Finding capital is one of the biggest challenges facing startups, in Atlantic Canada or around the world. Most traditional lenders are leery of investing in unproven startups, and friends and family support will only take you so far. At Build Ventures, our focus is on identifying and investing in Atlantic Canadian startups with clear potential. Still, not every startup is right for every venture capital firm. Here are the six big things we look for when considering an investment: People First and foremost, we are looking for outstanding founders. We want to see people with unique technology or a novel…

We are happy to welcome InteraXon to the Build Ventures’ portfolio. We recently invested in the company’s $10 million Series B round, which was led by OMERS Ventures with participation from existing investors Felicis Ventures, Horizons Ventures and Flextronics Lab IX. As we dug into the company, we got excited about the product and its potential, the traction to date and the depth of the management team. InteraXon has developed Muse, a brain fitness tool that measures a user’s brain waves using seven finely calibrated electroencephalography (EEG) sensors – two on the forehead, two behind the ears working together with…

It’s hard for Rob and I to believe but Build Ventures just had its two year anniversary. There was a surprising amount of ‘administrivia’ involved in setting up a first fund and a lot of fundraising meetings which took the fund from $48.5M when we launched to $65M today. Most importantly, of course, was getting out across the region to meet companies and begin building our portfolio. To date we’ve made six investments: Introhive, Affinio, Smart Skin, Resson  and Celtx. For those counting, the sixth just closed and will be announced soon. One thing which clearly got neglected was our blog. There…