First Ascent Ventures News | First Ascent Ventures

News

ThinkData closes investment from OTEAF to fuel global expansion

Posted by admin / Uncategorized

TORONTO, ON – ThinkData Works, Inc. (ThinkData) has announced an investment from the OpenText Enterprise Apps Fund (OTEAF). The funds will be used to support ThinkData’s global expansion. The transaction will also see Tony van Marken, General Partner at OTEAF, join ThinkData’s Board of Directors.

ThinkData’s platform allows organizations to access data from hundreds of public sources and helps enterprises transform proprietary data sets into a standardized format. Organizations can use these rich data pools to build predictive models and derive insights.

“Our investment in ThinkData reflects our belief that data is the most valuable asset for enterprise today. The ThinkData platform allows its customers to unlock the potential of their own data, and layer in new sources to generate actionable insights,” says Tony van Marken. “The company has already won Tier 1 enterprise customers, reinforcing our conviction in the value of the platform to some of the most sophisticated institutions in the world.”

ThinkData’s customers include Royal Bank of Canada, the Government of Canada, Bank of Nova Scotia, TD Bank, and The Altus Group among others.

“If you’re only looking at your own internal and siloed data environment to drive your business forward, you’re missing 90% of the information you need to start leveraging in order to remain competitive in tomorrow’s business landscape. This is true for every company in every sector,” says Bryan Smith, Co-Founder and CEO of ThinkData.

Using ThinkData’s platform, Namara, organizations are capable of taking endless amounts of public and private data sourced from anywhere in the world and layering it upon existing practices or integrating it into new business intelligence solutions.

“We are unlocking the ability to link and layer data sets that, although related, have traditionally remained siloed,” says Mr. Smith. “By boiling down every dataset to its raw features, we can rebuild it into master data records that adhere to a common standard – and we can do so at scale. This clean data works like rocket fuel and launches our clients’ analytics capabilities to new heights.”

OTEAF joins Extreme Venture Partners (EVP) and MaRS IAF, ThinkData’s initial seed investors, who backed the company in its early stages. “In the last decade, the world’s most important companies have become experts in data – its capture, its analytics, and its use. ThinkData’s platform unlocks this capability for all the companies out there that need to play catch up,” said Ray Sharma, Managing Partner of EVP. “We bet early on ThinkData because they had a sobering idea; data needs to be as accessible as tap water. Companies need to be able to turn on the faucet and watch the data flow.”

Media Inquiries:
Lewis Wynne-Jones, ThinkData Works, Inc.
Head of Data Acquisition and Partnerships
lewis@thinkdataworks.com

About ThinkData Works
Founded in 2014, ThinkData Works focuses on the aggregation and modification of large data sets, enabling businesses to create new products and insights. The platform is designed to access high value data in standard usable formats.
For more information visit: thinkdataworks.com

About Extreme Venture Partners
EVP is an early stage investment fund, startup development lab (Extreme Innovation) and global-to-Canada accelerator (Extreme Accelerator) that invites diversity as the spark of brilliance and innovation, quietly launching some of the Canada’s most interesting startups. EVP has developed a comprehensive startup ecosystem, as well as a not-for-profit organization (Hackergals) dedicated to addressing the gender imbalance in coding. Learn more about EVP’s “firsts”.
For more information visit: evp.vc

07
Feb

Rubikloud Expands AI Presence in Toronto With 60 New Jobs

Posted by admin / Uncategorized

One of the biggest AI companies in Canada is expanding their reach and bringing more talent in. Rubikloud has unveiled that they will be adding 60 new jobs in Toronto following their $37 million Series B round of funding in early January.

The new roles will span several fields and industries such as data science, engineering, sales, operations, finance and marketing, and come in both junior and senior levels.

“The state of the enterprise AI market is nascent, with few companies deploying AI solutions to businesses,” said Kerry Liu, CEO of Rubikloud. “Rubikloud’s product and platform are ahead of the market, offering tech talent practical AI careers where they can actually build AI applications. We’ve seen a recruiting upticks as analysts and shareholders actively ask companies how they are using AI / ML to improve their bottom lines. Our clients are not funding research projects. They are funding automated production systems.”

