Diagram, a new venture launchpad for Canada's most exciting startups in financial, insurance and healthcare technology, announced today that it has successfully closed a $25 million fund and has deployed its first two investments.
"The Diagram model is the first of its kind. We combine the competitive advantage of large incumbents -- access to distribution and expertise -- with a strong support infrastructure and large venture capital investment. We truly believe this focused approach will derisk our ventures and allow them to build much faster," said François Lafortune, Founder & CEO of Diagram. "The response from the investor community has been very strong and the fund was oversubscribed. They believe we're onto something with this model."
Diagram recently made its first two investments in Dialogue, a Montreal-based virtual health and wellness platform for choice employers, and Collage, a Toronto-based cloud platform that automates HR and benefits for Canadian businesses.
Led by Founder & CEO François Lafortune and Chairman Paul Desmarais III, Diagram aims to be a different kind of launchpad for Canada, focusing on a hands-on approach making a few large, concentrated investments. Diagram provides advice, capital and expertise with the support of Power Financial Corporation via Portag3 Ventures LP. They also have support from a group of 50 angel investors, who will act as mentors and accompany founders.
Diagram's limited partners include: Adam D'Angelo, CEO of Quora and former CTO of Facebook; Ryan Holmes, CEO of Hootsuite; Joe Lonsdale, founder of Palantir, Addepar, and 8VC; Anthony Lacavera, founder and former CEO of WIND Mobile; Nadir Mohammed, former CEO of Rogers; Andrew Chisholm, former Global Head Financial Institutions at Goldman Sachs; and Henri de Castries, former Chairman and CEO of AXA.
"Canada's FinTech community experienced a boom last year with the market reaching $200 million, despite the decline in U.S. markets, which presents a great opportunity for us," said Paul Desmarais III, Vice President, Power Financial Corporation. "We have incredible depth and talent here but do not always provide the means and resources necessary to build large businesses. Diagram's purpose is to fix that by bringing not just capital but the right infrastructure and people together to create the next Canadian-based global leaders of the future in the FinTech sector."
Based in Montreal and Toronto, Diagram is looking to attract the most talented Canadian entrepreneurs to build great global companies. For more information about Diagram, please visit: www.diagram.ca.
About Diagram
Diagram is a launchpad for the most exciting ventures in insurance, financial services and healthcare. By making much deeper commitments of resources and energy, focused on a smaller number of companies, Diagram gives brilliant Canadian ideas a platform to become global players. Key investors include Portag3 Ventures LP, a corporate partnership exclusively sponsored by Power Financial Corporation, Great-West Lifeco Inc. and IGM Financial Inc., and a group of more than 50 individual investors who provide Diagram's projects with an unmatched wealth of perspective, mentorship and connections. For more information, please visit http://diagram.ca.
