Relay Ventures

WHO WE ARE

Relay Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund focused on industries with the potential for growth, fuelled by the rapid adoption of technology. Our team is what makes us, and we take pride in the diversity of professional and academic experiences our team offers. Our offices can be found in Toronto, Calgary and San Francisco, but you can find our wide network of portfolio companies spread all across North America. As a group, we got our start back in 2008, since then we’ve been giving driven founders theirs.

$200,000,000

TARGET SIZE OF FUNDS

Sector

Fintech, Mobility

Stage

Series A, Seed

Region

North America

Countries

Canada, US

Founder(s)

John Albright

John is a Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Relay Ventures as well as Co-Founder and Board Member of Alate Partners and Playmaker Capital. John has over 20 years of experience helping entrepreneurs shape their vision and capital plans for long-term, sustainable growth. John’s tenure in finance spans both venture capital and private equity, where he has assisted entrepreneurs through all stages of the startup lifecycle, from seed financing to IPO and M&A. His ability to work alongside company management teams and offer guidance around hiring, governance, and scaling has been vital to the success of Relay’s investments. John is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and received his Bachelor of Business Administration degree from the Schulich School of Business. John is also on the Board of ecobee, Touchbistro, theScore, Blue Ant Media and the Centre for Aging and Brain Health Innovation, and serves as an advisory board member to the Ryerson – DMZ. John is based in our Toronto office.

Kevin Talbot

Kevin has been an entrepreneur, operator and investor in both Canada and the USA for over 25 years. From 1997 until 2010, Kevin was with the venture capital arm of Royal Bank of Canada where he was Vice President of Venture Capital and Managing Director of RBC Venture Partners. He was focused on investments in financial services, SaaS and enterprise software throughout North America. He co-founded Relay Ventures in 2008 with John Albright. Kevin presently sits on the boards of Prove (formerly Payfone), PubNub, Mojio, Circle, FreshGrade, Populus, and Bird Canada. Previously, he served on the boards of Jelli (acquired by iHeartMedia), Xobni (acquired by Yahoo!), Thor Technologies (acquired by Oracle), iPhrase Technologies (acquired by IBM), Inea Corp. (acquired by Business Objects, now SAP), and Tacit Software (acquired by Oracle). He was also an investor and advisor to WiFiSlam (acquired by Apple) and CashEdge (acquired by Fiserv). Kevin is the author of ‘Strictly Mobile – How The Largest Man-Made Platform in History is Changing Our World’ and was the curator of the Strictly Mobile conference. He is a frequent public speaker and delivered the TEDx talk ‘Hope is Not a Strategy’ before an audience of 2,000 in Brussels in 2014. Kevin holds an MBA, with distinction, from York University, a BA degree in Strategic Studies and the ICD.D designation from the Institute of Corporate Directors’ Corporate Governance College at the Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. Kevin also held an appointment as Adjunct Professor of Entrepreneurial Studies at the Schulich School of Business (York University) in Toronto. Kevin opened our Menlo Park and San Francisco offices in 2010.

Jeannette Wiltse

— CFO & Partner — Jeannette is Partner and CFO at Relay Ventures. Jeannette manages fund reporting, finance and operations and also assists portfolio companies in establishing governance and financial infrastructure. Previously, Jeannette spent ten years as Director of Finance and Administration for RBC Venture Partners, and served as Secretary-Treasurer of Euro Brokers Canada, Ltd. prior to that. Jeannette is a CPA CGA and a Fellow of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators. Jeannette sits on the board at OCAD University’s Imagination Catalyst; is a member of the CVCA CFO Taskforce; serves as a Trustee and Treasurer of the Heather L. Main Memorial Scholarship; and is an advisor to the Board of Hospice Toronto. Jeannette is based in our Toronto office.