Year: 2010

Is there any questions that the Canadian venture captial industry is in turmoil? There is a change that is happening, it might just not be happeing as fast as it could. Mark McQueen talks about the the creative destruction of the VC industry in Canada.

“There’s no robust “new class” of VC firms coming in behind the current oligarchy, with a similar amount of capital to deploy as those they are planning to replace. We are witnessing the destruction piece of the equation, for sure, but not the rebirth that is the essence of “creative destruction” if it is to succeed.” – Mark McQueen, Wellington Fund

While there are a few new players entering the market (I’m looking at you ExtremeVP and Mantella VP), we’re seeing a lot of roadkill. There are firms that are not able to raise their next fund, partners that are on life support, startups that are left to wonder what happen to their partners in raising additional capital. However, many that remain are digging in and fighting for their way of life. They are lobbying for support to “manufacture an environment that is hospitable to their investment style”. Adam Adamou at Caseridge Capital Corporation argues that the existing venture players, the Canadian VC oligarchy, has successfully lobbied for restrictions that have kept out new players including the public/private venture capital that was used to fund RIM.

“The traditional venture capitalists see themelves as the founders of a “Silicon Valley North” and they follow the US trends, which unfortunately do not apply to our Canadian market. They seem to see themselves as avant garde investors in tomorrow’s technology companies, however, they behave more like bankerss[sic] – preferring security and downside protection over opportunity”

Yikes, that’s a damning review of the Canadian venture industry. However, I’m not sure that the suggested alternatives including Capital Pool Companies and the TSX-V are really better choices for Canadian entrepreneurs (or investors). (I’m not an expert on CPCs or TSX-V but when my friends and trusted advisors like Mark McLeod provide commentary, I listen). What I took away from The Adamou Rant is that many of the funds have a vested interest in the maintaining something akin to the current system. Governments should look critically at the numbers being presented and who is presenting them.

The State of a Nation

Is the sky falling? What is the state of venture capital in Canada? Is it really this bad? And why does it matter to early-stage entrepreneurs? Should we all just move to Silicon Valley, New York City, Boston or somewhere else?

The Canadian VC environment has been challenging for a lot of entrepreneurs. As entrepreneurs, you need to understand the environment that you will start, fund, and grow your company. Canada has a strong track record of access to capital, a stable economic policy and should be a great spot for entrepreneurs. It’s also unique. Canadian companies tend to be at a later stage of corporate development and raise less money than their US counterparts. I’ve written about the impact of the state of the funding environment has on startups. And what entrepreneurs can contintue to expect to see, includes:

• The number of investors will continue to decrease
• Valuations will continue to decrease
• Customer uptake will be slower
• Need to become cash flow positive
• Acquiring entities will favour profitable companies

Mark McQueen provides the best summary of state of the Canadian Venture Capital landscape I’ve seen in a while:

• VC investments in Canadian firms hit a 14 year low in 2009
• US venture market saw US$18 billion invested in 2009, Canada saw only $1 billion (5.5%) our economy is approximately 12.5% the size of the US economy
• Up to half of current Canadian VC funds will not be able to raise their next fund
• Ontario government has sunset the $1 billion Retail Venture Capital Industry
• “Section 116” was fixed in the 2010 Federal Budget, however, this is not a silver bullet
• 117 disclosed cross board investments since January 2008 (this includes Canadian investments in US companies)
• Canadian Fund of Funds have lots of capital to invest in foreign led funds: EDC ($1.2 billion); Teralys ($700 million); OVCF ($205 million)

A New Hope

We need to hope that from out of the ashes will emerge a better funding environment for Canadian entrepreneurs. Whether this is led by new funds, angel investors, US funds, or the existing players learning from their mistakes, it doesn’t matter.

We’re starting to see a strong set of the big players making acquisitions across Canada:

• Google acquires Bumptop
• Stand Out Jobs acquired
• DNA13 acquired by CNW Group
• Viigo acquired by RIM
• Opalis acquired by Microsoft 
• RedFlagDeals.com acquired by YPG
• GigPark acquired by CanPages
• J2Play acquired by EA

 Our startups need real capital to continue to compete on the world stage. But They can’t survive on SR&ED credits alone. We need to hope that this creative destruction happens quickly, so that something can rise from the ashes and we can witness the rebirth of the Canadian tech startup.

Something was definitely up with Bumptop in the last few weeks, and the rumours were flying all over the place. Not wanting to kill a deal, we decided not to post anything here on Startupnorth, especially something we couldn’t fully substantiate.

Enter Chris Arsenault, Mark MacQueen and Techcrunch to confirm that Google has indeed picked up Bumptop in a deal that closed this week. We have covered Bumptop news regularly in the past.

Bumptop was first funded by Xtreme Venture Partners and Austin Hill and followed by Scott Pelton at the Growthworks Commercialization Fund. Based on what we know about the terms that drive Xtreme Ventures and Growthworks’ Comm fund deals, our guess is that the price of this acquisition is north of $25million.

What does this mean? I believe it means that Google is working hard to develop an iPad competitor. If you have used Bumptop before you will know that it is one of the most intuitive touch-screen interfaces available, much better than the current iPad “mash your finger everywhere” UI. Bumptop is undoubtably the owner of some pretty nice IP focused on those interactions, and they now give Google a warchest of techniques that will easily rival multi-touch. The three-finger-swipe and two-finger-zoom of the iphone and ipad are easily outclassed by the extensive capabilities of Bumptop, but Bumptop’s gestures are just a little too complicated for the small screen of the Android or iPhone. Bumtop holds a Canadian patent for many of the gestures and features.

I have to hand it to Anand. For the last 4+ years he has walked around Toronto with his laptop strapped to his back always ready to give anyone a demo of Bumptop. His energy and focus have definitely set him apart from the crowd, and he stuck with his dream longer than many of us thought he would. Eventually the right people stepped up to back him and he seemed to become more determined than ever to make Bumptop a success. This was not handed to Anand, he worked for it.

This is exactly the kind of story that many a bad VC will tell you can never happen in Canada. A fast, efficient and IRR-pumping exit. There are all sorts of dead and dying VCs here who will tell you that there is not enough of an “entrepreneurial culture” to drive their business, no wonder their LPs are putting them on notice (the sad part is that some good funds are getting dragged down with the bad –more on that later) — they aren’t willing to get down in the dirt (or the Imperial Pub for that matter) to meet the Anands of the world.

The truth is that it takes financiers with as much hustle and vision as an entrepreneur, and that is what we are getting with XtremeVP, Austin Hill, and Scott Pelton. In my eyes this deal is a confirmation of the need in Canada for a new type of venture fund(s) to get healthy and to get the backing they need.