As a leading machine learning platform designed for retailers, Rubikloud uses AI to deliver customized and intelligent decision automation for multi-billion dollar businesses. The Toronto company automates and builds on mass promotional planning and loyalty-driven marketing with a built-in-house and cloud-native platform. Many studies have shown that companies will be forced to integrate some form of AI in order to stay competitive in the retail world, and Rubikloud is helping them stay on course.

“Rubikloud is one of the few AI companies building and deploying practical solutions across the Fortune 500 and moving machine learning from the predictive to prescriptive,” said Karamdeep Nijjar, partner at iNovia Capital. iNovia were investors in Rubikloud’s recent funding round. “We invested in Rubikloud because we believe they could become a publicly traded billion-dollar company in the next five years and we’re excited to see them hiring aggressively,” added Nijjar. Rubikloud currently has just over 75 employees, so these new additions will almost double the existing team. The company has earned a total of $45 million in financing so far.

Rubikloud is also nominated for Startup of the Year in the Canadian Innovation Awards. For more info on the event, head here, otherwise tune in to see if they will take home the prize on February 22 in Toronto.

Analytics Artificial Intelligence Canada Machine Learning Retail SaaS Venture Capital

22
Jan

Q4 releases iris™, a new artificial intelligence engine for investor relations

Posted by admin / Uncategorized

NEW YORK, NY, January 17, 2018 – Q4 Inc., a global leader in cloud based investor relations announced today the release of iris™, the company’s new AI engine designed to revolutionize the IR services space. By integrating machine learning, big data analytics and NLP to analyze and process high volumes of fragmented market data, iris is empowering public companies across the United States to drive improved investor engagement and shareholder quality, leading to lower volatility and higher multiples.

Phase one of this ground breaking technology is being applied to Q4’s stock surveillance business, where iris has been achieving accuracy levels of real-time ownership that are unheard of in the investor relations intelligence market.

“Today’s introduction of iris into the market signifies a huge milestone for Q4 and our stock surveillance program,” said Adam Frederick, SVP, Intelligence. “In the past, traditional surveillance firms have been unable to achieve high levels of accuracy in providing real-time shareholder analytics due to the depth and breadth of analysis required. iris is capable of analyzing vast amounts of data at a level impossible for any human to achieve. Backed by this powerful AI-engine, Q4 is consistently able to achieve 80 percent plus accuracy in real-time ownership predictions – a true breakthrough for the industry.”

Q4 also announced today a commitment to proactively report accuracy results to their clients, along with a money back guarantee on maintaining accuracy above 80 percent. The guarantee is structured as a service level agreement on accuracy and provides a structure for quarterly reporting and rebates on fees paid should accuracy levels drop below 80 percent.

“Seeing the results of iris and its impact on our accuracy has given us the confidence to stand behind our data with a money back guarantee, which sets a new standard in the IR market,” said Darrell Heaps, CEO, Q4. “The unmatched proficiency of iris, coupled with the top tier advice and consulting provided by Q4’s experienced analyst team, has created a far superior product to anything else available today. Our clients rely on surveillance intelligence to drive critical decision-making with their C-suite and board, which is why Q4 is holding itself accountable.”

Q4 plans to release a number of new iris analytics and workflow products over the course of 2018, each with a core purpose of enabling investor relations teams through actionable analytics and improved efficiency through automation.

iris is available today and is in operation across Q4’s US-based intelligence business.

For more information contact sales@q4inc.com.

Artificial Intelligence B2B Canada Fintech IR Machine Learning Q4 Inc Toronto Venture Capital

03
Jan

Rubikloud scores $37 million investment to bring intelligence to retail industry

Posted by admin / Uncategorized

TORONTO, Jan. 3, 2018 — The retail industry is one that’s rife for disruption by technology. Under intense pressure from giants like Amazon and Walmart, retailers are often stuck using legacy systems and are ill-equipped to compete using the latest tools. Rubikloud announced a $37 million investment today to help retailers attack the modernization problem with cloud tools built with artificial intelligence underpinnings.

