At a Glance
Panache Ventures is a Canadian pre-seed venture capital firm, founded in 2018, that backs technology founders from day one. It writes first cheques of up to $1.5 million from its $100 million second fund and is frequently the first institutional investor on a company's cap table. The firm invests across all sectors and positions itself as operator-led: its team came from building and running companies before investing, and it takes no board seats, offering hands-on support instead of governance overhead. Patrick Lor, Mike Cegelski and Genevieve Tanguay are named among the people running the firm. Rather than concentrating in one city, Panache runs a nationwide platform with offices in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver, which it presents as the source of both its deal access and its perspective on regional ecosystems. More than 100 founders have scaled with the firm, and its portfolio companies have collectively raised over $3.3 billion in follow-on capital. A stated core function is getting companies to a Series A: Panache provides hands-on guidance through that raise and warm introductions to top-tier funds in Canada and the United States, which is the practical payoff of writing the first cheque in a market where later-stage capital often sits outside the country. Portfolio companies include the background-screening platform Certn, the customer-experience software company Alida and the identity-verification company Trulioo. The firm reviews every pitch deck submitted through its site. For a Canadian founder raising a first institutional round, Panache is most relevant as a fast, conviction-driven first cheque with a coast-to-coast network attached.
“Canada's most active pre-seed investor, backing technical founders with big ambitions.”
Patrick Lor is a managing partner and a two-time exited operator: he founded and sold iStockphoto to Getty Images and Fotolia to Adobe, and was previously a general partner at 500 Startups Canada. Mike Cegelski founded and exited iBwave and Beltron, chaired Anges Quebec, helped launch 500 Startups Canada and was named Canadian Angel Investor of the Year in 2015. Genevieve Tanguay is the former chief executive of Anges Quebec and brings more than 25 years in private equity and venture capital, having led that organisation's repositioning and asset growth. The principal bench covers the country: Sarah Willson is a professor at the Schulich School of Business and previously built a consumer marketplace; Domenic Del Vecchio leads investing in Quebec and Eastern Canada after strategic innovation roles at large Canadian companies; and Prashant Matta joined from OMERS Ventures, having earlier worked as a product strategist at Samsung.
Panache Ventures runs from Canada with offices in Montreal, Toronto, Calgary and Vancouver, and positions itself as the first institutional investor on the cap table. Its current vehicle, Fund II, is a $100 million fund writing first cheques of up to $1.5 million. The fund's backers include BMO, TELUS Global Ventures and Alberta Enterprise Corporation, a mix of bank, corporate and provincial capital characteristic of Canadian early-stage funds. Fund I's size is not disclosed publicly, and the firm has filed no Regulation D notices with the SEC, so its US-facing capital raising is not documented there. Portfolio companies have collectively raised more than $3.3 billion in follow-on capital; named holdings include Passage, PurposeMed, Perceptive Space, DeepSky, FISPAN and Sanctuary AI. The firm does not take board seats, working instead through warm introductions to Series A funds in Canada and the United States.
Panache Ventures primarily invests at the Pre-Seed, Seed stages. This means they focus on companies that are at the earliest idea or prototype phase.
Panache Ventures is headquartered in Calgary, Canada. Many of their portfolio companies are also based in this region, though they invest across geographies.
Panache Ventures focuses on investments in Enterprise, AI, Consumer, SaaS. Their portfolio reflects deep expertise and networks within these sectors.
Panache Ventures's typical investment check size ranges from $100K to $1M. Actual amounts may vary based on the stage, sector, and specific opportunity.
Panache Ventures manages approximately $100M+ in assets under management (AUM) across their funds.
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