Luge Capital has secured additional commitments from iA Financial Group and BDC Capital for its inaugural fintech-focused venture capital (VC) fund, bringing the fund size to $85 million. Luge Capital has said it intends to raise up to $100 million for the fund.
iA Financial Group and BDC Capital join current limited partners (LPs) including Desjardins, Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), Sun Life Financial, La Capitale and Fonds de solidarité FTQ.
Montreal and Toronto based Luge Capital is being led and managed by General Partners, David Nault and Karim Gillani.
photo credit: Luge Capital
News Release
Luge Capital Grows to $85M, Adding iA Financial Group and BDC Capital as New Investors
Fintech and AI Focused Venture Capital Fund Invests in Startups that Transform the Financial Services Sector
Montreal & Toronto, October 22, 2019 – Luge Capital announced that iA Financial Group and BDC Capital have invested in the fintech-focused venture capital (VC) fund, bringing the total size to $85 million.
Luge Capital works with early-stage companies and a network of leading financial institutions to help build the next generation of financial services. iA Financial Group ($187 billion AUM/ AUA) and BDC Capital (over $3 billion AUM) are added to the current set of fund investors: Desjardins (largest federation of credit unions in North America), CDPQ (over $300 billion AUM worldwide), Sun Life Financial ($1 trillion AUM), La Capitale ($2.4 billion in revenue) and Fonds de solidarité FTQ ($15.6 billion AUM).
“Investing in Luge Capital is a great way for iA Financial Group to identify promising startups with whom we can collaborate and further our own mission for innovation,” said Pierre Miron, E.V.P. Information Technologies at iA Financial Group. “The financial services industry is rapidly changing as customer needs change, and we are eager to play a key role in the transformation to better serve our customers.”
Also joining Luge Capital’s fund is BDC Capital, the investment arm of BDC, Canada’s only bank devoted exclusively to entrepreneurs. “We believe David Nault and Karim Gillani have the potential to build a strong franchise here, and we particularly like that they’ve brought in institutional investors that are new to venture capital,” said Jérôme Nycz, Executive Vice President, BDC Capital. “BDC Capital’s commitment to Luge aligns with our goals to support promising fund managers in Canada and to attract strategic and corporate partners to participate in the venture capital asset class, as well as the FinTech sector.”
Business and consumer needs are rapidly changing as are their preferences in how they interact with financial services. Every sector of financial services is being transformed by technology and large financial institutions are looking to adapt quickly to those changes to serve their customers even better.
“Our portfolio companies actively engage with our fund investors, trade ideas on industry trends, and work towards commercial partnerships,” added Karim Gillani Co-Founder and General Partner at Luge Capital and former Corporate Development executive at PayPal. “The backing of iA Financial Group and BDC Capital strengthens our value as venture investors, and better positions Luge to support globally minded entrepreneurs.”
“Our investors, network of financial institutions and experienced team help us help companies. Over the last year, we’ve developed a collaboration playbook for early stage fintech companies to work with financial institutions and it’s proving to work well,” said David Nault, Co-Founder and General Partner at Luge Capital. “The addition of iA Financial Group and BDC Capital to the Luge investor base allows us to expand our reach and deepen our ties to industry leaders.”
About Luge Capital
Luge Capital is a fintech focused venture capital fund, investing in early-stage teams shaping the way the world experiences financial services. We invest in fintech and AI solutions applied to financial services and love entrepreneurs challenging the status quo. We work with dedicated teams who are driven to solve real problems that affect people on a global scale. We are an experienced team with value-added investors and a deep industry network to help founders build successful companies. www.luge.vc – Building fintech champions.
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