Golden Ventures is a renowned venture capital firm based in Canada, recently announcing the successful closure of their fifth fund with over $100 million in capital commitments. The fund is dedicated to supporting ambitious seed-stage founders who are leveraging cutting-edge technologies such as AI, climate technology, blockchain, and quantum computing. Founded in 2011 by Matt Golden, the Toronto-based firm has since expanded its team to include general partner Ameet Shah and newly appointed principal Nick Chen.
“This is a continuation of our core thesis and created to be super founder-aligned,” Golden shared with TechCrunch. “Ameet and I are both ex-founders. Our first fund was more mobile-focused, which was more a function of our domain expertise in 2011.”
Since its inception, Golden Ventures has evolved from being sector-specific to adopting a more agnostic approach, with a particular focus on the rapidly growing Canadian tech ecosystem. Golden himself describes the Canadian tech scene as having a “great trajectory,” with the majority of the firm’s investments being made in this ecosystem, and the remainder in other promising areas.
Golden Ventures takes a balanced approach to investments, with both core investments and angel investments being a part of their portfolio. In previous funds, the firm has invested in 25 core deals, and with the new fund, they expect to increase that number to around 30.
For over 13 years, Golden Ventures has been committed to supporting seed-stage companies, having invested in over 100 companies to date. In addition to providing financial backing, the firm also focuses on investing in talent, mentorship, and building relationships with later-stage funds, giving their portfolio companies access to valuable downstream funding.
Some notable exits from Golden Ventures’ portfolio include Wattpad, a popular storytelling platform that was acquired by Naver, and SkipTheDishes, an online ordering platform that was acquired by Just Eat. The firm also has investments in companies such as Brightwheel, a SaaS tool for daycares, Float, a spend automation company, Xanadu, a company producing a universal quantum processor, and Horizon, a provider of a scalable Ethereum architecture for decentralized games.
“We used to say we invest in everything from temporary tattoos to photonic-based quantum computing chips,” Shah said to TechCrunch. “Our focus is always on delivering value to these entrepreneurs at the seed stage, and specifically to those building outside of Silicon Valley. The needs of founders outside of the valley are nuanced. For example, there is a wealth of talent in the valley, and if you’re scaling a company, it takes a more deliberate approach to attract and retain top talent.”
Despite announcing their fifth fund, Golden Ventures has not yet made any investments from it, as they are currently still investing from their fourth fund of $100 million raised in 2021. Golden Ventures V is backed by a group of existing institutional limited partners, including BDC Capital, ECMC Group, Foundry, HarbourVest Partners, Kensington Capital Partners, Northleaf Capital Partners, RBC, Teralys Capital, University of Chicago, and Vintage Investment Partners, as well as new institutional partner Deloitte Ventures.
