Meet Our Judges

Neha Khera
General Partner
2048 Ventures

Neha is a General Partner at 2048 Ventures, a lead-cheque pre-seed fund based out of New York. She has been early-stage investing for over a decade. She was previously co-founder of 500 Startups Canada where she led the firm’s investments in ApplyBoard, Mejuri and BenchSci. 

Neha is an Electrical Engineer by background from University of Waterloo. She started off her career as a software developer, and worked in circuitry design, telco, and banking innovation before landing in venture capital.

Matthew Leibowitz
Co-Founder & Managing General Partner
Plaza Ventures

Matthew is the Co-Founder of Plaza Ventures, a national venture capital firm, spending 15+ years focused on deal flow, board management, ecosystem development, corporate partnerships and investor relations. Matthew is a career VC, having overseen dozens of growth-tech finance investments with consistent top decile returns. Matthew has co-created multiple funds including Canada’s first dedicated Direct Secondary Fund. Matthew is a Board Member of the Canadian Venture Capital Association, a member of the MaRS IAF Investment Committee, Co-Chair of the CIX Top Awards Committee, and Mentor at Techstars Toronto Accelerator and Creative Destruction Lab. Matthew is also an Advisor at NEXT Canada, where he mentors young entrepreneurs in building their own ventures. He is a frequent public speaker and guest lecturer on tech start-ups and Venture Capital, as well as an active angel investor.

Talia Abramowitz
Managing Partner
Deloitte Ventures

Talia is the managing partner of Deloitte Ventures and is responsible for launching the Canadian initiative in 2022. Coming from an entrepreneurial household, Talia is passionate about helping founders succeed.

In the five years before taking on Deloitte Ventures, Talia served as the chief operating officer for Deloitte’s national Financial Advisory practice and for Omnia AI, the firm’s artificial intelligence practice in Canada. She was on the ground floor of building the AI practice in 2018 and scaling it into the highly successful practice it is today.

Talia also has more than a decade of experience providing valuation and M&A advisory services to a variety of companies, with a particular focus on and personal excitement towards the technology sector.

Aditya Aggarwal
Partner, Industrial Innovation Venture Fund
BDC Capital

Aditya Aggarwal is a Partner with the Industrial Innovation Venture Fund at BDC Capital. In this role he is targeting investing in technologies and leading-edge innovation which focus on transforming legacy industries such as advanced manufacturing, Agri-tech, mining, oil & gas etc. 

Before joining BDC Capital in 2020, Aditya spent several years at Siemens, as vice president of the company’s Internet of Things (IoT) application innovation and data services business. Aditya holds a master’s degree in computer science from Dalhousie University as well as a bachelor's degree in engineering from the BMS College of Engineering in Bangalore, India.

Munish Aggarwal
Investor
RBC Capital Partners

Munish is a part of the investment team at RBC Capital Partners - private equity and venture capital arm of Royal Bank of Canada. He has worn many hats in the consulting and investing industries over the last decade.

In his last role at Asian Development Bank Ventures, Munish was actively investing in the early-stage startups involved in financial inclusion and climate change in South and Southeast Asia. Prior to that he used to work at International Finance Corporation focusing on late stage investing in the financial services sector. Munish has also provided consulting services to infrastructure sector in the transport and logistics space.

John Albright
Co-Founder and Managing Partner
Relay Ventures

John is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Relay Ventures, a venture capital firm with investments from start-up phase to late venture and growth capital across North America. Founded in 2008, Relay Ventures is headquartered in Toronto and has a significant presence in San Francisco and Calgary. Throughout his career, John has helped entrepreneurs shape their vision and capital plans for long-term, sustainable growth. His tenure in finance spans venture capital, private equity and investment banking, where he has assisted entrepreneurs through all stages of the start-up lifecycle, from seed financing to IPO and M&A.

John holds the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) designation and received his Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the Schulich School of Business in Toronto. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of Playmaker Capital, Enthusiast Gaming, TouchBistro, Friendlier, Alate Partners, and the Centre for Aging and Brain Health Innovation. In addition, John is an Angel investor.

Narbe Alexandrian
CEO
Define Capital Inc.

Narbe Alexandrian is the Founder and CEO of Define Capital, a private equity vehicle in the software space. Define Capital is a permanent capital corporation, focused on acquiring and operating profitable SaaS businesses in niche vertical markets. Prior to Define Capital, Narbe was the President and CEO of RIV Capital, a private equity and venture capital fund traded on the TSXV, TSX and now the Canadian Stock Exchange (CSE:RIV). Prior to RIV Capital, Narbe worked as a venture capitalist at OMERS Ventures, the largest venture capital fund in Canada.

Prior to joining OMERS Ventures, Narbe worked as a Senior Strategy Manager at TELUS, developing and shaping their Internet of Things (IoT) segment. Narbe has also worked with a number of Software as a Service (SaaS) companies, developing operational and go-to-market strategies. Narbe began his career at Deloitte, within the Corporate Strategy and M&A Advisory groups.

Narbe has taught courses in technology entrepreneurship and accounting at the Schulich School of Business and Rotman Commerce, and has also been an instructor for the Canadian Institute of Chartered Professional Accountants. Narbe is a Chartered Accountant (CA) and Chartered Professional Accountant (CPA), and has a BBA from the Schulich School of Business.

Joe Allen
Managing Director
Energia Ventures

Joe is an entrepreneurship and financial modelling expert. Prior to leading the accelerator programs, Joe worked as the Director of Investments at the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation (NBIF) managing their venture capital portfolio and overseeing the development of new investment clients. He spent time in various management positions within the Government of New Brunswick economic development sector and has worked as a Chief Financial Officer for several companies. Joe received his Bachelor of Business Administration with a concentration in accounting from the University of New Brunswick. He received his Chartered Accountant designation in 2004. In his private time, Joe is the cofounder and CEO of Devil’s Keep Distillery, an award-winning artisanal distillery based in Hanwell, NB.

Kamrul Arefin
Investment Analyst
New Brunswick Innovation Foundation

Kamrul Arefin is currently working as Investment Analyst for venture capital investments at New Brunswick Innovation Foundation. In this role he is targeting investing in leading-edge innovative startups that can create employment and foster economic benefit for the province.Kamrul has 11 years of working experience in investment industry with different roles and responsibilities in investment banking, public equity analysis, private equity analysis and startup due diligence. Kamrul also worked as a co-founder of fintech startup previously. 
Kamrul holds a master’s degree in Quantitative Investment Management from University of New Brunswick as well as MBA majoring in finance from University of Dhaka.

Daniel Armali
Partner
Amplify Capital

Daniel Armali is a Partner with Amplify Capital and head of the Quebec office. Daniel is focused on sourcing, diligence, and post investment support in the areas of climate, education, and digital health. Prior to joining Amplify Capital, Daniel worked for Canada's largest venture capital investor. He started his career working for Fortune 500 technology companies including Microsoft, OpenText and comScore, before moving to the Bank of Canada, where he spent time on asset management for the pension plan with the financial markets department responsible for the foreign reserves portfolio and domestic debt portfolio.
Daniel spent nearly seven years with the BDC supporting venture capital investments in direct companies, as well as Funds and Funds of Funds. He also did a consulting mandate at Rio Tinto Alcan during his MBA and held a number of board roles in Canada.

Daniel has an undergraduate degree from Wilfrid Laurier University, an MBA from HEC Montreal, and has successfully completed all three levels of the CFA program.

Layth Ashoo
Partner
Maverix Private Equity

Layth is a Partner at Maverix Private Equity. In this role, he is responsible for deal sourcing, execution and portfolio company oversight. He brings 15 years of industry experience spanning private equity, management consulting, investment banking and software development.

Layth has been involved in the origination, evaluation, execution, and oversight of buyout and minority investment transactions since 2017.

Tom Astle
Partner
Longevity Funds

Tom is a seasoned veteran of Bay and Wall Street with 25 years’ experience in equity research and capital markets management. One of the top ranked technology and sector analysts for almost 15 years with experience in Canadian, U.S. and European markets.

Recent experience includes venture and growth equity and debt investing as well as management of a public listed company. Tom is currently an active board member of both public, private and not-for-profit companies in the technology and finance sectors.

Josh Axler
Principal
Flow Capital

Josh Axler is the Principal at Flow Capital. Josh is responsible for origination and front of funnel activities including meeting and evaluating prospective venture debt borrows at Flow Capital.

Flow Capital is focused on lending to growth stage companies generating $2.5MM of ARR of $4MM of non-recurring revenue that are seeking minimally dilutive growth capital options.

Pelra Azondekon
Managing Director
AsterX (Quebecor)

Pelra Azondekon is an active leader in the private equity and venture capital ecosystem in Canada where she strives to be an ambassador for diversity and inclusion. She brings 15 years of experience in private investments, corporate finance, M&A and accounting. Pelra currently leads asterX, the corporate venture capital arm of Quebecor, a Canadian leader in telecommunications, entertainment, news, media and culture. Prior to joining Quebecor, she led and managed numerous equity investments in leading tech startups at Investissement Québec. Before that, Pelra spent close to a decade at EY, where she advised corporate clients and institutional funds on domestic and international M&A and private equity deals. Pelra is a Board Director at the Upside Foundation and OSEntreprendre, a member of the Audit and Finance Committee of the Board of Université de Montréal as well as a mentor as part of the Black Wealth Club.

