venture capital arm Portage Ventures has closed a sixth round in one of the world’s largest VC funds focused on early-stage fintech companies, raising US$616-million from both institutional and retail investors.
“The last five years have been pretty remarkable in terms of the amount of capital going into fintech – and continues to go to fintech – and the secular trends are still really present,” Mr. Felesky said in an interview. Portage, which is managed by Power’s alternative-asset management arm, Sagard Holdings, is widely known for making early bets on companies that were seen as “disruptors” to Canada’s largest financial institutions.
“Really the difference is going into the reserve that you deploy into your best companies and that’s the secret to venture investing.” “Some private companies in Asia have started to come under pressure a bit, and we are watching that carefully … but our hypothesis is the type of valuations and activity we have been seeing will continue to be supported for quite a long time,” he added.