Ripple Ventures

🚀 Big News from Ripple Ventures 🚀 Today marks a major milestone in our journey at Ripple Ventures as we announce not just one, but two significant achievements. We’re thrilled to officially introduce Ripple Ventures Fund III, and celebrate the well-deserved promotions of two key team members (Nazuk Thakkar and Katie Ko) who have been instrumental to our success. Ripple Ventures Fund III has been in full swing since late 2022, anchored by RBCx and the Government of Canada’s renewed Venture Capital Catalyst Initiative (VCCI) through BDC Capital. With 20 companies already backed, we remain laser-focused on investing at the “true pre-seed stage,” from inception to first revenue, supporting founders with $250K to $750K checks. Our focus is on software companies transforming legacy industries through building new-age systems of record, workflow automation tools, or platforms that enable the transition to frontier technology. We’re also doubling down on our commitment to underrepresented student and recent grad founders through the RippleX Fellowship and our Fellow Fund, writing $50K to $100K investments. And we’re just getting started—expect another 10-15 new investments in this fund alone. We're excited to announce two big promotions at the firm - Nazuk Thakkar to Senior Associate and Katie Ko to Associate. Naz has been a driving force in our growth, from handling deal flow full-stack to building out our co-investor and corporate development engine. Katie, the glue of our fund and deal operations, has been pivotal in scaling our sourcing engine and RippleX Fellowship. Both started with us through the RippleX Fellowship, and their passion and dedication have made them integral to Ripple Ventures. We’re proud of what we’ve accomplished together and even more excited for what’s ahead. Want to join us on this journey? Get in touch here: https://lnkd.in/ezNfDYsy Learn more about the fund and reach out: Matt Cohen: matt@rippleventures.com Dominic Lau: dom@rippleventures.com Nazuk Thakkar: naz@rippleventures.com Katie Ko: katie@rippleventures.com Full announcement here: https://lnkd.in/emasZd68

Unlock Your Startup Potential with Ripple Ventures at the RippleX Fellowship Roadshow – UBC Edition! 🚀 Aspiring founders, student entrepreneurs, and recent grads—this is your moment to gain exclusive insights into the startup world from industry experts. In partnership with UBC Startups and Innovation UBC, Ripple Ventures is thrilled to bring the RippleX Fellowship Roadshow to UBC! Why Attend? 💼 The RippleX Founder Fellowship – Designed for underrepresented founders across Canada and the U.S., this highly selective program is tailored for early-stage B2B software startups. Whether you're refining your product or pursuing initial revenue, the Fellowship provides unparalleled access to customers, esteemed operators, and the hands-on expertise of the Ripple team. Plus, participants may receive early funding through the Fellow Fund—a pivotal boost for promising startups. 🌟 Meet Leaders Who Shape the Industry – Engage directly with Dominic Lau (Partner at Ripple Ventures & RippleX Founder) and Katie Ko (Associate at Ripple Ventures & RippleX Alum). Gain valuable insights, ask questions, and explore the pathway from ideation to scale with those who’ve been in your shoes. 🍕 Connect Over Pizza & Networking – Forge meaningful connections with like-minded students and recent grads as you explore what it takes to launch a successful venture. Complimentary pizza and refreshments provided. Event Details: 📅 Date: October 10, 2024 🕓 Time: 4:00 PM - 5:30 PM 📍 Location: UBC Alumni Centre This is your chance to connect with Ripple Ventures, gain real-world knowledge, and explore whether the RippleX Fellowship could be the catalyst your venture needs. Join us to start building a network and insights that can fuel your startup ambitions. 🚀 RSVP now—take the first step toward transforming your startup dreams into reality with UBC Startups, Innovation UBC, and Ripple Ventures. This is where opportunity meets preparation—don’t miss it. Secure your spot now - https://lnkd.in/gEe5xsNM #UBCStartups #InnovationUBC #RippleX #Entrepreneurship #VentureCapital #FounderFellowship #B2B

