Who we are
We back world-class entrepreneurs building game-changing companies, connecting them to local and national ecosystems and helping guide them through their next stages of evolution. The firm invests throughout the life-cycle of early-stage companies and provides stage-appropriate capital and support for the founders it backs. Real believes that VCsshould play a role in accelerating the creation of world-class tech ecosystems by providing support beyond the companies for whom it writes cheques. It’s this collaborative mindset that inspires Real to launch initiatives that lay, or build upon, the foundations of rapidly growing tech hubs in Canada, and wherever else the firm may go.
Current AUM
100M-499M
Sectors
AI/ML, B2B, Business Intelligence, E-commerce/Consumer Internet, Enterprise Tech, Healthcare
Stages
Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A
Regions
North America
Countries
Canada, US
Founding / General Partners
Janet Bannister
Featured Investment
Real, which has invested in more than 200 startups and typically ranks as the most prolific venture deal maker in Canada, has had nine of what Mr. Stokes describes as "material" exits, meaning it recouped three times or more of its investment upon disposition. Those include Intel's purchase of PasswordBox and Autodesk's takeover of Lagoa. Both Real-funded startups sold in 2014.
But Real's real calling card is the fact it was a relatively early backer of the thriving Canadian artificial intelligence scene, investing in close to 20 AI firms in the past two years, including Montreal-based Element AI, which Real helped to create along with past Real-backed entrepreneur Jean-François Gagné and renowned deep-learning pioneer Yoshua Bengio, and which raised a stunning $102-million in early-stage financing this year from global investors, and Toronto-based integrate.ai, founded by former Facebook executive Steve Irvine.