Gaurav Bansal
Head of Investments, VC
Holt Xchange VC

Gaurav is Head of Investments at Holt Xchange (backed by Holt Family Office), a global VC fund investing in sports, media, entertainment, and technology companies across the globe. At Holt, Gaurav leads the Fund’s new investments and portfolio management activities.

Gaurav has both a tech & finance background having worked across venture capital, investment banking, and technology consulting at global firms such as IBM, Nomura, Axis Capital, IIFL, and Pentathlon Ventures.

Gaurav has invested in 100+ SaaS startups globally across sectors: mobility/supply chain, future of work, fintech, healthtech, AI/ML automation/productivity tools & data analytics. As an ex-banker, Gaurav has also closed IPO and private equity deals worth US$2.3Bn+.

Gaurav holds a BTech degree in Electronics & Communication, an MBA in Capital Market, and a certificate in Artificial Intelligence (Strategies for digital business transformation) from Kellogg, the US.

Raif Barbaros
Partner
Mistral Venture Partners

I'm a startup CTO turned VC at Mistral Venture Partners in Canada. Prior to Mistral, I was the founder or CTO at multiple VC-backed companies in the Bay Area and Toronto, two of which were acquired, and two reached millions of users.

Alexander Barclay
Principal
Graphite Ventures

Alexander is a VC with Graphite Ventures, previously MaRS IAF, and has led seed-stage investments in high-potential IT, health, and cleantech startups. He’s spent over a decade working with hardware & software across sectors, from enterprise cloud development to healthcare hardware financing.

Niamh Barry
Investor
Georgian

Niamh (pronounced “Neeve”) is an Investor at Georgian, a growth stage investment firm focused on investing in high growth technology companies that harness the power of data in a trustworthy way. Georgian’s platform provides the insights and automation to accelerate growth and augment how the Georgian team supports CEOs. Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Georgian’s team brings together software entrepreneurs, machine learning experts and investment professionals. In her role at Georgian, Niamh is focused on sourcing, diligence, and post investment support. Prior to Georgian, Niamh worked in software sales at Pivotal Labs, an agile software development consulting firm.

Jenifer Bartman
Founder & Principal
Jenifer Bartman Business Advisory Services

Jenifer Bartman is the Founder & Principal of Jenifer Bartman Business Advisory Services, assisting clients in the growth and transition stages of development.  

An experienced senior executive, Jenifer held the broad-based role of Vice President & CFO of a venture capital fund manager for over nine years and has been actively involved with the Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (CVCA) since 2001. Prior to this role, she worked as a management consultant with an international firm, providing consulting and business advisory services to organizations across a wide range of industries.  

Jenifer is a published author (Defusing the Family Business Time Bomb), experienced Board Director, and has developed and delivered numerous business courses. She appears regularly on the CBC News Network Weekend Business Panel (TV), discussing the week in business, among other media outlets.

Additional information about Jenifer is available on her website https://www.jeniferbartman.com/  

Erin Basarsky
Director, Bell Ventures

As Director, Bell Ventures, Erin provides strategic leadership and portfolio management to Bell Ventures. Erin has significant operating experience at a fibre-based Bell subsidiary and is well versed in financial leadership, with experience managing a number of mergers, acquisitions and complex change initiatives. Erin is a Chartered Accountant and holds a Masters of Professional Accounting from the University of Saskatchewan. She is also an LPAC member at CIC.

Melissa Belbeck
Principal
Whitecap Venture Partners

Melissa joined Whitecap Venture Partners, an early stage VC firm in Toronto, in 2020 and is a Principal on the investing team. Previously, she worked in Business Operations at Ritual, a mobile order ahead app based in Toronto. Prior to Ritual, Melissa worked as a Senior Product Manager at BMO, managing home financing products. Melissa started her career in management consulting, working in the Digital practice at Oliver Wyman, where she worked with leading Technology and Financial Services companies on strategic projects.

Melissa holds an HBA from the Ivey School of Business and an MBA from the Kellogg School of Business.

Greg Bergamesco
Director
Touchdown Ventures

Greg joined Touchdown Ventures in 2016 and oversees the firm's investments in the media, infrastructure, and energy sectors. Prior to Touchdown, Greg was responsible for identifying, evaluating, and incubating new revenue generating businesses at Comcast Corporation. Greg spent several years in strategy consulting with Booz Allen Hamilton and PwC, primarily building business cases and leading large-scale business transformations, and began his career as a financial analyst at Prudential Financial.

Greg received a BA in Economics at Rutgers University while playing Division I Men’s Tennis, and earned an MBA from the University of Notre Dame, graduating with honors.

Lise Birikundavyi
Managing Partner
BKR Capital

Lise Birikundavyi is the Managing Partner at BKR Capital, the first black woman at the helm of a VC fund in Canada. Lise is a firm believer in using the forces of capital markets as a basis to support impactful innovation and inclusive wealth creation.

Andrew Black
Founder, Managing Partner
BrandProject

Andrew founded BrandProject in 2013 with the mission to help founders succeed in building world-class digital consumer brands. At BrandProject, Andrew provides hands-on guidance in key areas including business strategy, leadership and team development, consumer proposition, finance, board matters, and fundraising strategy.

Andrew has strong experience as a consumer business builder, people leader, entrepreneur, operator, and investor. In 2004, he followed his passion for starting disruptive new businesses and founded Virgin Mobile Canada with Sir Richard Branson. He and his team grew the Virgin business to over 1 million customers and $500M in revenues within five years, while winning the JD Power Award for customer service every year. Virgin Mobile was acquired by Bell Canada in 2009. Prior to Virgin, Andrew was President at LEGO Americas, US GM at Nike, helping launch Nike’s US Equipment Business, and earlier was VP Marketing-North America at Dr Pepper 7UP.

Andrew is a graduate of Queen’s University with a B.A. in Economics. He is a former board member of Virgin Unite and is an active member of YPO. Outside of work, Andrew can be found sailing, at a Blue Jays game, or planning his next adventure with his wife and four daughters.

Jake Bodanis
Principal
Portage

Jake Bodanis is a Principal at Portage and joined the firm in 2019. As a member of Portage, Jake invests in early-stage and growth-stage fintech opportunities globally. He is responsible for all aspects of the investment process, including origination, due diligence, execution, and portfolio management. He is based in Toronto, Canada.

Prior to Portage, Jake worked in the Private Equity group at PSP Investments, where he worked on leveraged buyouts and structured investment transactions in the financial services, technology, and retail sectors.

He holds a B.A. in Honours Business Administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business (Dean’s Honour List).

Sue Britton
CEO & Founder
Firefly Growth Inc.

Growth: it's pretty much the only thing that inspires me in business. My entire career has been about interpreting clients needs and creating new products and solutions. I have deep expertise in financial products like banking, insurance, investments - and the application of technology to deliver those financial services.

Firefly Growth works with companies to transform and be as good, better than, leapfrog, or re-define their business or offerings in the market; through inspiring teams, designing strategies, sharing knowledge and/or delivering transformational outcomes.

Ed Bryant
CEO
Sampford Advisors

Ed Bryant is the President and CEO of Sampford Advisors. Ed has over 27 years of experience including over 16 years in Investment Banking with Deutsche Bank and Morgan Stanley in Hong Kong, Singapore and New York. In that time, Ed raised in excess of $20 billion in equity and debt capital and completed over $10 billion in M&A transactions. Prior to founding Sampford, Ed held the CFO and VP of Corporate Development positions for three years at Conversant. Ed holds a Bachelor of Arts in Business Studies from Sheffield University in England.

Angelo Casanas
Interim Managing Director
OneEleven

Angelo is passionate about entrepreneurship and innovation. As a seasoned veteran in the space, he has worked in various innovation hubs in the country including MaRS in Toronto, Ontario, and Genesis in St. John's, Newfoundland. He has worked with hundreds of tech companies, from helping companies get from ideation to Product Market Fit, to helping post seed companies grow and scale. As the interim managing director for OneEleven he oversees the hub's space, its programming, as well as the growth of its vibrant and thriving community.

Noah Chaikof
Senior Associate
First Ascent Ventures

Noah has experience working in finance and technology, both in Canada and abroad. He was previously a summer investment banking analyst in the Diversified practice at UBS Canada. Noah also spent a summer in Tel Aviv at Deloitte Catalyst (formerly Innovation Technology Terminal), where he consulted for local start-ups and helped connect Deloitte’s global clients with Israeli technologies.

Noah has played an integral role in supporting FAV portfolio companies and was an embedded member of the transaction team that closed the Upchain sale to Autodesk in May, 2021. Noah continues to lead investment sourcing efforts on behalf of the Fund and to manage due diligence efforts on new investments.

David Charbonneau
Managing Partner
Boreal Ventures

David is the founder and managing partner of Boreal Ventures, a Montreal-based deeptech-focused fund. Prior to founding Boreal Ventures, David worked at BDC Capital where he helped manage a $135M early-stage venture fund in the Industrial and Cleantech space.

David initially started his career working in various engineering functions for Bombardier, Kraft and Toyota before transitioning to management consulting and strategy at KPMG-SECOR, where he supported executives on investment decisions, strategic planning and post-merger integration.

David also co-founded the Comité de Consultation en Gestion de Polytechnique (CCGP), a student-run consulting organization supporting strategic decision-making at start-ups, not-for-profits and established businesses.

He holds a bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering as as well as a Master's degree in Industrial Engineering focusing on Technology Management.

