StandUp Ventures Strengthens Team and Expands Investment Reach

StandUp Ventures, a prominent venture capital fund founded in 2017, focuses on investing in pre-seed and seed stage technology companies across Canada and the US. The fund was created with the premise of leveraging the untapped competitive advantage of backing women-founded and women-led companies. According to founder Michelle McBane, StandUp aims to achieve better returns by investing with a gender lens, thereby supporting diverse leadership and teams.

The fund has recently strengthened its leadership team by welcoming VC-veteran Meredith Powell, who brings seven years of experience from a top-tier Seattle-based fund and a background as a global CMO at Microsoft for Startups. Powell expressed her enthusiasm for joining StandUp Ventures, lauding the fund's reputation for integrity and its unique approach to funding ambitious founders.

Additionally, Katheleen Eva, who has been with StandUp for four years as the fund's first full-time investment analyst, has been promoted to Senior Associate. Eva, based in Montreal, expressed pride in becoming the type of partner she would have wanted as a young, ambitious founder.

With these new team members, StandUp Ventures now has a presence in Canada’s major tech hubs: Vancouver, Toronto, and Montreal. The team has also closed three new deals in these cities, further expanding their investment footprint.

In a significant move, StandUp has made its first US-based seed stage investment in Florida-based Max Retail, which recently closed a $15 million Series A round. This investment was co-participated with leading funds such as Nosara Capital, Artemis Fund, ReThink Impact, and M13.

StandUp's Fund 1 and Fund 2, which manage $56.5 million in assets, have invested in 44 founders across 28 software ventures. The inaugural $21 million fund now boasts a collective valuation of nearly $1.2 billion, a 4.5x increase from initial entry prices. Notably, over half of the companies in this fund have progressed from seed to Series B and beyond, significantly outperforming industry benchmarks.

Since mid-2022, StandUp Ventures has been deploying capital from Fund 2, with four funded companies already raising 12x the initial invested capital in follow-on commitments. The team also secured VCCI Inclusive Capital funding on July 30th to support the growth of their returns-focused franchise strategy.