

    Reply
  4. Chrisarsenault Avatar
    Chrisarsenault

    Good job guys! Great team effort from MSU and its founding Investors to get this new fund going. Founder fuel has a key role to play in the early stage startup community. going from $5M fund I to a $50M fund II is no easy task!

    Alan, JS, John, Congrat’s!

    Reply
  5. dannyrobinson Avatar
    dannyrobinson

    “Do this one.” – here here

    Reply
  6. JS Cournoyer Avatar
    JS Cournoyer

    Thanks Jevon for the nice piece and vote of confidence, greatly appreciated. If you don't mind, I would like to clarify the numbers. Investissement Quebec and FIER Partenaire, which includes FTQ will commit $34M to the fund. We have to bring in $8.25M in commitments from the private sector to close at a minimum of $42.25M. Our target is to reach $50m and beyond. So far the reception has been good and we are confident that with the support of the community we can have a first close inside 4 months, although using your words, it certainly won't “be a snap”. Cheers

    Reply
  7. Jonas Avatar
    Jonas

    Just do it. Congrats guys!

    Reply
  8. JS Cournoyer Avatar
    JS Cournoyer

    Thanks Jevon for the nice piece and vote of confidence, greatly appreciated. If you don’t mind, I would like to clarify the numbers. Investissement Quebec and FIER Partenaire, which includes FTQ will commit $34M to the fund. We have to bring in $8.25M in commitments from the private sector to close at a minimum of $42.25M. Our target is to reach $50m and beyond. So far the reception has been good and we are confident that with the support of the community we can have a first close inside 4 months, although using your words, it certainly won’t “be a snap”. Cheers

    Reply
  9. austinhill Avatar
    austinhill

    Thanks everyone for your comments of support. We are excited & grateful to have this opportunity to help serve the Canadian technology community.

    Reply
  10. austinhill Avatar
    austinhill

    Thanks everyone for your comments of support. We are excited & grateful to have this opportunity to help serve the Canadian technology community.

    Reply
  11. John Stokes Avatar
    John Stokes

    Thanks Jevon !

    We have some busy weeks ahead of us as we close the fund … and then it will get busier !

    We have always though of ourselves as a start-up; working out of cafe's, low burn operations, constantly iterating on our investment model. We seem to have got some traction – so now it's time to see if we can scale!

    Reply
  12. Daniel Drouet Avatar
    Daniel Drouet

    Thanks for the kind words Jevon. We're looking forward to scaling up what we've been doing with Montreal Start Up. Cheers!

    Reply
  13. John Stokes Avatar
    John Stokes

    Thanks Jevon !

    We have some busy weeks ahead of us as we close the fund … and then it will get busier !

    We have always though of ourselves as a start-up; working out of cafe’s, low burn operations, constantly iterating on our investment model. We seem to have got some traction – so now it’s time to see if we can scale!

    Reply
  14. shahirguindi Avatar
    shahirguindi

    John, Daniel, Alan, JS, Austin,

    Great work guys – very impressive but also very much deserved. You guys are making a difference in the market place, and that is what matters. You're deploying capital, actively engaged in the sector and adding value to your entrepreneurs!

    Congratulations.

    Shahir

    Reply
  15. Daniel Drouet Avatar
    Daniel Drouet

    Thanks for the kind words Jevon. We’re looking forward to scaling up what we’ve been doing with Montreal Start Up. Cheers!

    Reply
  16. shahirguindi Avatar
    shahirguindi

    John, Daniel, Alan, JS, Austin,

    Great work guys – very impressive but also very much deserved. You guys are making a difference in the market place, and that is what matters. You’re deploying capital, actively engaged in the sector and adding value to your entrepreneurs!

    Congratulations.