Bonnie Chau
Investor
BCF Ventures

Bonnie Chau is a VC Investor at BCF Ventures with diversified expertise in the areas of entrepreneurship, finance, accounting, and investment. She currently leads the due diligence for B2B startups and provides support in the portfolio companies. Prior to BCF Ventures, Bonnie has honed her operating skills at one of the fastest growing fintech companies in Canada by providing her expertise in Finance/Accounting and she was later promoted to execute on interim management projects working directly with the CEO and CFO. Bonnie is always looking for opportunities to give back to the startup community by volunteering in founder-focused initiatives.

Paul Ciriello
Partner
Finistere Ventures

Paul founded and has been managing partner for TD Capital Ventures, Fairhaven Capital, Milk Street Investments that have deployed about $500M in early stage companies across multiple high growth industries and technologies.

Previously, Paul founded and built several software companies in the financial services industry as a senior executive at Fidelity Investments in Boston. Through Milk Street Investments, Paul help found MIT Alumni Angels, the Harvard Founders Network and he works with other university start up programs including, SUNY.

Marcus Daniels
Founding Partner & CEO
Highline BETA

Marcus is the Founding Partner & CEO of Highline Beta, a pre-seed VC & corporate venture studio that funds & builds startups from inception. 

He has 26+ years as a serial tech entrepreneur and was previously the Co-Founder and CEO of HIGHLINE VC and Managing Director of Extreme Startups. Marcus holds an MBA from the Smith School of Business and a BA from McGill University.

Max Donsky
Analyst
Impression Ventures

Mohamed Elabshihy
Associate
Graphite Ventures

I'm passionate about supporting ambitious founders and helping innovators bring their ideas to life. Before joining Graphite Ventures, I spent two years at Real Ventures as an Investment Associate and over three years at MaRS Discovery District, where I managed a portfolio of products focused on enabling startups to raise capital and expand to global markets.

Bryan Emerson
President
Starlight Capital Inc.

As an angel investor and investment banker since 2000, and serial entrepreneur since the 1970's, Bryan Emerson has developed a network of over 46,000 investors, entrepreneurs and business professionals. Most are fellow finance professionals who run venture funds, private equity funds, investment banks and family offices and who, as individuals, enjoy investing personal money in angel rounds of promising companies too small for their corporate funding.

Katheleen Eva
Investor
StandUp Ventures

Katheleen is on the investment team at StandUp Ventures, a Seed stage fund that invests in women-led companies across Canada. After completing her education in neuroscience and having her first founder experience, she became a Venture for Canada Fellow. Since then she has spent most of her career working in product and growth, first as a scale-up and then building a YC-backed fertility startup. She has been involve with both Venture for Canada and Women in VC in leadership capacities and is extremely passionate about moving the needle on income inequality through enabling more equitable access to entrepreneurship.

Miranda Ferris
Vice President
Round13

Miranda is a Vice President at Round13 where she is actively sourcing new investment opportunities, conducting due diligence and providing support to current investees. Prior to joining Round13, Miranda worked as a Director of Strategic Finance at Q4 Inc, a publicly-traded (TSX:QFOR) capital markets communication software company, in Private Equity at ONCAP Management Partners, the mid-market private equity fund of Onex Corporation and at Deloitte in the audit and assurance practice focused on financial institutions.

Miranda holds an Honors in Business Administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business at Western University and is a Chartered Professional Accountant.

Sophie Forest
Partner
Brightspark

Ingenious VC with a special flair in identifying talented entrepreneurs. Sophie has an incredible read on people. Obsessed with winning, she sees and creates opportunities that most people miss. Rare experience in B2C and e-commerce. A pioneer in the industry and a leading investor, she’s a role model to many.

Sophie has been involved in the Canadian Venture Capital Industry more than 25 years. She worked for Caisse de Dépots et Placements for seven years, managing a large portfolio of VC investments internationally with assets of close to one billion $.

Since 2003, Sophie has been a managing partner with Brightspark, an early stage venture capital firm. Sophie was involved in a number of successful VC backed companies including Touchtunes, Servicesoft, Think Dynamics, Raidan6, Protecode, Jewlr and Hopper. Sophie is also a Board member of Centech in Montréal and is an independent Board member for Interac inc.

Jack Fraser
Partner, Growth Venture Fund
BDC Capital

Jack is a serial scalepreneur with over 30 years of scaling of hyper-growth businesses globally with deep experience in developing digital-first strategies and operational transformation that has enabled market and product expansion initiatives in Asian-Pacific, Europe, and North America. Jack is well known for his experience as a strategic CFO, but has also held COO and Head of Corporate Development titles with digital commerce, FinTech, and P/SaaS companies. Jack started his career in corporate banking and then moved into operational management with several high-growth technology companies in Canada, the U.S.A., and the U.K.. Most recently, Jack was the head of finance with SSENSE, a Québec-based global luxury fashion e-tailer. Jack is currently a Partner with BDC Capital’s late-stage Growth Venture Fund. Jack joined BDC Capital in January 2020, and since then, he has led investments in companies such as Hopper, Symend, Article, Paper, BenchSci, Borrowell, DOZR, Pathfactory and #Paid.

Randy Garg
Founder & Managing Partner
Vistara Growth

Randy has passionately worked with dozens of emerging technology companies over the past 30+ years in various capacities as an investor, advisor, and board member. In the early 90s and 2000s he worked closely with numerous earlier-stage technology companies through their growth trajectories as a Principal in a venture capital fund. His experience also includes a number of years in the mid-2000s on the sell–side as a Managing Director with PwC Corporate Finance leading M&A and financing mandates.

Rekindling his passion for investing in growing technology companies, he co-founded a family office fund in 2010 focused on providing flexible growth capital in the form of growth debt and growth equity to mid-later stage technology companies across North America. In early 2015, these efforts led to his founding of Vistara Capital Partners (now Vistara Growth) carrying on the same investment strategy and approach where he currently serves as its Managing Partner.

Moien Giashi
Senior Associate
Greensky Ventures

Materials Scientist and Researcher turned Angel and Venture Capital investment professional.

Mark Gilbert
Executive Director
Espresso Capital

North American deal origination and sponsor coverage for Espresso Capital. Lender and investor to growth stage technology companies.

Peter Goggin
Director of Investments
New Brunswick Innovation Foundation

Peter Goggin is the Director of Investments at NBIF and has over 12 years of startup and business experience. Peter received his MBA from the University of New Brunswick and is passionate for helping grow local businesses with global aspirations. Peter has experience building companies, raising funds, growing teams, and developing technology solutions. Previously Founder of Ag-Tech startup Resson. Peter is currently Director of Investments at NBIF, responsible for executing the investment strategy and direct investing activity into pre-seed and seed-stage companies

Ajay Gopal
Partner
Framework Venture Partners

Ajay Gopal is a Partner at FRAMEWORK having been part of the founding team of the firm. Ajay has more than 15 years of cumulative principal investing and capital markets experience concentrated in venture capital and other alternative investing platforms. Ajay’s responsibilities with the firm include strategic board representation, deal sourcing and assisting portfolio companies with operational and strategic initiatives.

Possessing an entrepreneurial background, Ajay is a partner and advisor of a healthcare services company currently in operation in Toronto. As an engineer by educational background, Ajay is keenly interested in meeting with technology companies across all verticals and focused on helping entrepreneurs with their scaling journey.

Danielle Graham
Co-Founder
The Firehood

General Partner of Phoenix Fire and Co-Founder of The Firehood, an angel stage fund and network focused on women in technology. Investing in early stage tech startups and advising for scaling tech at ventureLAB, Creative Destruction Lab, Brampton Venture Zone and the Coalition of Innovation Leaders Against Racism (CILAR). Unlocked capital for underrepresented founders as Principal at Sandpiper Ventures and Dream Maker Ventures. Champion for women’s initiatives such as the Dovetail Summit, the Canadian Women’s Network and GTAN WIT, the first angel group training program for female investors. An important part of the angel community network, as a board member, investment officer and advisor to tech incubators. Prev. Market Readiness Fund at Ontario Centres of Excellence, Deloitte Human Capital Consultant and Women in Tech Program Manager at Communitech, and founder of the Fierce Founders Programs, the first female-focused accelerator and bootcamp series in Canada. Masters of Business Administration (M.B.A.) from Wilfrid Laurier University, a Masters of Arts (M.A.) from Dalhousie University and a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) from Trinity College, University of Toronto.

Neil Grunberg
Managing Partner
Storytime Capital

Seasoned entrepreneur in the Future of Work space, as a key team member at Workbrain, co-founder and leader at Vortex Connect and then again at AlayaCare. Has now transitioned to venture, managing a $17.5M Future of Work focused early stage fund, Storytime Capital.

Sarah Hartkorn
Senior Associate
Whitecap Venture Partners

Sarah is a Senior Associate at Whitecap Venture Partners, an early stage tech investor (Seed/Series A) that invests in B2B SaaS companies across all industries as well as in medtech startups. Prior to joining, Sarah co-founded Primped, a wellness and personal care marketplace start-up, and worked in investment banking at TD Securities.

Matan Hazanov
Managing Director
Verstra Ventures

Matan is a lifelong entrepreneur with +8 years of VC experience. In his current role as Managing Director of Verstra Ventures, he leads the team in sourcing and investing in B2B early-stage vertically focused software companies as well as advising and founders. Prior to Verstra, we was a key player in many investments in the software, cleantech, and agtech industries in North America and Israel. Matan has an International BBA from the Schulich School of Business.

Matthew He
Investment Analyst
Brightspark Ventures

Matt is an Investment Analyst at Brightspark Ventures, Canada's oldest VC firm backing exceptional entrepreneurs at the early stage. 

