INKEF: Canada's new early stage venture capital fund

Today OMERS and Netherlands’ based APG announced a joint venture capital fund or “lifecycle” fund called INKEF. Its a 15 year joint venture between these two pension plans with an initial commitment of $200m over the next 5 years. Its not clear if the $200 million will be shared equally between the two geographies or if the majority of the money will be for Canadian deals. I would imagine there are many more startups in Canada than the Netherlands so i suspect more money would flow into Canada. Anyway you look at it, its great news for Canada’s early stage companies/entrepreneurs who have very limited sources of early stage capital.

Still not clear who will be the managing team for INKEF here in Canada and what exactly what is their value add other than money, but what is known to me is that this fund will not only make an early stage commitment into a company but will also want to continue to invest over the lifecycle of the company and maintain their ownership. It is also my understanding that INKEF Canada is hiring a recruiter to build out the management team in Toronto.

Cisco wants to meet Canada's Best!

Cisco is interested in learning more about the top datacenter, virtualization and smart grid companies in Canada. We’re asking for VC-style pitch decks to be submitted to us for review and will arrange Telepresence meetings with those companies that appear to have a good fit with Cisco (we have Telepresence rooms across Canada)
Submissions deadline is June 18th.

To summarize requirements:
1)      Companies must be active in the data center, virtualization or smart grid markets
2)      Must have existing VC investment
3)      Ready/able to take their business to the next level
4)      VC-pitch PowerPoint will be accepted only. We won’t be able to review websites, data sheets or whitepapers

Please forward submissions to Tab Borden of the Canadian Consulate < Tab.Borden@international.gc.ca>

DigitalPuck Milestone: 400 Members!

Great story in today’s Canadian Business on the C100 and DigitalPuck and all the networking momentum.  We have come along way in less than a year. Lets keep that momentum going!

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/managing/strategy/article.jsp?conte…