An absolute thrill hosting a Founder Get-Together to end of the summer! Over 50+ young builders across the city gathered under one roof to learn from each other and contribute to the vibrant startup community in Toronto. 🍁 We kicked off with pitches from RippleX Fellowship's current batch & alumni, where our founders shared how they're fearlessly tackling some of the world’s most pressing challenges. From deploying voice agents, improving medical charting, to decarbonizing built environments, the innovation and progress on display were nothing short of inspiring. I then had the pleasure of sitting down with Braden Ream to learn about his journey starting and scaling Voiceflow, as well as his take on the State of AI today. Read on for key takeaways + some of my personal reflections below: On Navigating the -1 to 0: 🚀 Speed Beats Strategy: Fast iteration is more valuable than having a perfect strategy. Testing ideas quickly by writing code and talking to users daily accelerates learning/ product refinement, and ability to move fast can open up unexpected opportunities. 💡 Optimise for problems and not solutions: Customers often articulate their needs as specific solutions, but the key to unlocking unique insight is by first understanding the underlying problems driving those requests. Building exactly what they ask for can lead you down the wrong path. On Scaling 0 to 1: 🌱 Start Small, Scale Smart: Early-stage startups should avoid the trap of chasing big enterprise deals too soon. Instead, focus on smaller, faster-moving customers who provide rapid feedback and iteration cycles. Build a strong base of smaller clients, refine your product, and then scale up to larger enterprise contracts when you’re ready. Big logos don’t guarantee big paydays—depth of value matters more than company size. 🦾 Never Settle: When you allow mediocrity to creep in, especially in a comfortable country like Canada—you set yourself up to fail. Entrepreneurship is about tail outcomes. Mid-tier startups fail because the average startup fails, so hire only the best and never settle for anything less. On the State of AI: 📈 Tech Hype vs. Business Adoption: There’s always a disconnect between what’s technologically possible today and what’s actually being adopted by businesses. Real innovation is happening in the mid-market, where companies are flexible enough to implement AI but large enough to make a difference in revenue. ✨ AI Isn’t Enough—Focus on Delivering Value: Many companies are using "AI" as a marketing buzzword, but that’s not enough. It’s not about having AI—it’s about solving real problems more efficiently. Long run, AI will become as standard as cloud services are today, and the companies that win will be those that can improve efficiency and outcomes, not those that slap AI onto their offering. Join our future events: https://lnkd.in/g7BR4k7b CC: Ripple Ventures Matt Cohen Nazuk Thakkar Dominic Lau

Now this is exciting stuff! 🚀 I'm super pumped to share this—just as the House of Commons kicks back into gear in Ottawa, www.with.page has rolled out its Meeting Overview Analysis and it’s nothing short of awesome. Here’s a quick dive into what it offers (screenshots below): ✅ Summary by Party: Breaks down insights by party—Conservatives, Liberals, NDP, Bloc—complete with key messages and themes. ✅ Sentiment Analysis: Delivers a detailed tone and decorum assessment that’s spot-on. ✅ Speaker Insights: Identifies top questions, pinpoints specific speakers, and their party affiliations—all seamlessly powered by AI. ✅ Key Quotes: Highlights the most impactful quotes from the session, ready instantly. Gone are the days of waiting for nightly news recaps or tomorrow’s paper. Whether you're a casual observer or a business monitoring political shifts, this tool changes the game. Exciting times ahead for Page! Ben Cox Elliot Dohm Chris Wilson Chris Thomson Sam Jordan

Another Ripple AGM in the books! 🥂 We hosted our Annual General Meeting, and it was an engaging experience filled with insightful discussions and valuable interactions. A special thank you to Braden Ream (Voiceflow), Eunice Wu, (Asepha), and Samuel W. (Sabba Health - We're hiring!) for a compelling conversation on the State of AI and their transformative work in their respective industries. Some highlights below: ⚙ AI Integration and Automation: Industries are adopting AI to automate tasks and enhance efficiency, moving beyond offshore outsourcing. This shift calls for adaptable, modular solutions tailored to specific industries, like healthcare, where data privacy and compliance are crucial. 🗓 Today’s Conducive Environment: Rapid advancements in LLMs are transforming data analysis and automation, outperforming traditional rule-based systems. Companies that prioritize solving concrete problems and then apply AI are more successful than those positioning AI as the primary solution. 💼 Attracting Talent & Using AI:  Attracting top talent with ambition and resilience is critical for scaling in high-stakes environments. AI enables companies to scale faster and more efficiently, reducing the need for large teams. Our second panel featuring John Rikhtegar (RBCx), Lauren Harris (Northleaf Capital Partners), and Matt Goldman (HarbourVest Partners) provided valuable insights into the State of Alternatives Markets and shared their observations and expertise. Key insights include: 💰 Investment Pace & Fundraising Shift: There's a move from rapid capital deployment and short fundraising cycles to a more measured approach, now extending to 2.5–3 years, promoting better deal quality and valuation accuracy. 📊 Asset Allocation & Focus Trends: 53% of capital is now allocated to alternative investments (a sizeable increase compared to a decade ago). Family offices are focusing more on private markets, including pre-seed/seed, life sciences, climate, sustainability, and direct secondaries. We capped off the evening with a cocktail event, where investors and founders from our network came together to celebrate the year's achievements over delightful bites. 🎉 Again, thank you to all our speakers and attendees for your continuous support and active participation. We look forward to continuing our journey of innovation and growth together. CC: Matt Cohen Dominic Lau Nazuk Thakkar Katie Ko

