NEW NAME AND NEW FUND
GreenSky Capital will now be known as GreenSky Ventures, reflecting the firm’s commitment to investing in high-growth companies and dedicated entrepreneurs in the Canadian market. GreenSky has an excellent track record of Canadian early-stage venture investing, having already returned 167% of the capital raised in its first three vintage funds on three exits, one failure and with 13 growing portfolio companies.
GreenSky is pleased to announce the first closing of its fifth venture fund, GreenSky Accelerator Fund V (the “Fund”). The Fund has closed approximately CDN$17M and will continue to raise capital for a total anticipated fund size of between CDN$20M to CDN$25M. GreenSky welcomes interest from accredited investors interested in Canadian venture investing until March 31, 2023. The Fund’s limited partners are composed of a network of private Canadian and U.S. investors, most of whom have invested in GreenSky’s previous funds. The Fund will deploy capital over the next two years, making Seed and Series A round investments.
TEAM GROWTH
To deliver on our ambitious mandate, GreenSky Ventures has promoted from within and bolstered the team with three strategic new hires that bring deep expertise in Canadian Equity Markets, Tech Leadership and Company Growth, and Scaling Operations.
Promoted to Partner, Neil Peet joins the senior leadership team to focus on Leads Intake. Neil joined the GreenSky team seven years ago as an Analyst and has played a key role at the firm, sourcing new investments, conducting due diligence on potential companies, and working closely with entrepreneurs at various investee companies. He has extensive experience working with start-ups and has previously worked as a Strategy Consultant in both Canada and internationally. Neil holds an HBA from Ivy, an MBA from Rotman, and a Masters in Global Affairs from the University of Toronto’s Munk School.
Joining as Managing Partner, Marian Hoffmann will work with the existing senior leadership team to allocate capital to companies and to manage the investment portfolio. She brings 17 years of experience investing in the Canadian equity markets on behalf of institutions and individuals. She has previously worked at Sionna Investment Managers where she was Research Director and the Lead Portfolio Manager on the firm’s Canadian Equity investment strategies. Marian has a BA in Economics from Yale University and is a CFA charterholder.
Joining as Principal, Niranjan Mayya will contribute to the evaluation of new technologies, leadership teams and business models of investee companies. Prior to joining, Niranjan was the Founder and CEO of RANK Software, a cybersecurity and GreenSky portfolio company that exited in 2020. He previously held various technical leadership positions at Blackberry. Niranjan has a PhD and a Masters in Computer Science (Computational Geometry Algorithms) from the University of Florida.
Joining as Principal, Nadine Rijkhoff will contribute to the asssessment of Product/Market Fit for our investee companies. Prior to joining, Nadine worked as a Management Consultant internationally, and also worked as Chief of Staff to COOs and CDOs of several large financial institutions. Nadine holds an MBA from Rotman, a CPA designation, and the SaFE Agile certification.
GreenSky Managing Partner Michael List said: “When we founded GreenSky over ten years ago, I could not have imagined that we would ultimately assemble the group that we have today. The breadth and depth of knowledge and experience of our team is remarkable. The perspectives of such a socially and cognitively diverse team, combined with our ‘honesty and transparency first’ culture, will continue to produce world-class investment decision-making. GreenSky’s strong historic returns enable us to be opportunistic regardless of market conditions, adding new team members that deepen our pool of expertise. The launch of Fund V provides our team with new capital to invest at a time of dislocation within the Canadian early-stage venture marketplace and we expect to find excellent investment opportunities during this period of volatility.”
