Golden Ventures, a venture capital firm based in Canada, has successfully closed a funding round, amassing over $100 million for its fifth fund. This fund is dedicated to supporting seed-stage founders with high potential, operating in various technology domains such as AI, climate, blockchain, and quantum.
Founded in 2011 by Matt Golden, the Toronto-based firm has evolved to include a team, featuring Ameet Shah as a general partner and newcomer Nick Chen as a principal. Golden emphasized the fund’s alignment with founders, stating, “This is a continuation of our core thesis and created to be super founder-aligned. Ameet and I are both ex-founders. Our first fund was more mobile-focused, which was more a function of our domain expertise in 2011.”
Over time, the firm transitioned from being sector-agnostic to a focus on the Canadian tech ecosystem, which Golden describes as having a “great trajectory.” The majority of Golden Ventures’ investments have been directed toward this ecosystem, with the remainder spanning other sectors.
The firm engages in both core investments and those leaning towards the angel side. In previous funds, it participated in 25 core deals, and for the fifth fund, Matt Golden anticipates making around 30 core deals.
Over a span of 13 years, Golden Ventures has supported over 100 companies at the seed stage. The firm has actively invested in talent, mentorship, and cultivating relationships with later-stage funds to facilitate portfolio companies’ access to downstream funding.
Notable exits from its portfolio include Wattpad, a storytelling platform acquired by Naver, and SkipTheDishes, an online ordering platform acquired by Just Eat. Golden Ventures is also an investor in Brightwheel, a SaaS tool for daycares; Float, a spend automation company; Xanadu, a company producing a universal quantum processor; and Horizon, providing a scalable Ethereum architecture for decentralized game development.
“We used to say we invest in everything from temporary tattoos to photonic-based quantum computing chips,” Shah shared with TechCrunch. “Our focus is on delivering value to founders at the seed stage and addressing the nuanced needs of those building outside the ‘valley.’ In the valley, there’s an abundance of talent, so if you’re looking at building and scaling, you must be more intentional about your talent strategy.”
As of now, Golden Ventures has not made any investments from the fifth fund, as it is still actively investing from its fourth fund, which raised $100 million in 2021.
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