Raiven Capital, a new cross-border early-stage venture capital firm, today announced their first close. Becoming one of only a handful of first-time Canadian funds and among 30 funds in the US that had a first closing in 2020, the globally-focused fund, which invests in early-stage Series A tech companies, exceeded its first closing target of $25M USD, with a final target of $100M USD.
Raiven Capital embraces a unique investment thesis – leveraging Canada’s innovation ecosystem and marrying it with Silicon Valley’s focus on growth and exits, exponentially increasing returns.
Raiven believes Canada’s robust infrastructure, diverse world-class talent and lower costs give our companies a better chance to scale. Our startups benefit from longer runways, substantial public dollars, and a rich environment to thrive in.
With deep roots in London’s startup ecosystem, Dugsin said in a statement to TechAlliance, “It’s crucial to build vibrant systems for technology and innovation. This is our answer — introducing more capital into Canadian tech and making sure there are channels for innovative companies to raise growth capital later on, so we can generate even more acceleration. That’s a key component in the design of Raiven.”
“We don’t believe that any single region has a lock on innovation. We’re excited to be linking Canada to the Bay Area and leveraging a more contemporary view on investment.”
Supreet Manchanda, Founding Partner, based in Silicon Valley added, “Our partners bring deep operational experience, having each run companies globally at every life-cycle stage, including start-ups, SMEs, and large corporations. We have playbooks of best practices built over decades which will accelerate the growth of our portfolio companies.”
“Silicon Valley is always looking to build bridges into other sources of innovation, and Canada’s diversity — technologically and culturally — will allow us to develop sustainable velocity for ventures to not only survive, but thrive.”
On creating pathways for entrepreneurs locally, Manchanda said, “Southwestern Ontario is home to a rich ecosystem of technological powerhouses — we can provide them with a deep knowledge of how startups work. At our core, we want to enable solutions to problems by allowing resources, expertise and perspectives to flow between the region and Silicon Valley, and amplifying their overall impact.”
Dugsin and Manchanda possess a combined 40+ years of investing and operational experience, having raised more than $1B USD, with an IRR of 66 percent in previous funds.
The fund’s other partners are in Tel Aviv, Dubai, Singapore, Zurich, Montevideo, Paris, Los Angeles, Vancouver, and Calgary. They provide Raiven with differentiated market intelligence, deal sourcing and market access for growing portfolio companies.