The round was led by Intel Capital with participation from new investors Inovia Capital and OTEAF along with previous investors Horizons Ventures and Access Industries. Today’s investment brings the total to $47 million, according to the company.

Intel in particular is trying to get a foothold inside of retail where they hope to promote their Internet of Things strategy. They believe that by combining their IoT knowledge with Rubikloud’s intelligent automation and data processing, it will generate a powerful partnership. For starters, they hope to attack three areas of retail with this approach including the supply chain, the corporate front office and inside stores themselves.

Rubikloud offers a series of SaaS products including a promotions tool and a customer lifecycle manager to help retailers provide more personalized promotions and track their customers through the entire retail lifecycle. They also offer a couple of more nuts and bolts tools including RubiCore, which is designed to help companies ingest and validate data from their existing systems and move their data into Rubikloud’s proprietary data model. Finally they offer RubiOne, which is a set of machine learning tools and libraries designed to help retailers build their own machine learning applications on top of the Rubikloud data set.

The idea is to use the applications the company has provided to help retailers improve promotions and better understand their customers, while giving them the ability to build their own customized applications as well.

This appears to be a solid approach, but the company is far from alone in this space as it’s competing with giants like Adobe and a host of other startups. Regardless, investors obviously liked what they saw and have pumped in a lot of money to help in that regard.

The company plans to use the money from this round for worldwide expansion with a focus on opening offices in Europe and Asia.

Analytics Artificial Intelligence B2B Enterprise Software Machine Learning SaaS Toronto Venture Capital

17
Oct

Royal Bank of Scotland partners with Sensibill to give business banking customers greater control of their finances

Posted by admin / Uncategorized

TORONTO, Oct. 17, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) and Sensibill have partnered to alleviate a major pain point for small business banking customers: receipt management. Sensibill’s digital receipt solution will bring convenience to small business owners, allowing them to manage their cash flow, and streamline their administrative efficiencies directly from their mobile banking app.

The service—which will be available to all small business customers via their RBS mobile banking app in January 2018—will allow customers to scan their receipts using their iOS or Android camera. The receipts will be reconciled with card transactions held by the business, allowing users to track spending and categorize expenses for HMRC, as well as create reports for invoicing or accounting purposes.

This partnership sets the bar for how banks and financial technology companies can work together to better serve customers and address their needs.

“No bank can expect to thrive without listening to the evolving needs of customers, and by partnering with Sensibill, we’re offering proactive help and best-in-class innovation for free – allowing small businesses to spend less time on admin, and more time on what they do best,” said Marcelino Castrillo, managing director of business banking at NatWest/Royal Bank of Scotland.

Initial trials of Sensibill’s service indicated that 88% of small business banking customers found the app to be “good” or “very good”. As for how the service influenced customers’ perception of the bank, 78% of customers said that they would recommend NatWest if the bank offered the service in the future.

“It’s simple – if banks don’t service their customers’ needs, someone else will. Every time a customer uses a competing solution to solve their financial pain, customer loyalty erodes. This is especially relevant with open banking gaining momentum, and third-parties having access to customer information that was once in the bank’s custody. There has never been a more critical time for banks to invest in their customers and invest in services that will retain them,” said Corey Gross, CEO and Co-Founder at Sensibill.

About Sensibill

Sensibill works with the most innovative global financial institutions to solve their customers’ pain point of managing receipts. Sensibill’s solution drives net new engagements across online and mobile banking channels, while unlocking deep purchase insights across all payment methods. The service is fully white-labeled, designed specifically to meet bank requirements and is live with Tier 1 financial institutions today. To find out more, visit www.getsensibill.com, and connect with us on twitter.com/getsensibill and linkedin.com/company/sensibill-inc-.