Prior to Brightspark, Matt served for two years as the Director of Investments for Front Row Ventures, investing at pre-seed in the very best young founders across the Canadian ecosystem. He has previously worked at White Star Capital in New York and FounderFuel in Montreal. 

Outside of Startups en Residence, Matt is serving as an advisor to Penrose Partners, working with the educational non-profit he founded at McGill University, and being a mentor for Women in VC.

Amol Helekar
General Partner
TCV

Amol joined TCV in 2009 and focuses on investments in software, fintech and tech-enabled services. He serves on the board of directors at Clio, Evisort, and Trulioo. His other current partnerships include Avetta, Built, OneSource Virtual, Payoneer, Razorpay, and Toast. He previously participated on the board of AxiomSL.

Prior to TCV, Amol spent several years with McKinsey & Company, where he advised clients on strategy engagements in the energy, financial services, and technology industries.

Brenda Hogan
Chief Investment Officer
Venture Ontario

Brenda M. Hogan is the Chief Investment Officer at Venture Ontario and has over 15 years’ experience in strategy and execution in venture capital at the co-investment, fund of funds, and fund level investing. She oversees the venture capital portfolio, with a focus on origination, execution and portfolio management. Brenda has managed assets across a variety of sectors including IT software and services, life sciences, and cleantech.

Brenda has held senior roles in corporate development, finance, and corporate venture capital with Bell Canada, EY, the Business Development Bank of Canada, and a software start-up.

She sits on the Board of the Canadian Venture Capital Association, and Chairs the Membership Committee and serves with the Institutional Limited Partners Association (ILPA) as a member of the Content Committee. Brenda served three terms on the Board of Women in Capital Markets, serving as Chair of the Governance Committee; was Co-Chair of Canadian Women in Private Equity (CWPE); is a past Chair of the Board and President of the Junior League of Toronto; served on the Board of Governors at Dalhousie University and Chaired the Finance, Audit, Investment, and Risk Committee; and is Investor in Residence for the Private Capital Governance Program (Venture Capital Cohort). 

Brenda holds an MBA in finance; is a graduate of the Institute of Corporate Directors SME Board Effectiveness Program; has completed the Private Capital Governance Program (Venture Capital Cohort); and has received leadership training from the Ivey School of Business.

Eric In
Portfolio Director - Impact and sustainable investment
Fondaction, CSN

Eric In is Portfolio director Impact investing at Fondaction. As a labour-sponsored fund, Fondaction represents two hundred thousand of shareholders-savers and hundreds of companies committed to helping Québec progress. It manages a total of $3.25 billion in net assets invested in several hundred companies and in financial markets, prioritizing investments that generate positive economic, social and environmental impacts in addition to a financial return. Fondaction helps create and maintain quality jobs, reduce inequalities and fight climate change. Eric invests in impact driven and sustainable Québec based companies (with a specific focus on health and wellbeing) as part of the impact and sustainable investment team covering investments in sustainable food & agriculture; health and wellbeing; climate change solutions; and sustainable cities and communities. Seasoned investment professional with more than a decade in private investments (including venture capital, private debt and impact investing), prior to joining Fondaction, Eric managed 45 direct investments and fund investments across Canada, USA and France in a variety of sectors (renewable energy, organic food distribution, e-commerce, healthcare, toxic-free solutions, technology) for a diversity of organizations (small family office, institutional VC/PE, Independent and entrepreneur-led investment firm). Eric holds a computer science engineering degree from ENSIIE (Ecole Nationale Supérieure d’Informatique pour l’Industrie et l’Entreprise) and a Master in Finance from ESSEC Business School.

Varun Jain
General Partner
SE Ventures

Varun is a General Partner at SE Ventures, a leading climate and industrial tech fund, created in close partnership with Schneider Electric. SE Ventures was founded in 2018 and now has over 40+ active portfolio companies and $1B in committed capital across two funds.

Emma Johnson
Investor
Klass Capital

Emma joined Klass Capital in 2021. Her key responsibilities include sourcing new investment opportunities, conducts due diligence, executes transactions, supports portfolio companies and helps develop the firm’s investment theses. Emma holds an Honours Business Administration (HBA) degree from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.

Jeffrey Kadanoff
Managing Director
Esplanade HealthTech Ventures

Jeffrey Kadanoff is the Managing Director of Esplanade HealthTech Ventures. Prior to Esplanade, he was the Chief Financial Officer for Knight Therapeutics Inc. (TSX: GUD), a leading Canadian specialty pharmaceutical company, from its inception as a publicly listed company in February 2014 until October 2017.

Prior to joining Knight Therapeutics Inc. he was a Principal with Bain & Company where he served as a strategy consultant for 14 years. Additionally, he was Vice President-Strategic Planning and Development at Reitmans (Canada) Limited.

Jeffrey holds a B. Eng. with Distinction in Chemical Engineering and a Minor in Management from McGill University, and an MBA with Distinction from INSEAD.

Leonard Kofman
Partner - IP Backed Financing
BDC

Len Kofman is a Partner with the Intellectual Property Backed Financing Team at BDC where he focuses on providing debt and equity solutions for innovative Canadian companies. Before this, he served as the Chief Investment Officer at Quantius, an alternative lender focused on IP lending where he has responsibility for the underwriting, approval and portfolio management of all investments. Before that, he worked at Sunlige financial and Bank of Montreal.

Dillon Krasnigor
Investor
Altos Ventures

Dillon is a member of the Altos investment team. Before joining Altos, he worked at Vanderbilt University’s endowment, where he focused on fund investments and co-investments within private equity, venture capital, and real assets. Dillon received a B.S. in Economics and Accounting from the University of California, Santa Barbara.

Yong Kwon
Managing Director
Raymond James

Yong Kwon is a Managing Director, Technology Investment Banking at Raymond James in Toronto. Yong has 20 years of experience in technology investment banking and private equity. Prior to joining Raymond James, Yong was a Principal at INFOR Financial Group, responsible for Technology and Financial Sponsor investment banking coverage. Previously, Yong was a Partner with Novacap, a Montreal-based private equity firm, where he spent 5 years investing in TMT companies and playing a key role in building out the firm’s Toronto office. Yong has prior investment banking experience at global and Canadian investment banks, including Barclays and RBC Capital Markets. Yong earned an MBA from the Rotman School of Management and a Bachelor of Commerce degree from the University of Toronto.

Meryeme Lahmami
Principal
Pender Ventures

Meryeme in currently principal at Pender Ventures, focusing on investments in health IT and B2B software. Previously, she worked at BDC Capital’s Women in Tech Venture Fund, where she led investments in early-stage and growth companies across biotech, enterprise software and digital health. Prior to BDC, Meryeme was an investor at Medteq Invest, where she focused on early-stage investments in digital health, diagnostics and medical device companies. Meryeme started her career as a consultant in bioproducts and wearables before co-founding a venture-backed health tech startup. Meryeme is active in the startup community, including mentorship roles with a number incubators and accelerators.

Chris Leclerc
Manager, Venture Studio Program and Client Experience
Accelerator Centre

Chris Leclerc is the Manager of the Venture Studio Program and Client Experience at the Accelerator Centre in Waterloo, leading several programs including AC Jumpstart, AC:Studio the AC’s Startup Visa program, AC:Med, and the AC:Incubate programs. He has worked with hundreds of startup and scaleup companies across many diverse tech sectors in Canada, providing non-dilutive capital, innovative programming resources and tactical support. With a track record of successfully guiding startups to success and a deep commitment to helping them grow and succeed, Chris is passionate about technology, innovation, customer excellence, and entrepreneurship. He is always looking for creative ways to support founders and connect with other like-minded individuals in the Canadian innovation community.

Laura Lenz
Partner
OMERS Ventures

Based in Toronto, Laura is a Partner leading the fund’s investment activity in Canada. Laura has over 15 years of venture investing experience, including prior roles as a Partner with Generation Ventures, an Investment Director with MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund, and a Principal with EdgeStone Capital Partners. Laura started her career with BMO Nesbitt Burns as an investment banker focused on media and technology companies and extended her public market acumen into private equity investing for the firm with roles in Toronto and New York City. Throughout her career, Laura has focused on understanding and investing in Canadian emerging technology companies. As an active investor, Laura benefits from a wider aperture and applies a critical lens to metrics, team, financials, and strategy to ensure that a portfolio company is well positioned for the next stage of growth. With discipline, Laura strives to achieve alignment at the Board level, with company leadership, and with other VC stakeholders and investors.

Laura was previously responsible for sourcing, evaluating, and managing previous portfolio companies including: RapidMind (sold to Intel), Rypple (sold to Salesforce), Varicent (sold to IBM), SurfEasy (sold to Symantec), Jibestream (sold to Inpixon), and Keyfactor (exited to Insight).

Laura is an HBA graduate from Ivey Business School (Dean’s Honor List) and completed a General Management Program at Harvard. Laura is a founder and previous co-chair of the Canadian Pediatric Stroke Support Association. She is an enthusiastic martial artist, holding black belts in Karate and Tae Kwon Do.

Bernie Li
General Partner
Antler Canada

Bernie is a Partner of Antler Canada, a global platform that invests in Day Zero Founders. He previously co-founded Pure Energies, a leading tech enabled marketplace that delivered solar solutions to customers across North America. Pure Energies was acquired by NRG Energy Inc in a successful exit. Earlier in his career, Bernie was an investor at iNovia Capital.

Bernie is a graduate of Wilfrid Laurier University. He currently serves as an investment committee member for The Atmospheric Fund.

