Organization: MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund

Health app developer gets $4M in series A to expand reach

Toronto-based app developer Maple Corporation has received up to $4 million in series-A funding to grow and expand its business. Maple, which gives patients a 24/7 on-demand access to doctors, raised the additional funds with the help of a large private corporation specializing in medical cost containment and operations, and Jeff Fettes, co-founder and CEO…

Report calls for data-driven approach to government investing to grow world-class Canadian firms

A report from the University of Toronto’s Impact Centre is calling for a data-driven approach to maximizing the government’s investments in Canadian firms and growing them to be world-class. The report — Government Venture Capital: Can the Public Sector Pick and Nurture World Class Companies? — says that the strategy for venture capital investments of the Canadian government is not to simply copy what venture capitalists in Silicon Valley are doing.

Encycle raises $2.85 million in start-up funding

Encycle Therapeutics Inc has completed financing of $2.85 million to support development of its nacellin platform chemistry and advance its therapeutics pipeline. The investment in the Toronto-based firm — spun off from the Univ of Toronto in collaboration with MaRS Innovation — will allow it to build on its relationships with pharmaceutical companies and position…

Ranovus receives $24 million in follow-on financing

Ottawa telecommunications start-up Ranovus Inc has received US$24 million in a new round of equity and growth capital to further develop and market its interconnect products for data centre and communications networks. With operations in Ottawa, San Jose and Nuremberg Germany, the funding follows an initial $11-million round in 2013 for the three-year-old firm, which…

AvidBiologics completes VC financing round

Toronto-based AvidBiologics Inc has closed a financing round to move its antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) technologies into clinical trials. The privately held firm — a 2011 spinout from YM BioSciences Inc — secured an unspecified amount of financing from Lumira Capital (lead), MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund, MaRS Innovation, Rosseau Asset Management and the company’s founding investors.…