Analytics B2B Canada Enterprise Software Fintech SaaS Series A Toronto Venture Capital

21
Sep

ScribbleLive acquires ion interactive

Posted by admin / Uncategorized

TORONTO, Sept. 21, 2017 /PRNewswire/ – ScribbleLive, the leading content experience platform, announced today that it has acquired interactive content platform provider, ion interactive. With this acquisition, ScribbleLive further strengthens its ability to help companies manage the full lifecycle of their content by bringing new interactive capabilities to its platform.

ion interactive is an enterprise SaaS platform that empowers modern marketers to produce data-driven interactive content at scale and without code. As part of ScribbleLive’s content experience platform, ion interactive gives marketers and content-focused teams new capabilities and opportunities to manage interactive experiences. In particular, ScribbleLive’s content creation capabilities – with it’s Visually network of 1,500+ creative professionals – will help customers supercharge their interactive content, across a wide range of formats and experiences.

“Buyers actually need to interact with a brand about 10 to 15 times before they buy a product,” said Vincent Mifsud, CEO of ScribbleLive. “At ScribbleLive, we want to help content-focused teams move beyond developing one-off experiences, and consider their interactive brand as an opportunity to quickly drive relevant experiences and revenue. Every buyer touchpoint is an opportunity for insight and understanding.”

This is ScribbleLive’s largest acquisition to-date, adding over 50 ion interactive employees and 250+ enterprise customers – including major brands like Salesforce, Starbucks, Deloitte and M&T Bank, further strengthening its focus across software, education, finance and healthcare verticals. ion interactive also has developed strong relationships with many industry leading agencies, making the company a powerful addition to ScribbleLive’s partner network.

“At ScribbleLive, we are helping businesses make content their competitive advantage. Adding ion interactive’s deep expertise and innovative technology is an exciting opportunity to help our customers create truly relevant and effective content,” added Mifsud. “We welcome the fantastic ion teams in Boca Raton, FL and Boston to the ScribbleLive family and look forward to working together.”

To learn more about ScribbleLive and its offerings, please visit Scribblelive.com.

About ScribbleLive
ScribbleLive is the world’s leading content experience platform. ScribbleLive help brands, sports and media organizations manage the full lifecycle of their content. With ScribbleLive, you can ideate, plan, create, distribute and measure your content for any stage of the buyer’s journey. ScribbleLive can help make content your competitive advantage and is trusted by over 1,200 customers including Oracle, Red Bull, the NBA and Microsoft.

Analytics Aquisition B2B Canada Enterprise Software Martech Series D Toronto Venture Capital

03
Mar

Sensibill closes $17.3 million Series A to scale digital receipt data service for banks

Posted by admin / Uncategorized

TORONTO, ON – March 02, 2017 – Sensibill has raised a sizeable $17.3 million Series A led by Information Venture Partners and OpenText Enterprise Apps Fund (OTEAF).

Sensibill offers a suite of value-added services for mobile banking apps centered around the everyday receipt and enabled by machine learning. Last year, the FinTech company, which is headquartered in Toronto, launched its core product, a smart receipt management service, with Scotiabank and TD Canada Trust’s mobile wallet app UGO Wallet. The round led by Canadian VC firms is one of the largest A-rounds in Canada to date.

“We are pleased to be leading this round of investment,” said David Unsworth, Co-Founder and General Partner at Information Venture Partners. “As experienced financial technology investors, we have long believed in the inevitable ubiquity of mobile banking as a core digital channel for all financial institutions. We believe Sensibill is well-positioned to bring its digital receipt capabilities into every mobile banking application and are thrilled to be their partner as they continue to scale and develop a world-class financial technology company.”

Sensibill says the funds will enable the company to continue developing a robust system that can structure data from any merchant receipt and return rich insights to consumers and businesses alike. Currently, Sensibill is the market leader in extracting and structuring receipt data using deep learning techniques, but the startup claims that this is only the beginning compared to what they are layering on-top.

“We knew that people wanted an intuitive and secure solution for managing their receipts, but we’ve also learned a great deal about how they want to make better use of their purchase information,” said Corey Gross, Co-Founder and CEO of Sensibill. “Think reminders for when warranties expire, being able to optimize household budgets, and highly targeted credit card rewards. That’s where machine learning comes into play, and we’re excited to add more fuel to our growing research and AI team right here in Toronto.”

