Maybe this explains it. In a venture capital market that has been rather gloomy since last fall, FounderFuel is responding to popular demand and announcing its return. While many are wondering about its future, the firm that has been organizing it since 2011 is this time enlisting the help of two other venture capital firms.
To reconnect with tradition, the organizers of FounderFuel will hold the presentation day of the eight companies that will make up its 2023 cohort on July 11, the day before the StartupFest conference, a three-day event aimed at all players. of the Quebec and Canadian ecosystem of start-up technologies.
Like many other major sector meetings, probably the most prestigious competition in Montreal for accelerating new technologies will therefore have taken a two-year pandemic break. The last cohort of start-ups from FounderFuel dates back to 2020.
We hope that autumn will be less gray than last year
Its general manager, Katy Yam, will therefore begin a tour next week a mari usque ad mare major Canadian cities to recruit the eight start-ups who will spend the summer under its aegis in Montreal. The businesswoman hopes to recruit representatives from all demographic groups in the country so that her future cohort is as diverse as possible.
“We want people who wouldn’t normally feel drawn to the world of start-up are thinking about joining FounderFuel,” Katy Yam told Duty.
The objective of the event is to prepare its eight protégés to carry out a first real fundraising tour next fall. In the current context, where the investment climate in start-ups is slowing down, it is a framework that could make a difference, says Ms.me Yam.
Elected start-ups are entitled to sixteen weeks of mentoring, support and training. They will also share a $120,000 grant awarded to them by the three Montreal partner firms in the event: Real Ventures, Panache Ventures and Inovia Capital.
Katy Yam wants FounderFuel’s past to shape its future. Companies that are now prominent have spun off, including Paper, Sonder, Transit and Unsplash. It doesn’t matter if the economic context is good or not, says Katy Yam. “The time is right [pour un retour], because the market is tough these days,” she says. “We hope that the fall will be less gray than last year. »
What future for Real Ventures?
In addition to running FounderFuel, Katy Yam is a partner at Real Ventures. The Montreal firm responsible for FounderFuel since its creation in 2011 has also suffered the horrors of the pandemic, so much so that its very future is still uncertain to this day.
Many people in the venture capital industry are questioning the health of the firm, which hasn’t raised fresh capital since 2017, an unusually long period of inactivity for such a company. Met at the end of last year, its leaders assured that they would continue to support the companies it helps financially until the end, but do not go further in their projections.
Asked about this, Katy Yam did not want to comment on the situation of Real Ventures. She also didn’t say whether the addition of Panache and Inovia as FounderFuel sponsors meant Real Ventures was taking a step back from its once-busy presence in Montreal’s tech market.
“My focus right now is FounderFuel,” she says. “I am also focusing on what we are doing at the moment [chez Real Ventures]including the management of Maison Notman [à Montréal, où sont situés ses bureaux]. FounderFuel is back in response to demand from the community, which felt a void caused by its absence in recent years. »