Wellington Financial, a privately held specialty finance firm providing growth capital to Canadian and US-based companies, is pleased to announce the launch of a new USD900 million investment program.
Wellington Financial Fund IV, capitalised with USD200 million of re-circulating equity capital in 2012, was a successor fund to three previous entities. Fund IV committed more than USD225 million via 28 growth capital transactions over a three-year period.
With its first close earlier this week, Fund V is already well on its way to reaching its "hard cap" of USD300 million of re-circulating equity commitments. "We are honoured to have earned the sustained confidence of institutional investors, entrepreneurs and their venture capital partners," says Mark McQueen (pictured), Wellington Financial's President and Chief Executive Officer. "This new fund positions our firm to provide entrepreneurs with anywhere from USD2 million to USD40 million of growth capital per company. Entrepreneurs need comfort that firms such as ours can grow with them as their needs evolve, and this new fund can do just that."
"Over the past 15 years, entrepreneurs and institutional investors alike have seen what true partnership looks like," adds Ken Rotman, Chairman of Wellington Financial and Co-CEO of Clairvest Group Inc. "The institutional limited partnership community appreciates our alignment of interests, which is why Wellington has raised over USD700 million of capital since 2004 – more than any other innovation-focused fund in Canada during the same timeframe."
In 2014, Preqin named Wellington as one of the most "consistent performing fund managers" within its global data base of 128 different venture capital and venture debt funds.
Wellington also announced today the recent addition of Ash Vaidya as a Partner in the Silicon Valley office. Vaidya, a graduate of Cornell University, has a wealth of experience in the venture debt industry on both sides of the border. He joins Wellington's existing California-based team of Paul McKinlay (Silicon Valley) and Eric Speer (Santa Monica).
"As venture debt firms come and go, Wellington Financial has proven itself to have the flexibility, reliability and staying power that entrepreneurs truly need," says Vaidya. "It's all about reputation and experience at the end of the day, which is why Wellington has made such a positive mark on the American knowledge-based industry since it entered the US market in 2009."
Wellington Financial Fund V will continue to follow the same proven model by assisting both public and private companies with a demonstrated customer following, minimum of USD5 million in trailing revenue, talented management and well-defined growth strategies.