Dani Lipkin
Managing Director
TSX

Dani Lipkin carries the role of Managing Director, Global Innovation Sector for Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) and TSX Venture Exchange (TSXV). In this capacity, he is responsible for working with private companies and their shareholders as they explore and consider the option of raising equity capital in Canada.

Matthew Lombardi
Director
TELUS Pollinator Fund

As the Director of Platform Services, Matthew works with Telus Ventures and Telus Pollinator Fund's portfolio of companies, connecting them to TELUS' breadth of industry experience, resources, leadership team and network.

Prior to joining Telus' venture capital leadership team, Matthew served as Managing Director for OneEleven, a post-seed accelerator in Toronto, scaling the next generation of Canadian tech companies. Before that, he co-founded the marketplace startup GroceryHero and worked for the United Nations World Food Programme and as a Management Consultant for Deloitte.

Matthew is also an angel investor, advisor and mentor. He is an instructor in the Schulich School of Business Tech MBA program at York University, and is a member of the Board of Directors of the Toronto Zoo and Ontario Snowboard. Matthew also writes about macroeconomics, global affairs and public policy, often contributing to the Globe & Mail Report on Business, Financial Post and Toronto Star.

Rob Luini
Commercial Account Director
Export Development Canada

Rob Luini is the Ontario sector lead and Commercial Account Direction with Export Development Canada’s (EDC) Technology team. He works collaboratively with the Tech ecosystem to help provide Canadian companies with market knowledge and connections, reduce international risk of non payment, and provide working capital and international growth capital.

Raymond Luk
Founder, CEO
Hockeystick

Jeffrey MacDonald
Vice President
Warburg Pincus

Jeffrey MacDonald is based in New York, and is a Vice President in Warburg Pincus’ Technology Group. Prior to joining Warburg Pincus, Mr. MacDonald was an Associate at Searchlight Capital Partners and an Investment Banking Analyst at J.P. Morgan. He received a M.A. in International Relations and Economics from the University of St. Andrews.

Aly Madhavji
Managing Partner
Blockchain Founders Fund

Aly Madhavji 穆亚霖 is the Managing Partner at Blockchain Founders Fund which invests in and venture builds top-tier startups. He is a Limited Partner on Loyal VC and Draper Goren Holm. Aly consults organizations on emerging technologies such as INSEAD and the UN on solutions to help alleviate poverty. He is a Senior Blockchain Fellow at INSEAD and was recognized as a “Blockchain 100” Global Leader by Lattice80. 

He is an internationally acclaimed author, publishing three books and a monthly columnist for the leading blockchain magazine. Aly serves as a board member of CryptoStar Corp. (TSXV: CSTR), Mechanical Technology Incorporated (NASDAQ: MKTY) and has served on various advisory boards including the University of Toronto’s Governing Council, which manages a $2.5B budget. He is a mentor with Chinaccelerator, an elite accelerator program operated by the venture fund SOSV with $855M+ AUM and the Mobile Only Accelerator (MOX).

Aly holds a Master of Global Affairs as a Schwarzman Scholar from Tsinghua University (清华大学), a Master of Business Administration from INSEAD (Singapore and France), and a Bachelor of Commerce with Distinction from the University of Toronto.

Ashish Mahashabde
Director
Nanban Ventures

Ashish is an Investment Director at Nanban Ventures, an early stage tech focused fund. Ashish brings a wealth of venture capital and technology experience, as a seasoned investor and technologist. In his prior role with American Express Ventures, Ashish focused on early/ growth stage investments within AI/ machine learning, fintech and enterprise SaaS. Before Amex, Ashish worked with IBM Ventures, where he was responsible for strategic investments and partnerships within enterprise AI and B2B SaaS. His industry experience also includes product management, software engineering and technical leadership at Intel.

Ashish is interested in technologies like AI/machine learning, SaaS, cloud infrastructure, and their applications within industry verticals. Ashish holds a Bachelor’s in Computer Engineering from the University of Mumbai, Master’s degree in Computer Science from the University of Toledo and an MBA from the University of California, Davis.

Guillaume Marion
Partner & COO
Diagram Ventures

Guillaume is Partner & Chief Operating Officer of Diagram Ventures where he is Head of Investments & Venture Advisory and Chair of the Investment Committee. Diagram is a venture builder and venture capital fund that operates with Sagard, a global multi-strategy alternative investment platform. Previously, he worked in the United Kingdom in the investment banking division of HSBC in its Financial Institutions Group. Before, Guillaume was based in Germany working with Rocket Internet, the world's largest incubator of technology startups, where he was CFO of a portfolio company. Previously, he worked at PSP Investments in Canada, in its direct private equity group and in its internal hedge fund. He started his career in 2006 at Genuity Capital Markets in mergers and acquisitions.

Guillaume currently sits on the Boards of Directors of the Montreal Economic Institute, the Opéra de Montréal, and the Mount Royal Club. He is a member of the C.D. Howe Institute, the C100, the Banff Forum, and Civitas Canada. He previously founded the Young Directors Program of the Institute for Governance (IGOPP) and co-founded the UK Chapter of the American Enterprise Institute's Enterprise Club. Guillaume holds a BBA from HEC Montreal where he was president of its investment club (FPHEC) and founded the largest Canadian inter-university finance academic competition, the Financial Open (Omnium Financier). He is also a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and a Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA), and he holds a Masters in Finance from London Business School where he graduated with an Award for Outstanding Contribution and Leadership.

Brian Martin
Partner & Investment Director
TELUS

Brian is a technology director responsible for leading investments in smart cities, IoT, 5G and security for TELUS Ventures. Brian is an experienced VC investor with expertise in go-to-market for early stage companies, and as an engineer, he applies both a strategic and technical lens when evaluating investment opportunities and guiding portfolio companies. Brian’s portfolio companies have had exits to Splunk, Planet Labs, VMware and IMS Health.

Prior to joining TELUS Ventures, Brian was a Principal at Vanedge Capital for 5 years and previously served as Chief Security Officer at BC Hydro, where he led overall security policy development and implementation for the province’s electrical system. Brian is a trained engineer, with a bachelor’s degree in electrical, electronics and communications engineering from the University of Alberta, and he holds a Professional Engineer certification from the New York State Education Department.

When he’s not volunteering for Big Brothers or in the LGBTQ+ community, Brian can be found skiing or snowboarding Vancouver’s North Shore mountains or enjoying live music at festivals around the world.

Brian is a Chartered Financial Analyst, a member of the CVCA committee on International Affairs and holds an MBA from the Smith School of Business at Queen’s University.

Hanna Mastykina
Associate
AltaIR Capital

Hanna is an Associate at AltaIR Capital. At AltaIR Capital we invest in the world's most promising companies with disruptive ideas and great return potential. We invest in early and growth stage startups in sectors such as Productivity tools, Fintech, Insuretech, AI, Digital Health. Great and motivated teams, strong product vision, scalable business model and big potential market are a must!

Scott McKay
Co-Founder and Managing Partner
Nex Gen VC Partners

Scott is the Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Nex Gen VC Partners, an opportunities driven fund that partners with venture businesses to provide capital, advisory and network. The fund takes an agnostic approach to investment sectors, seeking opportunities with unique value creation catalysts, and businesses which can create early stage commercial profitability.

A serial investor, entrepreneur, and active portfolio manager, Scott has a decade of experience evaluating opportunities in promising ventures and working with founders. He has been investing, advising and working in private venture since co-founding KJSM Ventures, a firm that has a track record of investing in early stage private venture opportunities, real estate and public markets. Scott received his entrepreneurial start working in real estate property evaluation while founding, operating and managing a private commercial property group - Bulldog Capital Properties - which focused on cash flow projections and evaluation for prospective third-party acquisition.

Scott actively sits on multiple venture companies’ boards or advisory teams. He graduated with a BBA and MSc in Finance and resides in Calgary with his wife and two children.

Sean McKinnon
Head of Business Development
Novacap

Sean is the Head of Business Development for Novacap, a leading Canadian Private Equity firm. Prior to joining Novacap, Sean was a Vice President and Co-Head of the M&A Practice at BFL Canada. Sean also worked as lawyer in the Business Law Group at a global law firm, where his practice focused on mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, and securities law. Sean then transitioned to the insurance industry where he worked for a large global insurer. Sean earned a BA (Hons) from Queen’s University, his LL.L and J.D. from the University of Ottawa Law School. Sean was called to the bar in Ontario and is a member of the Law Society of Ontario. Sean is very active in the Canadian Private Equity and M&A community and currently serves as Vice Chair of the Board for the Association for Corporate Growth (Toronto) and as member of the CVCA Awards Committee. He also sits on the board of the Michael Garron Hospital Foundation.

Jonah Midanik
General Partner, COO
Forum Ventures

Jonah Midanik has spent the last twenty years building companies in the Canada and US as a serial entrepreneur. He has been lucky enough to have seen the startup journey from a variety of perspectives: as a successful bootstrapped founder/CEO, having helped launch new corporate divisions at BigCo, and as the founder/CEO of Limelight, a Venture backed company. Jonah currently spends his time helping companies grow with Forum Ventures as the COO and General Partner. Jonah lives in Toronto with his wife and two children.

Mona Minhas
Partner
BDC Thrive Venture Fund

Mona Minhas is a Partner with BDC's Thrive Venture Fund who has worked closely with several venture-backed startups and founders, in helping them to grow and scale their businesses, and get them ready for raising capital and successful exits.

Mona is a member of the advisory board of Women's Equity Lab, an angel investment fund that supports investing in early-stage, women-led companies.

