Toronto, Canada-based Kensington Capital Partners raised more than $150m in the first close of Kensington Venture Fund III (KVFIII) towards a final fund size of $290m.
The fund, which is being launched under the Government of Canada’s Venture Capital Catalyst Initiative (VCCI), is backed by BDC, Kensington Private Equity Fund, TD Bank, and several individual investors and family offices.
In alignment with the firm’s hybrid strategy for its previous Funds, KVFIII will serve as both a fund-of-funds investing in venture capital (VC) funds and a direct investor into promising technology companies.
Led by Jérôme Nycz, Executive Vice President, and Rick Nathan, Senior Managing Director, Kensington Capital invests across all stages from early-stage Seed and Series A through later stage technology growth. This approach provides Kensington with a broadly diversified portfolio covering all key subsectors, including artificial intelligence, industrial automation and robotics, cybersecurity, life science/healthcare, energy and sustainability technologies, and tech-enabled services such as e-commerce, telemedicine, and online education. The firm invests primarily in funds and companies across Canada and the United States, acting as lead investors or as supporting members of a syndicate.
It is now actively pursuing investment opportunities for KVFIII in new venture funds and in promising emerging companies. The KVFIII portfolio will allocate 75% of invested capital into funds, with the remaining 25% targeted at direct investments into companies. The fund as a whole will have a primary focus on the Canadian market.
FinSMEs
07/04/2023