Globally, financial institutions are waking up to the potential of receipt data. The demand is growing for receipt solutions that are able to contextualize purchase information down to the payment and SKU-level. Having already announced partnerships with Tier 1 Canadian banks, Sensibill plans on allocating the new resources towards growth and delivery efforts in the United States, U.K, and Australia.

Sensibill has attracted investment from industry veterans — a strategic move on the company’s part. “We want to work with investors who really understand banktech, and have had industry-defining success building and scaling financial services companies,” says Gross. Sensibill’s B2B2C partnership model for bringing new technology to banks and their customers is a welcomed deviation from the “challenger” position FinTechs often take.

“Banks are hungry for innovative customer-facing solutions that solve everyday pain points. The reason digital receipts are such a desirable offering is because it has mass customer appeal and enables personalization,” said Drew Sievers, founding partner of San Francisco-based Operative Capital and former founder and CEO of mobile banking pioneer, mFoundry. “Sensibill has delivered impressive results for some of the largest banks in the world, and is now well-positioned to be a global leader and an indispensable partner to financial institutions.”

“Our investment reflects our belief in the tremendous market potential for their technology and management’s ability to execute on their vision. In a short space of time Sensibill has closed deals with some of the world’s leading financial institutions in a highly competitive environment. We are very excited about their growth prospects and look forward to working with Corey and his outstanding team,” said Tony van Marken, General Partner at OTEAF.

Both Unsworth and van Marken will be joining Sensibill’s board of directors.
San Francisco-based Operative Capital, Mistral Venture Partners, and existing investor Impression Ventures have also participated in the round.

About Sensibill
Sensibill is a white-label Software as a Service platform that allows personal and business banking customers to manage line-item receipts directly from their desktop and mobile banking applications. Customers can capture and store paper and electronic receipts, which can then be accessed and used for returns, exchanges, expenses, taxes and accounting.
Sensibill leverages rich item-level purchase data to deliver personalization and contextualized services to banking customers. To find out more visit www.getsensibill.com.

About Information Venture Partners
Information Venture Partners (IVP) is a Toronto-based venture capital group investing out of its $106 million second fund. IVP is focused on fast-growing enterprise FinTech and enterprise software companies based in North America. As a Series A investor, IVP looks for rapidly growing companies with differentiated technology solutions addressing significant market opportunities. Portfolio companies include Adaptive Insights, Verafin, Igloo Software, eSentire, PostBeyond, Q4 and Sensibill. Follow IVP on the web at www.informationvp.com or on Twitter @informationvp.

About OpenText Enterprise Apps Fund
The OpenText Enterprise Apps Fund (OTEAF) was formed in 2015 and invests in Canadian technology companies that are building disruptive, enterprise applications that leverage the power of the internet, big data, predictive analytics, mobility and machine learning. OTEAF has offices in Toronto, Ontario and Montreal, Quebec. www.oteaf.vc

Analytics B2B Canada Digital Receipts Fintech SaaS Toronto Venture Capital

17
Jan

Q4 Acquires CapMark Clarity to Bring Next Gen Shareholder ID and Market Intelligence Solutions to UK and European Markets

Posted by admin / Uncategorized

Acquisition will combine Q4’s disruptive technology with CapMark Clarity’s market intelligence expertise to bring unprecedented speed and accuracy to shareholder identification in the UK and Europe

London, UK, January 17, 2017 — Q4 Inc., a global leader in cloud-based investor relations and capital market solutions, is announcing the acquisition of CapMark Clarity, a provider of shareholder ID and market intelligence to UK and European markets. CapMark Clarity will be merged into Q4’s intelligence division, and Amit Sanghvi, CEO of CapMark Clarity, will join as senior director, international advisory.

With more than a decade of experience, CapMark Clarity set a new standard for traditional investor relations services in Europe. CapMark Clarity introduced its proprietary market intelligence technology and shareholder ID solutions to the market in 2012 and established itself as an innovative shareholder ID provider in Europe and AsiaPacific. The merging of CapMark Clarity’s expertise with Q4’s data-driven intelligence creates a new European powerhouse in market intelligence and shareholder ID solutions for IR professionals.

