StandUp Ventures is a enterprise capital fund investing in pre-seed and seed stage know-how corporations throughout Canada and the US, launched by Toronto-based Michelle McBane in 2017. It was created with a easy premise: there’s an untapped aggressive benefit in backing women-founded and women-led corporations.
“The concept of StandUp was to show you can achieve better rates of return investing with a gender lens, because you’re getting a broader population to the table,” says McBane “There’s not enough capital going to women-led ventures, which is fundamentally an issue, but also we believe diverse leadership will build more diverse teams.”
StandUp is thrilled to announce a brand new addition to their management group: VC-veteran Meredith Powell who most not too long ago served seven years with a high tier Seattle-based fund. As an exited serial entrepreneur and former International CMO at Microsoft for Startups, she shares a deep ardour for builders and a drive to dig deep, roll up her sleeves, and do the work.
Powell says, “Standup Ventures has a reputation for setting a high bar, for deep integrity, and for using their unique approach to fund the most ambitious founders in Canada and the US. I’ve long been inspired by what they are building and could not be more excited to join the team for this next phase of growth.”
Katheleen Eva, who joined StandUp because the fund’s first full-time funding analyst 4 years in the past, has been promoted to Senior Affiliate.
“I’m proud to be exactly the kind of partner I would have wanted as a young, ambitious founder who aimed to change the world.” shares Montreal-based Eva.
With these additions, StandUp now boasts ft on the bottom in Canada’s largest tech hubs — Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. The group additionally newly has closed three as-yet unannounced offers, one in every of those cities.
StandUp has expanded their alternative geography to incorporate the fund’s first ever US-based seed stage funding into Florida-based Max Retail. Max Retail not too long ago closed a $15m usd Sequence A the place StandUp as soon as once more participated, co-investing with main funds Nosara Capital, Artemis Fund, ReThink Impression and M13.
StandUp’s Fund 1 and Fund 2 ($56.5M AUM) have invested in 44 distinctive founders up to now throughout 28 software program ventures. Their inaugural $21M fund of 16 investments now boasts a collective valuation of practically $1.2B — a formidable 4.5x improve from preliminary entry costs, having raised over 50x their preliminary funding in follow-on capital. Two of Canada’s largest Sequence Bs final yr (Arteria AI and Odaia) have been on this portfolio. Moreover, over half of the businesses on this fund progressed from seed to Sequence B and past, considerably outperforming the trade benchmark of 1 in 6.
Since mid-2022, StandUp Ventures has been deploying capital out of Fund 2, of which 4 of the funded corporations have already got raised 12x the preliminary invested capital in follow-on commitments. The group efficiently secured VCCI Inclusive Capital funding on July thirtieth to assist the expansion of Standup’s returns-focused franchise technique.