    Shahir

    Reply
  17. CVCA – Capital Rants » Blog Archive » More seed funding for Canada – Founder Fuel gets their first commitment

    […] More seed funding for Canada – Founder Fuel gets their first commitment Posted on 01:52, March 5th, 2010 by admin digg_url = 'http://www.vcrants.com/2010/03/more-seed-funding-for-canada-%e2%80%93-founder-fuel-gets-their-first-commitment/'; digg_bgcolor = '#ffffff'; digg_skin = 'default'; digg_window = 'new'; digg_title = 'More seed funding for Canada – Founder Fuel gets their first commitment'; If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Re-post by Jevon MacDonald for StartupNorth […]

    Reply
  18. CVCA – Capital Rants » Blog Archive » More seed funding for Canada – Founder Fuel gets their first commitment

    […] More seed funding for Canada – Founder Fuel gets their first commitment Posted on 01:52, March 5th, 2010 by admin digg_url = 'http://www.vcrants.com/2010/03/more-seed-funding-for-canada-%e2%80%93-founder-fuel-gets-their-first-commitment/'; digg_bgcolor = '#ffffff'; digg_skin = 'default'; digg_window = 'new'; digg_title = 'More seed funding for Canada – Founder Fuel gets their first commitment'; If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Re-post by Jevon MacDonald for StartupNorth […]

    Reply
  19. CVCA – Capital Rants » Blog Archive » More seed funding for Canada – Founder Fuel gets their first commitment

    […] More seed funding for Canada – Founder Fuel gets their first commitment Posted on 01:52, March 5th, 2010 by admin digg_url = 'http://www.vcrants.com/2010/03/more-seed-funding-for-canada-%e2%80%93-founder-fuel-gets-their-first-commitment/'; digg_bgcolor = '#ffffff'; digg_skin = 'default'; digg_window = 'new'; digg_title = 'More seed funding for Canada – Founder Fuel gets their first commitment'; If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!Re-post by Jevon MacDonald for StartupNorth […]

    Reply
  20. » Jonas Brandon joins Rogers Ventures | StartupNorth

    […] Founder Fuel, Extreme Ventures, Bootup Labs, Mantella Ventures, iNovia and now Rogers Ventures. […]

    Reply
  21. » Jonas Brandon joins Rogers Ventures | StartupNorth

    […] Founder Fuel, Extreme Ventures, Bootup Labs, Mantella Ventures, iNovia and now Rogers Ventures. […]

    Reply
  22. » StartupSquare Montreal | StartupNorth

    […] is a happening place. There’s StartupDrinks. There’s the launch of a new seed fund, Founder Fuel. The announcement of another StartupCamp. There comes two new players: StartupSquare […]

    Reply
  23. » StartupSquare Montreal | StartupNorth

    […] is a happening place. There’s StartupDrinks. There’s the launch of a new seed fund, Founder Fuel. The announcement of another StartupCamp. There comes two new players: StartupSquare […]

    Reply
  24. StartupCamp 6 Tonight « Montreal Stuff

    […] and it’s all going to startups.  For Internet-ish stuff (ICT), it’s going to be managed by Montreal Startup who will probably be making mostly seed-level investments, a generally absent funding […]

    Reply
  25. StartupCamp 6 Tonight « Montreal Stuff

    […] and it’s all going to startups.  For Internet-ish stuff (ICT), it’s going to be managed by Montreal Startup who will probably be making mostly seed-level investments, a generally absent funding […]

    Reply
  26. » Beyond the Rack raises $12million | StartupNorth

    […] Montreal Startup team recently secured the first commitments for Founder Fuel, which will be a larger sister-fund to Montreal Startup. Their early stage investment in Beyond the […]

    Reply
  27. » Beyond the Rack raises $12million | StartupNorth

    […] Montreal Startup team recently secured the first commitments for Founder Fuel, which will be a larger sister-fund to Montreal Startup. Their early stage investment in Beyond the […]

    Reply
  28. redwan Avatar
    redwan

    Great website, thanks a lot !

    Reply
  29. redwan Avatar
    redwan

    Great website, thanks a lot !

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

More posts