This week, I thought I’d give myself a bit of a break, research-wise, by focusing on Innovacorp’s exits between 2011-2012 and 2020-2021. If you’re wondering why I keep choosing that timeframe, it’s basically, as I should have explained earlier, because Innovacorp did. The agency, which was founded in 1995, changedRead...

Last week, as I was entering data on Innovacorp’s investments from 2011 to the present into a table, I was struck by the imbalance between men and women in the “people” section. This is a tricky subject for me. I’m no fan of the government gambling public money on ventureRead...

Looking into Innovacorp’s “unicorn” investment earlier this year got me to wondering how many successful exits our provincial venture capital fund has managed over the years compared to the number and value of its investments, so I submitted an access-to-information request asking for a list of its investments since 2011.Read...

Munger Games Everywhere I look these days I see vanity projects — from billionaires propelling themselves into almost-space to local businesswomen producing 13-episode podcasts — but the story of Warren Buffet’s partner designing a dorm for the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) takes the proverbial vanity cake. AccordingRead More

Tim Bousquet of the Halifax Examiner has been making the point that the $104 million Innovacorp made on its META exit could be used to fund affordable housing in Nova Scotia. He even did the math: For the record, $104 million would pay for 80 apartments at $1,000/month rent forRead More

This week, I’m going to continue my examination of Innovacorp’s “unicorn” investment, spurred, in part, by the Cape Breton Post’s take, which appeared in Monday’s print edition wrapped in a piece of puffery about Bob Pelley, Innovacorp’s regional manager in Cape Breton. The Post — like the CBC before itRead More

Innovacorp, the province’s venture capital crown corporation, has won the VC lottery — it bet $3 million on a Dartmouth firm that makes “high-performance materials used in the defense and aerospace industries” and collected $104 million when that firm went public in the US (it’s Meta Materials NASDAQ:MMAT). How pleasedRead More

Nothing ventured… This week, I have a question for you: Women in this province have been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. You want to help them. Do you: A) invest $5 million in an early-stage venture capital fund focused on women-led startups; B) tear $5 million into tiny shreds andRead More

The Thick of It [I must begin with a warning to the Spectator’s War and Peace columnist Sean Howard: do not read the following story while drinking a beverage of any description or there will be a spit-take in your future.] Earlier this week, I received an invitation from theRead...

Last week, I focused on Orenda Software Solutions, one of “two Cape Breton IT companies” on the receiving end of federal funding announced by Sydney-Victoria MP Jaime Battiste. This week, as promised, I’m taking a look at the other lucky winner, Swarmio Inc, formerly Ubique Networks. Swarmio received a $338,369Read More