Harvest Builders, a Calgary-based growth platform and venture studio, has launched Harvest Venture Partners, an early stage venture capital firm investing in breakthrough financial technology businesses.
Harvest Ventures’ inaugural fund is one of the largest sole General Partner funds in the world at CAD14 million, and is supported by institutional investor ATB Financial.
Harvest Venture Partners leads investments in pre-scale founding teams and provides an unparalleled set of resources and partnerships to rapidly accelerate market adoption and distribution. Unique amongst these is providing founders with the competitive advantage of anchor business partnerships. Harvest’s early partnerships include Canadian FinTech Neo Financial, and has already completed investments in OneVest; a next generation wealth and asset management firm, and Walnut; an embedded insurance business whose Co-Founder, Derek Szeto successfully exited RedFlagDeals in a landmark acquisition to Yellow Pages.
“At the core of every great company is an extraordinarily dedicated founding team. We started Harvest Ventures to provide generational support to founders that gives them the resources and advantaged distribution to scale their business faster than with any other partner,” says Alex Gold, Founder & General Partner, Harvest Venture Partners. “Lifetime support and resources matter now more than ever and our strategy offers founders advantages that no other Canadian fund can match.”
“ATB Financial and Harvest Venture Partners share the common mission of building and supporting innovation and technology businesses in Alberta. We see a significant opportunity to make a positive impact in the digitalisation of Alberta and growing the knowledge economy in ways that will benefit the province now and well into the future,” says Curtis Stange, President and CEO of ATB Financial.
While Harvest Venture Partners works with founders to provide initial seed investments, the unique relationship with Harvest Builders’ Venture Studio ensures that founders have access to generational resources and services in areas like talent management, performance marketing, and financial operations. Harvest’s commitment is to support founders for the lifetime of their business; a step change in comparison to any other growth platform and venture studio.
“Through the collective experience of the leadership within Harvest Builders we understand the unique factors of building successful market leading businesses,” says Chris Simair, Managing Partner, Harvest Builders. “From the beginning, our vision for Harvest was to bring the essential pieces together that support a productive entrepreneurial ecosystem in Western Canada, and this fund is an essential part of this ecosystem. As a result, we can expect to see more $1bn+ unicorn companies being created here in the Prairies over the next few years.”