• TENGIVA

  Led · Debt Financing · Mar 2024

  Zorah biocosmétiques produces certified organic, fair‑trade, cruelty‑free skincare and positions itself as a leader in healthy beauty. The company has launched a foundation funded by 1% of its sales to support education for young girls and mothers. CED awarded the company a $450,000 repayable contribution to improve productivity and support market expansion. Planned uses include purchasing production equipment (machinery, distillation station, tube filler, automatic jar filling machine, among others) and executing a marketing plan to enter new markets. Marketing activities will cover promotional materials, travel, trade fairs, and hiring commercial officers in targeted markets. Company leadership has stated plans to expand into Morocco and Dubai, and the business is presented in the article as based in Montréal. Tengiva operates a digital supply‑chain platform that enables apparel brands to source textiles directly from manufacturers via an online marketplace. The platform hosts millions of dollars of inventory, more than 300 distinct materials, and serves brands in 30 countries. Tengiva centralizes structured textile data to support sustainability features including CO2 emissions calculations, material recyclability guidance, and recommendations to reduce chemical use. The company relaunched its proprietary technology after participating in the 2021 Google for Startups Accelerator: Women Founders, completed beta testing, and reconfirmed product–market fit. Tengiva plans to use new capital to commercialize the platform, build a state‑of‑the‑art warehouse, and execute a global expansion strategy in 2022. The company was founded in 2018 and is headquartered in Quebec, Canada.

• Aquatech BM

  Participated · Equity · Jan 2024

  Aquatech BM designs and manufactures commercial and industrial sterilizers and multifunctional bottle washers, supplying customers in over 80 countries. The company unveiled a compact multifunction bottle washer aimed at businesses with modest washing capacities and space constraints. Since Félix Bégin took over in 2019, Aquatech BM has tripled its worldwide sales volume. The firm serves sectors including brewing, wine, food, hospitality, dairy, pharmaceutical and research laboratories. In the short term it plans to develop green partnerships with Quebec industry sectors affected by deposit-system reforms (such as microbreweries) and to pursue international expansion. The recent financing will support continued investment in equipment, a new production line, and the company's commitment to sustainable development and the circular economy.

• Aplantex

  Led · Equity · Sep 2023

  Aplantex develops a proprietary photosynthetic phytoreplicator platform — a plant-based biotechnology process the company says enables high-value production with a lower environmental footprint. The company is moving from a research-focused stage toward scalable, production-oriented operations, including adding an industrial-grade pilot plant at its innovation center. Aplantex reports ongoing R&D projects are on track to meet the needs of its existing national and international clients and is pursuing initiatives to improve process efficiency and reduce selection time for phytoreplicator variants. The company secured a $5 million bridge financing round in 2025 to support that operational transition and scale-up. Investissement Québec has been a principal partner in Aplantex's development and participated in the bridge round through its Impulsion Fund, while François Ravenelle led the financing.

• Foko Retail

  Participated · Equity · Feb 2021

  Foko Retail offers a SaaS communication and task management platform for retailers that centralizes team communications and streamlines in-store execution of operations, visual merchandising and marketing tasks. The platform is used by more than 200,000 associates and deployed at 60+ global retailers, including Whole Foods, New Balance, CVS and Five Below. Foko enables field teams to complete daily tasks, access documents, and provide feedback to headquarters. The company is led by CEO Marc Gingras and is based in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. It raised $3M in funding and plans to use the proceeds to expand penetration in international retail markets and to further develop its product suite through research and development. Investors in the round include BDC Capital, Canada Economic Development for Quebec Regions (CED), ID Gatineau and current shareholders. Foko offers a secure photo-sharing and messaging service aimed at enterprise organizations, led by CEO Marc Gingras. The app is downloadable from the Apple and Google Play stores and lets users snap photos with messages, send them to other employees, filter people they follow, and respond with comments. The company said the newly raised funds will be used to continue improving the service and to increase awareness of Foko. Foko is headquartered in Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. Financially, the company raised $2M in seed funding in December 2014 in addition to $450k in seed financing secured in early fall 2014. Investors and backers include BDC Capital, Real Ventures and several named individual backers. Foko provides an enterprise photo sharing and messaging platform that allows co-workers to privately collaborate around images. The company is based in Gatineau, QC, Canada. It is led by newly appointed CEO Marc Gingras, with co-founder Eric Sauve taking on the role of Vice President of Product. In January 2014 Foko secured $450,000 in seed funding. Backers included Ellen Levy, Pierre Donaldson, Alex Karakozoff, Horacio Falcao, Stephane Marceau and Frederic Boulanger. The investors comprise executives, a serial entrepreneur, and an academic.

• VanillaSoft

  Participated · Debt Financing · May 2019

  VanillaSoft provides a sales engagement platform that sales development teams can use standalone or alongside traditional CRM systems. The platform helps sales reps respond to new leads, interact with leads consistently across more channels, and generate qualified sales opportunities. The company reports it enables engagement with over 15,000,000 contacts every month. Led by CEO David Hood, VanillaSoft is headquartered in Plano, Texas. The company raised funding to support growth of its R&D and sales teams as it continues to expand in North America and beyond. The reported fundraise and operating metric indicate an emphasis on scaling product development and go-to-market efforts.

No current team members are available.