An aura of stability sets the stage nicely

Dateline: Los Angeles

With Greece and Portugal under pressure from their creditors and the rating agencies, the topic of this morning’s Milken Institute panel is apropos: Canada – Stability in the Economic Storm. The federal Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Trade is our moderator, and I’m going on the panel with Phil Haggerty of OMERS, Dave Henderson of XPV and Ed Waitzer of Stikeman Elliott.

If you want to have a look at some of the slides, they’re here.

The main point I’m going to make is that the two hundred year two-way trade relationship between Canada and the USA continues in the world of the Innovation Economy. In fact, there have been 117 disclosed cross-border investments since January 2008.

Foreign VC investments in Canadian companies over the past few months include:

– Auctus – Capital Reserve Canada (Edmonton)

– Braemar Energy Ventures – General Fusion (Burnaby) – US$22 million round

– Lime Rock Partners – PanGeo Subsea (St. John’s) – $11 million

– FTV – Varicent (Toronto) – $35 million round

– General Catalyst – QuickPlay Media (Toronto) – US$12 million round

– Granite Ventures – Indicee (Vancouver)

– GrandBanks – I Love Rewards (Toronto) – $8.7 million round

– Intel Capital – TransGaming (Toronto)

– Lothian and OrbiMed – Enobia Pharma (Montreal) – US$50 million round

– Morgenthaler and DCM – OneChip Photonics (Ottawa) –$19.5 million round

– Redpoint – Tantalus (Burnaby) – $14 million round

There have also been ~30 southbound VC deals over a 12 month period:

– Since August, Wellington Financial has invested in Ember (Boston), GlassHouse Technologies (Boston), SkyLink (backed by New York’s Apollo Management), and WatchGuard (Seattle). Opened a California office in November.

– BlackBerry Partners Fund (Toronto) invested in Nexage of Waltham, MA in June ’09 and Brickstream of Atlanta in April ’10, along with RBC Venture Partners.

– Emerald Technology (Montreal) invested in SDC Materials of Temple, Arizona in June ’09.

– iNovia (Montreal) invested in Collective Media of New York in April ’09, Barosense of California in November ’09, Vizu of San Francisco in December 2009 and LegiTime of Westport CT also in December.

– SummerHill Ventures (Toronto) invested in Sonian in Needham, MA in September 2009.

– XPV Cleantech (Toronto) invested in Applied Process Technology of California in September 2009.

– Yaletown Partners (Vancouver) invested in EnerG2 of Seattle in May 2009.

Wish us luck. The panels start VERY early here. And it can be tough if you’re up against Ted Turner or T. Boone Pickens.

MRM