AVAC

AVAC Ltd. is a Canadian venture capital firm based in Calgary, Alberta, established in 1997. It specializes in both direct investments and fund-of-funds, focusing on early-stage opportunities primarily in value-added agribusiness, information and communications technology, and life sciences. The firm typically invests up to $0.5 million in pre-commercial, growth, and early-stage companies, with a preference for those located in the Alberta region. AVAC also manages the Accelerate Fund, an angel co-investment fund, and has been involved in over 115 direct investments and four national venture capital funds, contributing more than $118 million to its portfolio. Its investment strategy emphasizes active participation in the management and governance of portfolio companies, and it may also provide grants to public research and not-for-profit organizations in the agrivalue sector. Through its Ag Tech brand, Verdex Capital, AVAC supports management of investments in agricultural technology, contributing to the growth of innovative business ventures.

Mark Carlson

Vice President of Investments

Jim Hardin

Senior Investment Manager

Bill McKenzie

Director

Craig Urton

Investment Manager

Monte Wilson

CFO

11 past transactions

Enthrill Distribution

Seed Round in 2014
Enthrill is B2B platform for publishers built around a digital rights management (DRM) software which provides device agnostic, direct delivery of ebooks to consumers. From publisher through to consumer, our complete end-to-end platform provides publishers and authors powerful choices to run more effective sales and promotion strategies to increase visibility, grow readership and expand sales. Enthrill successfully launched the Walmart Ebook Store, the Mayo Clinic Ebook Store and licensed its software to multiple organizations. Enthrill's intellectual property was acquired by Firebrand Technologies in 2017.

Afinity Life Sciences

Seed Round in 2013
Afinity Life Sciences Inc. is a company based in Edmonton, Alberta that researches, develops and brings to market natural-based therapeutics that help support your healthy and active lifestyle. Afinity is not just in the business of manufacturing products but pioneering science that brings evidence-based natural health products to the forefront under the Afinity brand. The company’s unique approach is to use proprietary science to create a premium-quality line of natural health products that consumers can trust. The Afinity product line is tailored to meet the unique health needs of different consumers in the areas of cardiovascular health, cognitive health, rheumatoid arthritis and general health. The Afinity brand has a pipeline of products that promises a growing range of innovative products in a number of other key health areas to meet the needs of active aging consumers.

iConnectivity

Venture Round in 2012
iConnectivity is a company based in Calgary, Alberta, that specializes in developing innovative interfaces for the music industry. It creates hardware and software products designed to help musicians connect various electronic musical equipment to mobile devices and computers. By utilizing standards-based connections such as USB, MIDI, and ethernet, iConnectivity's products aim to simplify and enhance the music creation and recording process. The company sells its award-winning products worldwide through music retailers, both in physical stores and online. Additionally, iConnectivity has a presence in the USA and Germany, where it employs sales, marketing, and support personnel to better serve its global clientele.

Cleankeys

Series A in 2011
Cleankeys Inc. was founded in 1988 as the result of an award-winning project that its founder, Randy Marsden, completed to help a friend with a spinal cord injury while attending Electrical Engineering at the University of Alberta. At that time, the company (then called Madentec Limited) was primarily focused on helping people with physical disabilities gain independence through access to the computer. Notable users included Muhammad Ali and Christopher Reeve.

Cleankeys

Venture Round in 2011
Cleankeys Inc. was founded in 1988 as the result of an award-winning project that its founder, Randy Marsden, completed to help a friend with a spinal cord injury while attending Electrical Engineering at the University of Alberta. At that time, the company (then called Madentec Limited) was primarily focused on helping people with physical disabilities gain independence through access to the computer. Notable users included Muhammad Ali and Christopher Reeve.

SinoVeda Canada

Venture Round in 2010
SinoVeda Canada Inc. develops herbal supplements. It offers ginseng herbal supplement capsules to boost immune system and increase stamina, as well as to reduce stress, exhaustion, and effects of aging; echinacea herbal supplement capsules; and ginkgo biloba herbal supplement capsules for improving memory and mental alertness. The company was founded in 2006 and is based in Edmonton, Canada.

Wedge Networks Inc.

