The Cross-Border Biotech Blog

Biotechnology, Health and Business in Canada, the United States and Worldwide

Tag Archives: OVCF

$50 million to BDC for Ontario Tech Investments, Will “Collaborate” With Ontario Venture Capital Fund

The Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario) is providing $50 million to BDC: $35 million for direct investments in “early-stage firms in Southern Ontario” and $15 million for LP investments in VC funds “focused on Ontario-based opportunities.” Rather than relying [entirely?] on internal BDC resources, “as part of its decision-making process, the BDC [...]

New Data Shows 70% of Canada’s Biotech Companies Have Under 12 Months’ Cash. BIOTECanada’s New Ask: Government Loans.

A Canwest story today highlights new BIOTECanada data showing 70% of survey respondents have under 1 year of cash, up from 50% in January.  FierceBiotech picked it up as well, guaranteeing a full dose of international attention.   Even though the remaining 30% of respondents likely include some with big recent successes — Bioniche, Allostera and Zymeworks – and some with creative [...]

Ontario Venture Capital Fund Does Direct Investments Too, But Still No Biotech

A press release today about I Love Rewards’ $8.7 million B round serves to remind everyone that the Ontario Venture Capital Fund has 20% of its $205 million allocable to direct co-investments.  Well, it did, at least.  Now it has $1.8 million less. Other investors in ILR’s B round were GrandBanks Capital, out of Boston, and [...]

What is the State of Canada’s Biotechnology Industry?

There have been a lot of opinions over the last couple of weeks, with little consensus. On the pessimistic side: E&Y’s annual biotechnology report was released a week ago, and the reported taglines ranged from “time of reckoning” to “biotech business model crumbles“.  The first report from Canada’s Science, Technology and Innovation Research Council said that Canadian businesses [...]

New Data in Canada: BIOTECanada-PwC 2009 Life Sciences Forecast

The BIOTECanada-PricewaterhouseCoopers 2009 Canadian Life Sciences Forecast was released today. The Forecast was produced from data gathered in October and November 2008, so is (unsurprisingly) a bit bleak, but there are a few bright spots to be found: Canadian companies are increasingly flexible about exit scenarios.  In the 2009 Forecast, 66% of firms looked to [...]

Ontario Venture Capital Fund (OVCF) Scoreboard: Commitments 2, Biotech/Cleantech 0

The Ontario Venture Capital Fund announced its second commitment today (third?): $20 million to EdgeStone Capital to “help support innovative, high-growth businesses, including high-potential companies in Ontario.”  EdgeStone’s previous venture fund has $108 million of committed capital in this portfolio of IT companies.  Fund III has a first close milestone of $100 million and an ultimate target [...]

OVCF Scoreboard: Commitments 1, Biotech/Cleantech 0

The Ontario Venture Capital Fund (OVCF) announced its first commitment yesterday: $15 million to Georgian Partners Capital, which according to its website invests in “growth and later-stage enterprise software companies.” No announcement yet on the anticipated commitment to Mayfield Capital.  Maybe wiser to roll out a commitment to a local fund first. We’ll continue to follow [...]

$250 million Ontario Emerging Technologies Fund Seen, Raised by $825 million Quebec Venture Capital Fund

Ontario announced the $250 million Emerging Technologies Fund yesterday … pretty much exactly what Monday’s letter to McGuinty from the CVCA requested. That has got to be, by the way, either: the world’s first psychic government relations campaign, or the world’s fastest government stimulus. Not to be out-done, the Québec budget today included an $825 [...]

We’ll See What VC

A post on Capital Rants this morning says the Mayfield Fund will be the Ontario Venture Capital Fund’s first investment, that it will be in the range of US$5 – US$7.5 million, and that Mayfield will open a one-person office in Toronto.  Mayfield’s investments page shows they invested in biotech and device plays in the [...]

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