in Canada, Quebec, Venture Capital |

Real Ventures closes

Real VenturesThis is great news for Canada, well at least Quebec until additional funds close. Real Ventures has launched today. With both JS Cournoyer and Mark MacLeod writing about the close of approximately $40MM of money that must be invested in Quebec. They are actively looking for seed investments in Quebec software, SaaS and Internet deals.

“We are seed investors in software startups based primarily in Quebec, though we will do deals in other markets. We like to be 1st money in and like to lead. We can do seed rounds in the six figures to get a product in market and can participate in series A follow ons for those companies that are hitting the gas pedal.” – Mark MacLeod

The great part about Real Ventures is the pedigree. The team is: John Stokes, JS Cournoyer, Mark MacLeod and Austin Hill. These are world class investors, entrepreneurs, executives and people who have had a hand in shaping policy, companies and entrepreneurs over the past few years.

“For those of you who don’t know, Montreal Startup is a $5M seed fund that was founded by John Stokes, Daniel Drouet, Alan MacIntosh, Austin Hill, and yours truly. Mark MacLeod has since joined the team for Real Ventures. We invested in 15 web, mobile and software companies between February 2008 and March 2010, including Beyond The Rack, Status.net, Whatsnexx, Vanilla Forums,Recoset, mConcierge, Oneeko and SocialGrapes. For the majority of our investments, we were the first money in, acting as the lead investor. We hold board seats in most companies.” – JS Cournoyer

Real Ventures is the real deal. Any entrepreneur in Quebec looking to raise a seed round should be talking to Real Ventures.

Congratulations guys, here’s to closing some money that can be deployed in Ontario.

David Crow focused on product design, customer development and go-to-market implementation on $0. He is available as a consultant. He is a mentor at UW VeloCity, Jolt and FounderFuel. Follow him on Twitter @davidcrow or at DavidCrow.ca

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  3. Hi David, thanks for the post. We closed on more than $40M and can do deals outside Quebec. A big part of our strategy is to build density, so our preference is to invest in and around a 250KM radius of Montreal, which is a great place to build a company. Better tax credits, great universities and talent, great food and nightlife, inexpensive real estate, lakes and kite surfing in the summer, ski and kite surfing in the winter, and lots of venture capital to grow your business, strong wireless and gaming industry, etc.

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