𝐓𝐨 𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐞 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥 👀 : This summer was a busy one and fall is gearing up to be even busier. Not just for us but also for the 10 incredible early-stage investors we got to highlight over the past three months that you should know: 〰️ Lucas Mann from Acre Venture Partners leads Seed & Series A rounds in food & agriculture startups that are building as a mode of action to combat climate change and improve human health. 💵 𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬𝘴: $500K - $3M+ ✉️ 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘵 lucas@acre.vc 〰️ Neil Kapur from TTV Capital leads Seed & Series A rounds in fintech and fintech-adjacent startups. They are business model agnostic and will invest in B2B enterprise, SMB, and consumer fintech. 💵 𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬𝘴: $2M - $7M ✉️ 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘵 nkapur@ttvcapital.com 〰️ Nick Adams from Differential Ventures leads / co-leads Pre-seeds & Seeds in founders building the data-driven economy. 💵 𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬𝘴: $250K - $2M ✉️ 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘵 nick@differential.vc 〰️ Victor Gutwein from M25 leads Pre-seeds & Seeds in midwest-headquartered software/digital startups. 💵 𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬𝘴: $250K - $1M ✉️ 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘵 victor@m25vc.com 〰️ Alex Norman from N49P Ventures leads Pre-seeds & Seeds in Canadian startups with great founding teams. 💵 𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬𝘴: $250K - $1M ✉️ 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘵 alex@n49P.com 〰️ Sydney Paige Thomas at Symphonic Capital leads / co-leads Pre-seeds in companies closing the access gaps in health and wealth for overlooked communities. 💵 𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬𝘴: $250K - $500K ✉️ 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘵 sydney@symphonic.vc 〰️ Shawn Merani at Parade Ventures leads / co-leads Pre-seeds & Seeds primarily in enterprise / B2B software companies. 💵 𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬𝘴: $500K - $1M ✉️ 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘵 shawn@parade.vc 〰️ Eric Ong at Lightbank invests in Pre-seeds & Seeds in the intersection of unsexy consumer & SMB. 💵 𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬𝘴: $500K - $5M ✉️ 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘵 ong@lightbank.com 〰️ Dominic Lau at Ripple Ventures leads Pre-seeds & Seeds in B2B software in the US / Canada. 💵 𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬𝘴: $250K - $1M ✉️ 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘵 dom@rippleventures.com 〰️ Arpan Punyani at Garuda Ventures invests in Pre-seeds & Seeds in B2B software products across both applications and technical products (AI, cybersecurity, infrastructure). 💵 𝘪𝘯𝘪𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘤𝘬𝘴: $500K - $1M ✉️ 𝘨𝘦𝘵 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘰𝘶𝘤𝘩 𝘢𝘵 arpan@garuda.vc -------- To find additional investors that could be a fit, check out findfunding.vc and / or shoot us a note if you're looking for a pre-seed lead investor. 𝐇𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐲 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐫𝐚𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐠 🍁 👻 !

Nazuk Thakkar & Katie Ko hosted our third event bringing together female funders in Toronto! We have exciting events planned ahead, so if you are a female investor or know someone that would like to be involved in this community – fill out the interest form here! https://lnkd.in/ggrg2RNz We look forward to having you at our next one!

🚀 We’re thrilled to announce our latest investment in NetNow Inc., NetNow is a trailblazing credit management platform revolutionizing the building materials industry. NetNow has raised $1.8M in its pre-seed round, led by Ripple Ventures, with contributions from Centre Street Partners, Antler, Motivate Venture Capital, and Day One Ventures! 🏗️ Why NetNow? Credit and collections processes have long been stuck in the past—burdened by manual paperwork and outdated systems. NetNow is changing the game with automation, AI, and unparalleled customization designed by credit managers, for credit managers. Key industries like lumber, steel, HVAC, and electrical supply are finally getting the modern, flexible tools they need to streamline credit approvals, reduce risk, and unlock faster sales. 🔑 What sets NetNow apart: - AI-powered insights for better credit decisions - 11x ROI for customers through automation - 70% faster customer onboarding - Seamless collaboration between sales and credit teams This funding will accelerate NetNow’s mission to promote digital-first credit management, reduce manual work, and unlock new revenue opportunities for wholesalers and distributors. Congrats Nauman Hafeez / Eli Costea / Soroush Arghavan Check out more about NetNow here: www.netnow.io

Don't announce a fundraise until you have something to show to back it up. Ripple Ventures made a little news of its own, Matt Cohen and team announced the Ripple Fund III and discussed it with John Ruffolo. New episode this week at tanktalks.substack.com and read here about Fund III https://lnkd.in/emasZd68

Last week, the Ripple Team had the pleasure of retreating to the serene beauty of Muskoka. We balanced our time between thrilling watersports, deep strategic discussions over dinner, and evenings by the fire roasting marshmallows. The peaceful surroundings provided the perfect backdrop for us to brainstorm and align on our goals for the year ahead. It was a rejuvenating experience that combined both relaxation and focus, setting the stage for a successful year to come :) CC: Matt Cohen Dominic Lau Nazuk Thakkar Katie Ko