Brookfield Asset Management is nearing the final close of its second infrastructure fund and is set to hit its hard cap of $7 billion, according to three sources, making it one of the biggest private infrastructure funds ever raised.
The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which manages C$188.9 billion in assets, instituted some management changes earlier this year on its private investments team.
Waterton Global Resource Management has raised $300 million for its second mining and metals fund, and is expected to reach its $750 million target in the fourth quarter, peHUB has learned.
It’s possible you haven't heard a lot about the Private Markets Group at OPTrust, the Toronto-based investor and manager of $15 billion in assets on behalf of OPSEU Pension Plan. That’s because up until it now has kept a low profile. Things appear to be changing, however. After posting some impressive performance numbers last year, the group seems ready to emerge from its shell and take on new challenges – including doing more direct deals.
It perhaps takes a university professor with tech savvy to invent an online company that helps teachers to grade students better. That description fits James Colliander, a math professor at the University of Toronto, who after 22 years of academic life became co-founder and CEO of Crowdmark, a web app that cuts the time instructors spend grading exams and papers, and helps improve learning outcomes. The technology might be catching on – in June, Crowdmark received seed funding to advance product testing. And it may even be on the cusp of scoring a Series A round.
Vancouver-based social relationship platform HootSuite last week announced it had raised an astonishing US$165 million in a Series B financing round. The deal, which was led by Insight Venture Partners, with participation from Accel Partners and existing investor OMERS Ventures, is in every sense a Canadian record breaker. The deal is also an important milestone for OMERS Ventures, the investment arm of the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System.
Persistence Capital Partners appears to have found its niche. Since its founding in 2008, the Montréal-based private equity firm has focused exclusively on investing in established Canadian healthcare businesses. Five years on, as PCP markets its second fund offering, the strategy seems to be paying off.
In the coming weeks, Canada will officially wade into the exciting if murky waters of crowdfunding. This September we’ll witness the launch of SVX – short for MaRS Social Venture Connexion – the private online portal that has been granted a two-year approval by the Ontario Securities Commission (OSC) to connect fund-raising Ontario businesses with investors.
Givers of gift cards seldom experience the joy of knowing when the cards are used. Enter Kiind, a seven-person startup in Victoria, British Columbia that allows people to email gift cards that are paid for only when the receiver chooses to use the gift.
Bonnefield Financial, a private equity firm that specializes in investing in farmland, has held a first close for Bonnefield Canadian Farmland LP III. The new fund raised $100 million in committed capital, which is already more than four times the size of Bonnefield Canadian Farmland LP II, which closed in February at $22.5 million. Coincident with the fundraising news, Bonnefield announced its acquisition of farmland assets located in Dufferin County, Ontario, which the firm called "one of the largest farmland deals in Canadian history."