Teralys Capital closes oversubscribed $375 million Innovation Fund

Montreal’s Teralys Capital has announced the final closing of its significantly oversubscribed $375 million Teralys Capital Innovation Fund, positioning it as Canada’s largest innovation-focused private investment fund, managing over $1.6 billion in venture capital.
This fund of funds was created under the Government of Canada’s Venture Capital Action Plan (VCAP) in collaboration with the Government of Quebec, as well as several other institutional investors, both Canadian and international, including the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, Fonds de solidarité FTQ, Investissement Québec, BDC Capital, Fondaction CSN, Fiera Capital, Lune Rouge, Bpifrance, National Bank of Canada, La Capitale, Desjardins Group and Consensus Business Group.
“Teralys Capital’s newest investment vehicle builds on the very same guiding principles at the core of our mission: (i) fostering the development of high potential innovative businesses across Canada; (ii) enabling profitable local economic development and job creation; (iii) while generating superior financial returns for all stakeholders”, said Éric Legault, Managing Partner at Teralys Capital.
With in-house technical experts specializing in information technologies, life sciences, and clean or industrial innovations, the Teralys Capital Innovation Fund will cover investments ranging from start-up and seed funding to helping companies expand and grow to technology buy-outs, having already completed 10 new fund investments and five direct investment in Canadian companies, including Zymeworks, Lightspeed, eSentire and Luxury Retreats.
Teralys has also played a leadership role with venture capital managers, including Georgian Partners, iNovia Capital, McRock Capital, Information Venture Partners, White Star Capital, Persistence Capital Partners, Sofinnova Capital, Clarus Lifesciences and OpenText Enterprise Application Fund.
“Innovation and support to entrepreneurs drive all our actions at Teralys Capital”, said Jacques Bernier, Managing Partner at Teralys Capital. “The Fund intends to seek top tier financial returns by structuring investments in private venture capital funds specialized in innovation. On a long-term basis, these investments will support a profitable and globally competitive venture capital industry, and will allow skilled managers to emerge and to attract the funds required to accelerate the growth and success of our best innovation-driven entrepreneurs.”