“I have always been impressed with the work Amit has done. Combining CapMark Clarity with our market-leading algorithms enables us to provide the fastest, most accurate and actionable intelligence to our UK and European clients,” says Darrell Heaps, CEO of Q4. “We believe that our data science approach to intelligence allows us to provide a level of speed and accuracy that has not been previously available in the UK and Europe. We are excited to partner with Amit and the team at CapMark Clarity to bring these next gen solutions to the market.”

Q4 uses next generation technology such as machine learning algorithms and natural language processing to automate processes for IR professionals with unprecedented speed, ease and precision. With the acquisition of CapMark Clarity, Q4’s full suite of next gen IR solutions, including website, webcasting, shareholder ID and the firm’s CRM and IR workflow platform, Q4 Desktop, will now be available to European customers.

“Q4 has been a real driver of technological innovation in the IR industry for several years. With its use of artificial intelligence, Q4 now leads the industry into a new era of smart technology. We look forward to leveraging this technology and empowering European IR professionals by bringing high-quality market intelligence and shareholder ID right to their fingertips,” says Amit Sanghvi, founder and CEO of CapMark Clarity.

Q4’s European intelligence division will operate out of London, UK. Now with more than 1,200 global clients and offices in New York, Toronto, Chicago, Copenhagen and London, Q4 is firmly positioned to continue its strong growth trajectory into 2017 and beyond.

For more information:
Taryn Shulman, Q4 Inc.
Director, Marketing
416-540-9832
taryns@q4inc.com

About Q4 Inc.
Q4 is a global leader in cloud-based investor relations and capital market solutions. Thousands of brands around the world use Q4 website, webcasting, CRM, analytics and surveillance solutions to better connect with their investors and understand the capital markets. In June 2016, Q4 launched Q4 Desktop, the industry’s first fully integrated investor relations platform, which integrates communications tools, surveillance and analytics into a fully featured IR workflow and CRM application. Q4 has offices in New York, Chicago, Toronto, Copenhagen, and London. Visit www.q4inc.com to learn more.

About CapMark Clarity
CapMark Clarity is an independent capital markets intelligence firm with a focus on delivering the highest quality and personal service to each of its clients. Backed by a team with over a decade of experience, CapMark Clarity sets a new standard for traditional investor relations services and leads the way into a new era of smarter investor relations.

B2B Canada CapMark Clarity Enterprise Software Europe Fintech Q4 Inc SaaS Venture Capital

17
May

Q4 Closes $22M Series B Financing to Fuel Product and Sales Expansion

Posted by admin / Uncategorized

darrel

TORONTO, ON – May 17, 2016 – Q4 Inc., a global leader in SaaS investor relations and capital market solutions, announced today the closing of a $22 million Series B financing, bringing the Company’s total amount raised to $30 million.

This round was led by OpenText Enterprise Apps Fund (OTEAF), Information Venture Partners, and HarbourVest Partners along with Emerillon Capital, and Kensington Capital Partners. Series A investors Plaza Ventures and Accomplice also participated. The funding will go towards expanding the Company’s engineering, sales and marketing teams.

“We are delighted to lead this round,” said Richard Black, General Partner at the OpenText Enterprise Apps Fund. “Our investment in Q4 reflects our belief in the tremendous market potential for their technology and management’s ability to execute on their vision. With over 600 top tier customers Q4 has demonstrated their ability to deliver value to the most demanding companies on a consistent basis. We are very excited about their growth prospects in the future.”

Q4 has been steadily expanding their investor relations platform since 2013, which now includes investor websites, earnings webcasting, market intelligence and investor CRM suite. The Company is focused on applying artificial intelligent methods such as machine learning and natural language processing to provide real-time insights on institutional trading, market sentiment, volatility and investor activism.

“Over the last 10 years, the market has become more complex and opaque than ever before. Alternative trading systems, dark pools and high frequency trading have created a challenging environment, making it almost impossible for corporates and investors to understand what is happening within the global financial markets,” said Darrell Heaps, CEO of Q4 Inc. “Our products bring simplicity to this problem and help companies better understand the market, manage investor engagement and communicate with the street. We are at the early stages of our vision and look forward to using these funds to continue expanding our platform and analytics for corporate and institutional clients.”