Mona is passionate about advising early stage / high growth companies across all sectors, and is an advisor at NEXT 36, Future of Sport Tech Lab, ELLA, and other accelerators.

Richard Moran
Partner
Tonic Bioventures

Richard Moran is a Silicon Valley veteran in both investing and operations. He is General Partner at Tonic Bioventures, an early-stage life sciences venture firm. Previously, he was a Partner at Venrock, Chairman of Portal Software and a Managing Partner at Accenture. His track record includes successful exits in software, gaming, food and life sciences.

He is a best-selling author with ten books to his credit. He has a syndicated show, "In the Workplace" on CBS Radio is an "Influencer" on LinkedIn where he is a regular contributor but never reads the comments.

Tobi
Mueller-Glodde
Principal
TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good

Tobi is a Principal with the TELUS Pollinator Fund, where he focuses on sourcing, evaluating, and executing on investment opportunities in sustainability, climate tech, sustainable agriculture and healthcare. Previous to TELUS Pollinator, Tobi worked at Vancity Community Investment Bank (VCIB), financing clean-energy projects. He started his career as one of the first team members of CoPower, a clean-energy investing startup, which was later acquired by VCIB. At CoPower, he supported the development of impact investment products, including Canada's first private retail green bond offering for small and large investors, raising more than $30 million for clean-energy projects.

In recent years, Tobi has consulted on a variety of strategic projects with Canadian impact investors, volunteered as a startup and founder coach with Business in the Streets and Founders Boost, and has been teaching a graduate course module on impact investing at the University of Toronto for the past four years.

Tobi holds an MSc in Sustainability Management from the University of Toronto, a BSc. in Finance from the University of Richmond in Virginia, and is a CAIA Charter Holder (Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst).

Quinn Murdock
Analyst
Impression Ventures

Quinn is an analyst at Impression Ventures. An early stage fintech focused fund based in Toronto, ON. Impression makes lead investments into seed stage businesses across Canada and the US seeking to disrupt the financial services industry. Impression invests in all areas of Fintech, so if you are building in the space, reach out!

Aman Nabi
Associate
Information Venture Partners

Aman is on the investment team of Information Venture Partners, joining them as an experienced founder with multiple exits. Aman specializes in Fintech, Cybersecurity, and Enterprise SaaS investments.

Jerry Nasr
Manager of Partnerships
District Ventures Capital

Jerry Nasr manages partnerships and business development for Arlene Dickinson's venture capital fund, District Ventures Capital. Working on both a proactive and reactive basis, Jerry identifies and qualifies opportunities across a broad spectrum of categories for District's portfolio along with providing support in tactical execution. Before joining District in 2019, Jerry spent nearly a decade in politics in a variety of public relations, communications and stakeholder relations roles. During the unprecedented removal of powers from the Toronto Mayor’s office to the Toronto Deputy Mayor’s office in 2013, Jerry played a key role in supporting the acting Mayor in restoring civility, mending damaged relationships, and humanizing politics through social media. Jerry’s expertise in public relations and communications is tapped on an as-needed basis by the District's portfolio companies.

Nikhil Nayar
Associate
Rogue Insight Capital

Nikhil is a VC Investor and entrepreneur with extensive experience in strategic decision making and operator roles in Startups and Financial Services companies across the globe. Currently serving as an Associate at Rogue Insight Capital (Rogue) – a venture capital and private equity firm that provides forward-thinking companies with strategy, direction, capital, and an extensive network.

His prior experience includes setting up and establishing an asset management company in Kenya. Leading the international expansion strategy for financial services, manufacturing, and tourism companies. Spearheading other strategic projects such as as the implementation of responsible investing into the investment processes for an international bank.

Nikhil holds an International MBA in Entrepreneurship and Strategy from the Schulich School of Business, as well as a Postgraduate Degree in Financial Analysis & Portfolio Management and a Bachelor's degree in Financial Accounting from the University of Cape Town. He currently guest lectures MBA classes at Schulich, is an advisor to the Schulich Startups community, as well as an advisor to several startups in Canada, Kenya, England, and South Africa.

Amy Ng
VP, Banking
RBCx

Amy is a VP with RBCx Banking. Amy is passionate about supporting technology companies in all stages. Amy has over 12 years of experience in the financial services industry, majority of which is partnering with technology companies for their banking and financing needs. Prior to joining RBC in its Graduate Leadership Program where Amy rotated through four different business lines within RBC, Amy was a Professional Process Engineer holding various roles from strategy development to implementation of large projects in different countries for multinational metals processing and mining companies. Amy holds an MBA from Rotman School of Management, Master of Applied Science specializing in biomedical engineering research and a Bachelor degree in Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry from the University of Toronto. Amy is also a founding member and VP Administration of Touching Lives Overseas, a Canadian registered charitable organization helping impoverished children in rural China. 

Greg Orelowitz
Investor
Klass Capital

Greg joined Klass Capital in 2019. His key responsibilities include sourcing deals, creating detailed financial models, performing in-depth industry research and monitoring portfolio companies.

Greg works closely with the following Klass portfolio companies: AlayaCare (Observer), Coconut Software (Observer) and Rightsline (Observer).

Rich Osborn
Special Advisor
Roller Labs Ventures

Rich is the founder and Managing Partner of RecapHealth a leading seed stage venture investor in North American companies in HealthTech, ClimateTech and Enterprise Innovation. Portfolio companies include Alayacare, Alida, Ecoation, Impro.AI, Klue, Koble, League, Lifestyle Rx, PocketPills and Thoughtwire.

In addition, he is also a Special Advisor to iconic retailer Canadian Tire as well as Nicola Wealth Management, Canada’s largest independent wealth management firm. From 2015 to 2021 Rich was President and Managing Partner of TELUS Ventures and was named one of the Top 100 Corporate Venture Capital Investors in the world by Global Corporate Venture Magazine from 2018 to 2021. Previously Rich was a Partner in both a mid-market Private Equity fund and a Canadian VC fund investing in US and Canada. He started his career as an entrepreneur in the enterprise software sector.

Scott Pelton
Co-Founder
RiSC Capital

Scott Pelton is co-founder of RiSC Capital, an early stage VC focused on deep technology investments and commercializations in Canada. Scott has over 20 years experience as a venture capitalist, including roles at GrowthWorks, Scotiabank, MaRS and Round13. Of the 50+ investments over his career, Scott’s strongest IRRs have arisen from backing technical founders in university commercializations.

Before venture capital, Scott worked in dev/ops roles at startups and large enterprises. His passion for technology dates to early 8-bit computers and learning to program from code in computer magazines. Scott received a Bachelor of Computer Engineering and Management degree in 1995 from McMaster University. 

Scott supports the Canadian innovation economy through current and previous volunteer roles at the MaRS IAF investment committee, OCI Ready4Market grant reviews, NSERC i2i grant reviews and mentorship roles with U of T Hatchery, TMU IBZ and CDL Atlantic.

Khrystyna Penyk
Investment Analyst
Luge Capital

Khrystyna is an Investment Analyst at Luge Capital where she sources new investment opportunities, participates in due diligence, manages transactional matters, and provides ongoing support to Luge portfolio companies. 

Prior to Luge, Khrystyna was in-house legal counsel at Genesis, one of the largest tech businesses in Ukraine, and Flyer One Ventures, a venture capital fund that invests in early-stage companies across Central and Eastern Europe. Prior to that, Khrystyna was an M&A and private capital lawyer with Baker McKenzie, out of their Kyiv office.

Khrystyna moved to Canada in early 2022 from Western Ukraine. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Law from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy (Kyiv, Ukraine) and a Master’s degree in International Business Law (LLM) from Central European University (Budapest, Hungary).

Lucas Perlman
Principal
StandUp Ventures

Lucas is a Principal with StandUp Ventures, a seed stage venture fund investing in companies led/co-led by women. 

Previously, was the Director of Ecosystem Development at the MaRS Discovery District where he helped B2B SaaS companies raise capital and find new corporate customers. Lucas also spent a number of years in Tanzania, where he helped build and run Anza, an accelerator and fund investing in high potential Tanzanian entrepreneurs, and remains active in a board capacity today. 

Lucas is a holds a BBA from Wilfrid Laurier University and is a CPA.

Stephen Pollack
CEO
InsideSpin

Stephen is a serial entrepreneur and uniquely versatile and insightful product specialist. His superpower is everything to do with product strategy, from formation through to delivery to market. Stephen is well known as Founder and CEO of PlateSpin Ltd, which grew globally from startup to $40M over five years leading to a strategic acquisition in 2008. Stephen and his team won numerous awards for fast growth, global market leadership and business excellence achieving the #2 position for fast growth in Canada and 11th in North America during that time period. Stephen was also one of three finalists for the 2008 E&Y Entrepreneur of the Year award.

James Povitz
Principal, NAventures
National Bank of Canada

James is a Principal on the investment team at NAventures, National Bank of Canada’s corporate venture capital arm. Based in Montreal, he sources fintech, insurtech and proptech investments and works closely with NAventures portfolio companies throughout their lifecycle. James is a foundational member of the NAventures team and has worked with nearly 30 portfolio companies, helping them raise hundreds of millions of dollars in capital and establishing strategic partnerships with National Bank. Prior to joining NAventures, James worked with the strategic initiatives, partnerships and investments team at National Bank, developing and delivering projects in retail and commercial banking. Before National Bank, he worked at Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP, where he advised startups, VCs, and other businesses on legal matters relating to venture deals, fund formations and M&A transactions.

