The Ontario Venture Capital Fund is committing CAD20m in EdgeStone Capital Venture Fund III to help support innovative, high-growth businesses, including high-potential companies in Ont
The Ontario Venture Capital Fund is committing CAD20m in EdgeStone Capital Venture Fund III to help support innovative, high-growth businesses, including high-potential companies in Ontario.
EdgeStone is an Ontario-based venture capital firm investing in early and growth stage Canadian information technology companies. Its investments include Ontario-based companies such as Workbrain, SlipStream Data, Protus IP Solutions and Varicent.
The CAD205m Ontario Venture Capital Fund, managed by TD Capital Private Equity Investors, is a joint initiative between the provincial government and institutional investors to invest primarily in Ontario-based and Ontario-focused venture capital and growth equity funds.
The announcement by TD Capital Private Equity Investors comes on the heels of TD announcing its first Ontario-based commitment of up to CAD15m to Georgian Partners on 24 March 2009. It also follows a recent announcement by Ontario to create a new CAD250m Emerging Technologies Fund to help drive private sector investment into new Ontario technology start-ups.
‘In these tough economic times it is important to give Ontario’s cutting-edge companies the support they need to grow and succeed right here at home. By supporting innovative Ontario ideas and high-growth technology companies today, we are helping to create the products, services and jobs that will drive our economy in the future,’ says John Wilkinson, minister of research and innovation (pictured).
‘Through the Ontario Venture Capital Fund, we are helping to ensure innovative companies continue to seize global market opportunities. The Ontario government’s 2009 Budget, proposes to enhance these opportunities through its comprehensive tax reform, which will cut the marginal effective tax rate on new business investment in half, making Ontario one of the most competitive jurisdictions in the industrialized world for new investment,’ adds Dwight Duncan, minister of finance.