“There has been very limited innovation in investor relations technology. Q4 is at the forefront of adopting and developing new technologies, changing the user experience for its communications customers and redefining intelligence methodologies to provide better insights to IROs, CFOs and CEOs,” said Robert Antoniades Co-Founder and General Partner of Information Venture Partners.

2015 was a watershed year for Q4, generating record client & ARR growth and executing on Company’s product suite expansion. Launching in June, the new Q4 desktop will be the investor relations industry’s most integrated market intelligence, investor CRM, website and webcasting platform on the market. Q4 plans to unveil this new product at the National Investor Relations Institute’s annual conference in San Diego, June 4-8, 2016.

“As we expand our presence in Canada, HarbourVest is excited to partner with Q4 in this next stage of its growth path,” commented David Zug, Vice-President, HarbourVest Partners. “This dynamic team and technology are poised to continue to transform the way public companies engage their shareholders.”

“We are excited to partner with Q4 at this critical inflection point in its growth,” said Raghu Bharat, Investment Manager at Emerillon Capital. “As demonstrated by their remarkable growth, this round of funding will help Q4 capitalize on global demand for their solutions, and accelerate the company’s pace of product innovation.”

Q4 has over 150 employees in offices in Toronto, Chicago and New York.

About Q4 Inc.
Q4 is a global leader in communication and intelligence solutions to the IR market. With hundreds of Fortune 1000 brands using Q4 website, webcasting, analytics and advisory solutions, we have created a full service platform that enables public companies to better connect with their investors and understand the capital markets. Visit www.q4inc.com to learn more.

Analytics B2B Enterprise Software Fintech Fundraising Neuro Linguistic Programming SaaS Series B Toronto Venture Capital

06
May

Assent Compliance Attracts $20 Million Investment To Drive Global Growth

Posted by admin / Uncategorized

OTTAWA, ON – May6, 2016 – The investment is led by Boston-based Volition Capital with participation from OpenText Enterprise Application Fund (OTEAF), Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP), Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and private investors.

Assent Compliance provides a comprehensive all-in-one compliance automation platform for organizations required to comply with a variety of product stewardship, materials management and ethical sourcing regulations. The funding will enable Assent Compliance to continue to invest in its platform and increase the number of team members across all divisions, particularly in R&D and Product Management. With a current headcount of 165, this growth will involve an additional 100 new hires over the coming 12-18 months.

“We are delighted to be partnering with the Assent management team”, said Richard Black, General Partner at OpenText Enterprise Apps Fund. “Assent Compliance has demonstrated their capabilities with proven success working with top tier customers. With the support of an outstanding syndicate of investors, Assent has a unique opportunity to become the global leader in the compliance automation market. “

Global supply chains are complex. Companies are often required, by law, to survey their supply chains to ensure materials are sourced ethically, workers are treated fairly, products are safe and their environmental impact is limited. Assent currently works with over 30 percent of S&P 500 product companies and a network of over 300,000 supplier companies globally to ensure compliance with these regulations.

Assent Compliance helps clients incorporate best practices into their compliance programs and provides them with the tools to survey their supply chains efficiently, without incurring extravagant costs. Assent Compliance also provides educational materials for companies and suppliers to stay ahead of the regulatory curve through an internally-developed, integrated learning management system.

In the midst of an evolving global regulatory landscape, companies turn to Assent Compliance to fulfill an integral role in the compliance process.

About Assent Compliance:

Assent Compliance, founded in 2005, enables companies to manage and streamline their supply chain and product compliance efforts to ensure their products meet the standards of various market access regulations. Assent currently works with over 30 percent of S&P 500 product companies and thousands of small and medium-size businesses globally.

About Volition Capital:

Volition Capital is a growth equity firm based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Volition team principally invests in high growth, founder-owned companies across different technology sectors. Volition Capital currently manages a portfolio of 17 market leading companies.

Analytics B2B Compliance Enterprise Software Fintech Fundraising Ottawa SaaS Series A Venture Capital