Meredith Powell
Partner
Voyager Capital

Meredith is a Venture Partner with Voyager Capital, Cascadia’s leading B2B software VC fund investing in the region’s most exciting founders innovating in tech, from AI and robotics to the future of work and pay equity. She is also an active angel investor with a broad portfolio focused on women-led ventures.

Recently, Meredith served as the Global CMO at Microsoft for Startups, the tech giant’s $500m high impact program for early-stage entrepreneurs around the world. Prior to joining Microsoft, Meredith launched multiple companies of her own including an online enterprise marketplace for fashion brands that was acquired in 2014.

Passionate about giving back to the community, she mentors innovators at Founder Institute & Techstars in her spare time. Meredith is the YWCA’s award recipient for “Entrepreneurship & Innovation”, Startup Canada’s national award winner for promoting entrepreneurship, a Business in Vancouver Top 40 Under 40, and one of The Boardlist’s “Top Canadian Women in Tech”.

Born and raised on the West Coast, Meredith spends as much time as possible outdoors – with her husband, daughters and rescue pup, Charlie.

Alexandre Prefontaine
Principal, Industrial Innovation Venture Fund
BDC Capital

Alexandre Prefontaine is a Principal with BDC Capital’s Industrial Innovation Fund. Alexandre joined BDC Capital in 2017 as an analyst with the operations & strategy group, where he played a key role in numerous initiatives, including the development of the investment thesis for the Industrial Innovation Fund, which he then joined when it was launched in 2019. Alexandre covers the Advanced Manufacturing and Agtech sectors, notably sitting on the board of directors of ChrysaLabs, Axya, Brizo Data and Noze. Alexandre holds an M.Sc. in Financial Economics from HEC Montreal as well as a BComm from the University of Ottawa.

Amy Rae
Partner
Vanedge Capital

As a Partner at Vanedge Capital, Amy is focused on three themes: hard technologies, analytics and sustainability.

Amy has been part of the Canadian venture ecosystem for over 20 years and has a successful track record both as an investor and as an operator. Amy started her venture capital career in Toronto in 2002, enhanced her knowledge by stepping into operational leadership teams in start-ups between 2006 and 2011, and returned to venture capital in 2011, where she’s been ever since.

Amy was the Vice President & General Manager of Mobile and Social Commerce with Ziplocal (USA) where she was responsible for product. Prior to that, she held the position of Director of Business Development at Canpages after they acquired ZipLocal Canada. In this capacity at both companies, she leveraged her deal-making and relationship building skills to attract and broker new partnerships to enhance their online local search businesses.
Amy’s previous venture capital experience was as an associate with JLA Venture Partners where she provided due diligence and investment candidate screening. Prior to joining JLA, she was an Analyst with Latitude Partners, a merchant bank firm focused on the technology sector.

Amy’s career has been entirely focused on entrepreneurship and venture capital. Amy is actively involved in promoting entrepreneurship and supporting the Canadian start-up community. She is a Board member of several start-up companies including Vendasta, Vodasafe, Bridgit, #Paid, Autozen, and Dyspatch as well as the Vancouver Entrepreneurial Forum (VEF) and Girl in the Wild. Amy holds a B.Comm. with a finance specialization from Dalhousie University.

Loren Rafeson
Partner, Growth Equity
BDC Capital

Loren Rafeson is Partner, Growth Equity Partners, at BDC Capital where he helps leading Canadian companies scale nationally and internationally, as well as execute ownership transitions. Since joining BDC in 2018, Loren has been involved in the execution of BDC’s investments in Firmex, Groupe Tecnic, Monarch House, Preciseley Microtechnology, and Resolute Health. He currently serves on the boards of Groupe Tecnic, Monarch House, and Resolute Health and previously served on the boards of Firmex, InvestorCOM, and Neighbourly Pharmacy (TSX:NBLY, formerly Rx Drug Mart).

Loren has over 15 years’ experience in private equity and corporate finance having worked for several investment management firms in Canada and the United Kingdom, as well as the merchant bank and the investment bank of two Canadian financial institutions. Loren holds a BBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University and an MBA from INSEAD. In addition, he is a CFA charterholder.

Karthik Ramakrishnan
Partner
IVP

Karthik is a Partner at IVP, where he focuses on identifying and evaluating early, growth, and later stage investments across enterprise and consumer technology. Karthik is involved with IVP's investments in Attentive, CrowdStrike, Curology, DeepL, Dream Games, Hopin, Jasper, Paper, SEON, and Veriff. 

Prior to joining IVP, Karthik worked at Choosy, an early stage direct-to-consumer ecommerce startup disrupting the fast fashion industry, where he assisted the founders on numerous cross-functional projects across strategy, fundraising, operations, finance, marketing, and customer experience.

Karthik also worked in investment banking at Qatalyst Partners, advising clients across the consumer Internet, mobile, enterprise software, and hardware sectors. 

Karthik graduated Summa Cum Laude from New York University’s Leonard N. Stern School of Business, where he earned a double B.S. in Finance and Economics.

Prathna Ramesh
Partner
FutureSight Ventures

Prathna is an early-stage investor and operator in B2B SaaS companies. She is currently a VP at FutureSight, a venture builder that backs entrepreneurs as an institutional cofounder with capital. She is the former Managing Director of Maple Leaf Angels in Toronto, one of Canada’s most active angel networks. She served as GP (General Partner) of the MLA48 pre-seed funds and is currently the Chief Compliance Officer. She is active in the founder community as a business advisor and is an advocate for women in venture.

Théo Risopoulos
General Partner
Theodorus Investment Funds

Jamie Rosenblatt
Partner
Golden Ventures

Jamie works closely with portfolio founders, entrepreneurs, accelerators, incubators, and the broader startup community, to help find, fund and build exceptional companies. Jamie began his career in corporate development at O’Leary Ventures, a private early-stage investment company owned and chaired by Kevin O’Leary. He then joined Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP where he practiced corporate law with a focus on M&A and corporate finance in the technology sector.

Prior to joining Golden Ventures, Jamie was the Head of Business Development for Avid Life Media. He has a JD / MBA from the University of Toronto, and a BA in Philosophy from Western University.

Sen Sachi
Executive Director
York Angel Investors

As a passionate and highly-driven entrepreneurial leader, Sen has co-founded two tech companies, held various leadership roles at esteemed organizations such as Elevate, The DMZ, and Communitech, and mentored over 100 scaling tech startups.

Russell Samuels
Partner
Whitecap Venture Partners

Russell is a Partner at Whitecap and joined the firm in 2015. Prior to joining, Russell worked in corporate and business development at FreshBooks, venture capital at Mantella Venture Partners, and in the private investments group at Canada Pension Plan Investment Board. Russell holds an HBA from the Ivey School of Business and a JD from Western University.

Mike Sfalcin
Principal
Yaletown Partners

Michael is a Principal with Yaletown Partners, leading deals in Intelligent Industry software companies. He joined the Firm's Toronto office in 2019. For more than 15 years, he worked at the intersection of the technology and finance industries. In his many capacities as co-founder, investor, and consultant, he has sourced, managed, and completed dozens of investments.

Before joining Yaletown, Michael helped a Schedule A bank re-enter the technology lending market. He was also an Investment Director with a venture capital and venture debt firm for five years, leading more than 15 successful investments. Michael leads Yaletown’s investments in Charli AI, ThinkData Works and ZenHub and has assisted in the completion of multiple other Yaletown investments including ePACT, Userful and InnerSpace.

Michael began his career with a seed-stage incubation and investment firm that was created and financed by a successful entrepreneur. After graduating from McMaster’s University DeGroote School of Business, he completed an MBA in management of innovation and new technology and finance.

Sunil Sharma
Managing Partner
Techstars

Sunil Sharma is the Managing Director of Techstars Toronto (Techstars is the world’s biggest startup accelerator).

At Techstars, Sunil has made 100 direct investments in tech startups based in 16 countries across the world. He is also the Director of the Founder Institute in Toronto and Waterloo (Founder Institute is the world’s biggest startup pre-accelerator). At Founder Institute, Sunil has launched more than 400 new startups. Sunil is also Co-Host of the Collision Conference and Web Summit (Web Summit including Collision and RISE is the world’s biggest tech conference).

Prior to Techstars, Sunil was a Managing Partner with Extreme Venture Partners, a Canadian early-stage venture capital fund where he led more than 20 investments and deployed more than $5M in capital. Sunil was also co-founder and Managing Director of Extreme Startups where he ran 3 successful cohorts and made 15 investments as part of one of Canada’s earliest tech accelerator funds (backed by 5 prominent Canadian VC funds).

Sean Simpson
Principal
Yamaha Motor Ventures

Sean is a Principal at Yamaha Motor Ventures. Most recently, Sean was a Principal at Amazon’s Industrial Innovation Fund where he focused on robotics, mobility and supply chain related technologies. Prior to that, he was a Director at WIND Ventures where he led the firm’s mobility investments.

Sean started his venture capital career at General Motors Ventures where he spent four years investing in a wide variety of spaces. Prior to that, he was an engineer in the automotive and military defense industries before founding AutoBike which he ran for four years.

He graduated from Lawrence Technological University with a BSME and later completed his MBA at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.

Simon Sokol
Vice President
Relay Ventures

Simon is a Vice President at Relay Ventures. As a member of the Investment team, he works to create a data-centric foundation for Relay's investment thesis. Prior to joining Relay Ventures, Simon worked on the Investment Banking team at Citibank with a focus on cross-border mergers & acquisitions. Previously, Simon held internships at both a portfolio company and with the fund. 