Venture Round in 2010
Wedge Networks provides network-based web security solutions to enterprises and service providers worldwide. Its technology leadership in deep content inspection allows organizations to protect against new and emerging web-based threats that traditional scanning methods have difficulty intercepting and controlling. Specialized in malicious-code detection and filtering at the network layer, its solutions touch millions of users and provide protection for utilities, service providers, health care, oil and gas, government, web sites, and many other enterprise customers. The company is headquartered in Calgary, Canada and has international offices in San Jose, California, and Beijing.

CoolIT Systems

Series A in 2009
CoolIT Systems works research, design, and deliver next generation cooling products that provide a comprehensive solution while exceeding high OEM standards for reliability and maintenance-free operation. This carefully designed and patented technology unleashes the full potential of a PC, providing superior cooling performance while reducing system level noise and improving reliability of vital components. CoolIT also works with the AMD engineering group to provide the Reference cooling solution for the latest high performance video cards.

Mobovivo

Seed Round in 2009
Mobovivo is a team of TV producers and talented software engineers has created social daily fantasy apps for ESPN, Time Warner Cable, the Academy Awards, The Voice, Dancing with the Stars, AXS TV, and more. Mobovivo has created a white-label platform, called StayTuned. StayTuned offers real-time synced, behind the scenes, gamification, social, instant replays and increased engagement for TV viewers and brands.

Tynt

Series A in 2009
Tynt enables premium publishers and content creators to capitalize on the most common sharing method on the web: copy & paste. Tynt inserts a page URL when copied content is pasted into emails and social sites, allowing more than 600,000 publishers to improve SEO, site traffic, content insights, and brand attribution. Tynt has revolutionized user engagement measurement, helping web publishers boost site value for users and advertisers alike. Tynt is a 33Across company.

Sembiosys Genetics

Venture Round in 2002
SemBioSys Genetics Inc., a Canadian biotechnology company, announced today that it has signed a feasibility agreement with Dow AgroSciences LLC, of Indianapolis, Indiana, for the Stratosome(TM) Biologics System and its application to animal health biologics. Under the terms of the agreement, SemBioSys and Dow AgroSciences will engage in collaborative research with the aim of determining if the Stratosome(TM) Biologics System can enable the commercialisation of a Dow AgroSciences plant-made vaccine. Under the terms of the agreement, SemBioSys will receive upfront and milestone payments. Further terms of the agreement were not disclosed. " We believe that our Stratosome(TM) Biologics System, with its economic and functional benefits, makes it an outstanding platform for animal health products. We are extremely pleased to be working with Dow AgroSciences in developing their vaccine," said Andrew Baum, president and CEO of SemBioSys. "We are very pleased to be working with SemBioSys in evaluating the Stratosome(TM) technology and its application to plant-made biologics for the animal health industry," stated Butch Mercer, Global Business Leader, Animal Health and Nutrition for Dow AgroSciences This is the third funded development agreement announced by SemBioSys in the last six months. In December, SemBioSys announced that it had executed a development agreement with Martek Biosciences Corporation (Nasdaq: MATK) to co- develop value-added specialty oil products (DHA containing safflower oil) with potential pharmaceutical and nutraceutical applications. In February, SemBioSys announced that it had entered into an agreement with Syngenta for access to SemBioSys' proprietary oilbody based Stratosome(TM) Biologics and StratoCapture(TM) Purification Systems for the development of Syngenta's biologic products. About SemBioSys Genetics Inc. (www.sembiosys.com) Calgary, Alberta-based SemBioSys Genetics Inc. is a privately held biotechnology company focused on the development of therapeutic proteins and oils using its proprietary oilbody-based technology - the Stratosome(TM) Biologics System. Spun out of the University of Calgary in 1994, the company's investors include Bay City Capital, Dow AgroSciences Canada, Inc., Ventures West Management Inc., BDC Venture Capital, University Technologies International Inc., RBC Capital Partners and Maurice Moloney Ph.D. scientific founder and chief scientific officer. In addition to these investors, SemBioSys has received repayable contributions of CAD$5.5MM from Technology Partnerships Canada, an agency of Industry Canada, and CAD$4.9MM from AVAC Ltd. SemBioSys has partnerships with Syngenta Participations AG and Martek Biosciences for the use of its Stratosome(TM) technology for the development of therapeutic products.