Thursday, May 3, 2018

Foundry Group Backs Canadian Venture Investor As LP

Boulder-based venture investor Foundry Group--which has been slowly transitioning to a "fund of funds" with its investments--says it has made an investment in a Canadian venture capital firm, Golden Ventures, as part of a CAD$72M venture fund. The move is the first for Foundry in a Canadian venture capital fund. The new fund is Golden Ventures' third investment fund. Foundry said it already has a number of connections into the Canadian startup community, with a number of its startups having offices in Toronto and Waterloo. One of its startups, Gist, was acquired by Blackberry, and two programs operated by Techstars in Toronto. Foundry has slowly been moving to invest in more venture funds as a Limited Partner, versus operating a a venture fund itself; just last month, Foundry announced it was one of the big investors in another venture investment fund, PSL Ventures, in Seattle. Foundry announced in 2015 that it would begin to invest in other venture capital funds rather than hand over the firm to younger partners.