Simon holds an Honors Business Administration from the Ivey Business School at Western University. He was involved in the finance and asset management clubs at Ivey while he co-founded a charity aimed at raising funds and awareness for Alzheimer's. 

Pablo Srugo
Partner
Mistral

Pablo Srugo is a Principal at Mistral Venture Partners, based in Toronto. Prior to Mistral, Pablo was the co-founder and COO of Gymtrack– a VC-backed startup in the FitTech space. Before starting Gymtrack, Pablo co-founded an online tutoring platform, which was acquired in 2014.

Naz Thakkar
VC Associate
Ripple Ventures

Naz is currently an Associate at Ripple Ventures, an early-stage venture fund dedicated to working closely with founders. She spearheads finding and investing in early-stage startups within enterprise and developer tools from sourcing to close.

At the forefront of her work, Naz is passionate about making venture more diverse, equitable and inclusive by working on initiatives with founders and funders alike to support underrepresented folx in the industry. She acts as a thought leader in the space driving thematic research on DEI tooling for enterprises as well as establishing VC frameworks for funds.

Some of her external initiatives include being a program manager and alumnus of the RippleX Fellowship Program supporting underrepresented aspiring founder or funder students. On top of this, Naz has single handedly built the first VC course to be taught at Queen's University to continue to democratize access to learning about the industry. Finally, she passionate and well known across key ecosystems in North America for hosting events catered to the underrepresented community, developing truly inclusive spaces for learning and growth.

Laila Theriault
Investment Analyst
New Brunswick Innovation Foundation

Laïla is an Investment Analyst at the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, a pre-seed/seed-stage agnostic venture capital firm based in New Brunswick. Before joining NBIF, Laïla was a student analyst at the Fraser Student Venture Fund at the University of New Brunswick.

Laïla holds a degree in finance from the University of New Brunswick and recently completed the Canadian Private Capital Investment School with Ivey Academy in the Spring. She is passionate about supporting startups and contributing to their growth

Mike Titkov
Investor
TELUS Ventures

Mike is supporting the Health and Consumer portfolios for TELUS Ventures - CVC of TELUS focusing on Series A-D investments in strategic areas.

Matthew Toner
Managing Partner
Shred Capital

Working in New York and Toronto, Vancouver and Silicon Valley, Matt has been a founder and early stage investor who has managed half a dozen tech startups, driven three intrapreneurial initiatives, drafted policy for innovation ecosystems, co-founded an industry association, and - oddly - created a nationally animated television series. He is a multidisciplinary digital practitioner whose success has been recognized by Fast Company (2019 World’s Most Innovative Companies) and TIME (Top 100 Inventions of 2019).

After two stints as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence for New York investment firms, Matt has recently moved into a venture practice full time, leading consultations with startups from across Canada to drive innovations.

Galen Udell
Founder
Novate Technologies

After a highly successful 25+ years with IBM Canada, IBM Corp (US), and Belden in the areas of new business development, marketing, and sales, Galen retired to start a second career as an entrepreneur, mentor and angel investor. He has invested in over 15 startups, focused primarily on social impact and technologies that are good for society. As the Executive Director of York Angel Investors from 2019 – 2021 he worked with over 250 startups to get them investment ready. He is also a startup Program Manager/Advisor at YSpace, a York University accelerator.

Dave Unsworth
General Partner
Information Venture Partners

David co-founded Information VP in 2014 as a spin-out of RBC Venture Partners from Royal Bank of Canada. David joined RBC Venture Partners in 2001 and has led direct investments in a broad range of successful enterprise, Fin Tech, security, and mobile ventures for more than two decades.

Amir Vohooshi
Founding Managing Partner
7 Gate Ventures

An experienced investor and mentor passionate about helping early-stage startup tech ventures. Amir is an Angel investor with an impressive track record of investments and business exits. With over 20 years of experience running and seeding successful companies, Amir’s ability to inspire others is second to none. He wears the hat of Founder, President & CEO across several well-respected and promising new venues. He has intuitively navigated businesses through challenging economic climates and is passionate about growing and mentoring talented entrepreneurs. Amir can identify unique opportunities in various sectors within tech and has gained invaluable experience as an entrepreneur, resulting in a deep understanding of new business challenges.

Fanglu Wang
Senior Managing Partner, ESG Group
CITIC Capital

Fanglu Wang is CITIC Capital’s Senior Managing Director and Managing Partner of CITIC Capital ESG Group, focused on deploying sustainable investment strategies in emerging markets across Asia and globally. He has over 30 years of experience in capital markets, corporate finance, financial engineering and risk management. He has led several major capital raising transactions for the China Ministry of Finance and other major corporations. Mr. Wang was the former Head of Product Marketing and Sales for China at HSBC, a Director in Investment Banking and Debt Capital Markets at Merrill Lynch Asia, a Vice President at Citibank Hong Kong and an Executive Director at Sakura Global Capital. Mr. Wang also sits on the board of several portfolio companies, across multiple sectors and geographies. 

Mr. Wang received an M.A. in Statistics from the University of Chicago, a B.Sc. in Mathematics and a B.A. in Journalism from Fudan University in Shanghai.

Bryan Watson
SVP, Managing Director
Venbridge

Bryan Watson is SVP at Venbridge, Managing Director of CleanTech North, Founding Director of the Ontario Clean Technology Industry Association, Advisor to Renewable Energy Technologies Fund LP, and 2021 Clean50 Awardee as well as member of multiple Boards as a Director.

For almost 20 years, Bryan has been an entrepreneur and advised and supported Angel and venture capital investors, all levels of government, NGOs and companies at all stages – scale-up to mature, global companies.

Bryan completed his Masters in Management, Economics and International Relations at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, on the only full Chevening Scholarship awarded in Canada.

Matthias Weber
Partner
Mighty Capital

Matthias Weber is a partner at Mighty Capital, a San Francisco based venture capital firm. He is an experienced board member of both early-stage and mature companies. Previously, he served as Chief Underwriting Officer and as a member of the Executive Committee of Swiss Re. Matthias holds a master’s degree in physics and a PhD in natural sciences from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich, Switzerland.

Molly Willats
Head of Financial Health Strategy & Ontario Lead
Fintech Cadence

Molly is Head of Financial Health Strategy & Ontario Lead at Fintech Cadence, a non-profit organization that supports the growth and development of early stage fintech startups across Canada. In 2019, Molly helped to build and launch the Innovate Financial Health Lab, Canada's first incubator specifically designed for startups using technology to improve the financial inclusion and resilience of Canadian consumers and SMEs. She continues to run the program, now heading into it's fourth year.

Molly has spent nearly a decade doing program development and management in the non-profit and public sector. She holds a Masters in Human Geography from the University of Toronto. Molly is a current appointee to the FCAC's Research Committee on Financial Literacy.

Sarah Willson
Associate
Panache Ventures

Sarah is an investor at Panache Ventures, a pre-seed and seed stage VC firm supporting inspiring Canadian founders at the earliest stages of building transformational companies. Sarah is also an active member of the Tech4SickKids advisory council, Velocity investment committee, and Schulich ExEd Pitch Deck Advisory Group.

Althea Wishloff
Partner
Raven Indigenous Capital Partners

Althea is a Partner at Raven Capital, an early-stage venture fund focused on Indigenous and Native American entrepreneurs. Prior to Raven, Althea was an investor with Panache Ventures, the most active seed stage investor in Canada. Althea was also a founding team member of the seed-stage family health company, Koble. 

Althea has a dedication towards advancing the experience of underrepresented people within, or entering, tech. Althea is an instructor at York University, where she trains young people on venture capital and private equity. She is also a Venture Partner at Archangel Network of Funds and a Board Member of OCAD U CO.

Jon Wolkin
Managing Director
Deloitte Ventures

Jon is a Managing Director at Deloitte Ventures where he is responsible for scaling the DV platform across direct and fund investments through deal sourcing, execution, and portfolio company monitoring. Jon brings over 12 years of investment banking, private equity and venture capital experience as an investor, advisor and board member in a variety of industries.

Prior to joining DV, Jon helped scale a ventures platform into a recognized global CVC player with seed through growth stage investments across Canada, U.S., U.K. and Israel. In his role as an Investment Director & Partner, he led and supported investments across the health, consumer, IoT and B2B SaaS sectors and served as a director / observer on several boards.

Kimberly Yeung
Partner, Thrive Venture Fund
BDC Capital

Kimberly Yeung is a Partner with Thrive Venture Fund and Women in Technology Venture Fund at BDC Capital.

Kim has over 15 years of experience in the financial sector in advisory and investing. She began her career in the investment banking division followed by the merchant banking division at Goldman Sachs in New York with a focus in the real estate, gaming, and lodging sectors.

Kim holds an MBA from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and an HBA from the Richard Ivey School of Business at the University of Western Ontario.

Sanjay Zimmermann
Partner
White Star Capital

Sanjay has been an integral part of White Star Capital’s growth since 2017. Following several years in Investment Banking with Rothschild & Co in London, he joined as one of the first associates hired at the firm over 6 years ago.

Sanjay has worked on over 25 investments across North America, Europe and Asia in the Early Growth Funds I, II, and III as well as in the Digital Asset Fund. He helped kick off White Star's investment activities in South East Asia after pursuing his MBA at INSEAD in Singapore. In late 2020, he launched White Star's Toronto office.

Sanjay now focuses his time working and partnering with talented teams and founders across North America and South East Asia.