5 investments, 1 exit, and $35M of fresh capital to invest in women-led companies!

If there’s one thing that holds true about VC, it’s that things don’t really lull, even with a recession rounding the corner. Following a record-breaking year, marked by all-time highs in fundraising and an investment frenzy so bullish it was almost palpable in the air, StandUp continues to be amazed by the tenacity and talent of the innovation economy.

Here’s what the past 6 months have looked like for us!

• First, we closed our Fund II and with it welcomed a new partner into our community of LPs. We met a ton of our founders in person (some for the first time!) at our community breakfast, the Collision Conference, and Cottage Pitchfest. The Standup team even got to gather for our first in-person off-site! (see “Back to Business as Usual”)
• Even more exciting is the addition of 4 new companies to the StandUp portfolio: Mercator AI, Cognito Health, and 2 others we are eager to announce (see “Where We are Bullish”)
• Lastly, this half year saw an exit (woot woot!) with the acquisition of Nudge by Axonify. Arteria AI also raised an impressive bridge round following a strong year (see “Where We Remain Bullish”)

Let’s get into the details:

Back to Business As Usual

After two years of restrictions, Zoom calls, and uncountable “Sorry you’re on mutes”, StandUp Ventures was able to bring together founders, LPs, and friends to celebrate the close of our second fund over breakfast at 1 Kitchen, Toronto. Through the incredible support of our LPs and individual investors, we exceeded our initial $30M target, securing $35 million in funding to continue uplifting women founders and empowering the innovation economy. We also celebrate our new partnership with Deloitte Ventures and welcome them into our family of investors.

Despite our early 8AM start in the packed weekend that was Collision (more on this in a second), we saw an amazing community turnout. Over lattes and avocado tartines, our community members connected and shared meaningful advice and stories. Here are some of the highlights!

Cheers to Fund II closing!

With the gradual return to business as usual, we had the opportunity to meet and mingle with other investors, start-ups, and tech enthusiasts at North America’s fastest growing tech conference: Collision.

We also attended Cottage Pitchfest, where we heard from a selection of early-stage companies from the L-Spark Accelerator cohort and community.

We continue to refine our fund strategy and community-centric approach to maximize the value we provide to both our investors and founders. In May, the StandUp team gathered in Elora for our first in-person company off-site to talk everything VC. From devising new ways to support our founders; to refining our pipeline to proactively pursue women-led ventures; to updating our mission, values, and brand to better convey our thesis, we are so excited for what the next quarter has in store.

Where We are Bullish

Equipped with our second pool of capital and a start-up economy that just can’t stop, we are pleased to announce 4 new investments — including 2 that we are ready to share: Alberta-based Mercator AI and Vancouver-based Cognito Health.

Real-time lead intelligence for the construction industry

This spring, we led Mercator AI’s over-subscribed $1M pre-seed round with participation from The51, Mistral VC, and angels (two of which are StandUp portfolio founders).

• Elevator Pitch: A construction intelligence platform that delivers early project leads to General Contractors and other players in the construction industry.
• Who do we have conviction in: A harmonious duo with a wealth of technical leadership, enterprise expertise, and experience building data platforms — Chloe Smith and Hogan Lee.
• What problem are they solving: Lead generation in the construction industry is a black box, ineffectively addressed by expensive legacy systems and time-consuming manual processes, leaving too many opportunities unidentified in time.
• What we believe: The construction industry is inherently inefficient, having seen little innovation to date, leaving a large and attractive market whitespace for digitized solutions. This creates significant cost savings and gives teams access to a wider system of projects and new customer opportunities. Mercator is revolutionizing the industry and has the potential to disrupt and expand across the construction value chain.

A more effective and accessible mental health solution

In Q2 we invested in Victoria-based Cognito Health.

• Elevator Pitch: A platform that delivers integrated mental healthcare, offering both therapy and medication for one affordable monthly fee.
• Who do we have conviction in: Business leader and pharmacist Jason Cridge, growth expert Armon Arani, and the excellent clinicians Dr. Francois Muller and Dr. Marlene Muller.
• What problem are they solving: Digital healthcare solutions on the market today address problems like finding clinicians, getting referrals, and accessing medication. The problem with replicating this digital health platform model for mental healthcare is that effective mental healthcare is hard to access even in a non-digital world. Therapists are expensive and in short-supply, despite clear research that therapy in conjunction with medication drives superior patient outcomes. Integrated, ongoing care and management is also often critical for success. With a lack of helpful solutions on the market, many mental health challenges go without treatment. The consequences of this are extremely costly to individuals, corporations, and society — and the problem is only growing in size.
• What we believe: Cognito provides a more effective digital solution that addresses a massively underserved market in Canada— folks who need simple, integrated, affordable mental health care. The founders are aligning business outcomes with real-world impact, and we have extremely strong conviction that they will achieve their ambitious goals.

Where We Remain Bullish

As always, we’d be remiss not to call attention to the exciting achievements of our existing portfolio companies. Here are this half year’s highlights!

Arteria AI

In June, Arteria AI announced a strategic investment co-led by Citi SPRINT and BDC Capital.

Arteria’s AI-driven solution and data first approach are expediting the documentation process for financial institutions and lowering the risk of doing business, helping them cut costs, optimize negotiations, and bring revenue forward. Founders, Shelby Austin, Abrar Huuq & Jonathan Wong are disrupting legacy processes and blazing the way to a future of frictionless documentation.

Nudge (Exit)

In June, Nudge (formerly Nudge Rewards) was acquired by Axonify, a learning and communications solution for frontline employees. Through Nudge’s two-way communications and guided task execution platform, Axonify is better positioned to address labour related issues and empower frontline workers to execute with excellence. Congrats to founders Lindsey Goodchild, Dessy Daskalov and Jordan Ekers.

What an exciting half year for us all! Thank you kindly to the StandUp community. We look forward to announcing our other recent investments in the coming months — to stay in the know, please feel free to sign up for our newsletter (launching this fall!)

— The StandUp Team