St. Martin will join the Montreal firm at the end of March when it raises its second fund.
Lightspeed's outgoing president is joining Montreal venture capital firm Boreal Ventures in the new year as he looks to bring his experience scaling revenue to portfolio companies.
Earlier this month, J.D. St. Maarten announced that he resignation from e-commerce and point-of-sale company Lightspeed at the end of March 2026. In the new year, he will become co-managing partner of Boreal Ventures, a young venture capital firm focused on software companies for the workforce, FinTech and digital health industries.
In an interview with BetaKit on November 27, Saint-Martin said the move marked a return to his roots in the venture capital business. He began his career at General Electric private equity and Teralys Capital in Quebec. “I told myself that I wanted to return to this role after I had gained important experience,” he said. “So I can continue the conversation.”
St. Maarten plans to leverage his go-to-market experience as an investor in companies with strong product-market fit potential. According to Boreal founder and managing partner David Charbonneau, this experience in growing revenue will help solve a pressing problem for Canadian tech startups.
“Founders find product-market fit, [raise] their first round, then they hire [vice-president of] sales and they are seeing their sales leveling off,” Charbonneau told BetaKit. “I’ve seen this pattern over and over again.”
Charbonneau said St. Martin's experience will help our portfolio companies overcome this hurdle. He co-founded Chronogolf, sold it to Lightspeed, worked his way up to chief revenue officer and eventually became president. During his tenure, Lightspeed grew annual revenue from US$75 million (C$105 million) to nearly US$1.2 billion (C$1.7 billion), St. Maarten said.
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Launched in 2021 in partnership with Montreal incubator Centech, Boreal Ventures has nearly invested its entire C$26 million inaugural fund, including in gym management software startups (FliiP) and corporate audits (Trustees). Charbonneau said the fund began during a period of revaluation; With markets normalizing after 2021, the team has focused its attention on building software startups for neglected blue-collar industries and is now raising its next fund.
Charbonneau will co-lead the fund with Saint-Martin, along with Samuel Larivière, partner and chief financial officer. All three were at the Montreal inauguration. RevStar Summit in October, a conference on go-to-market strategy.
Lightspeed, which is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange, hit $1 billion in revenue this year, but its share price is struggling to recapture its 2021 high. Its market capitalization is approximately C$2.1 billion.
St. Maarten will remain until March to ensure a “smooth transition” for Gabriel Benavidez, who will begin work as chief revenue officer. Lightspeed told BetaKit that it is not currently seeking a replacement president.
At Boreal, Saint-Martin hopes to encourage young companies to stay in Canada. He argued that being in the country has some competitive advantages: a culture of capital efficiency, fertile ground for test clients, and a diverse and multicultural population that is an advantage for recruiting talent.
Image courtesy of JD Saint-Martin via LinkedIn.
