Panache Ventures announces final close of inaugural fund at $58 million
Summary
Since announcing its initial close in March 2018, the firm has received support from existing investors Alberta Enterprise Corporation, Fonds de solidarité FTQ, and Investissement Québec, as well as new investors, National Bank of Canada, Telus Ventures, Bank of Montreal, and BC Tech Fund, managed by Kensington Capital. “It’s been a super interesting process for us, especially when you look at Mike [Cegelski] and myself, the two entrepreneurs in the group that have had a couple of pretty significant exits each,” Patrick Lor, managing partner at Panache Ventures, told BetaKit. To date, Panache has backed 52 Canadian startups, including MedStack, Korapay, Lane, and MobSquad, taking what has been called a generalist approach to its investment thesis, co-investing alongside angel investors and seed-stage funds. “It’s hard to rise above the noise in the big markets like Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, but I think that you can see from our stats, we’ve made a good brand for ourselves [and that] we really can go in and take a great leadership position,” Lor told BetaKit. Lor also told BetaKit that Panache’s LPs are not looking to cut one-fund cheques, meaning the VC firm will be looking to launch three to five more funds and hopes to keep Panache going for at least 15 years.