The managing partner of Circle K Ventures will lead the fund's strategy following the closing of the corporate venture fund.
Quebec's leading artificial intelligence institute says it is in the early stages of setting up a potential venture capital (VC) fund to turn more of its research into commercial ventures.
Montreal Mila hired Jonathan Shaanan, managing director of Couche-Tard's corporate venture division, as a strategic advisor to help develop the fund.
“Our goal is to increase the number of startups emerging from Mila’s extraordinary talent pool, while ensuring that as many of them as possible are created here in Canada.”
Shaanan announced in Post on LinkedIn that he will join Mila when Circle K Ventures closes. Stéphane Marceau, Mila's general manager of artificial intelligence venture initiatives, and Alex Shea, Mila's entrepreneur-in-residence, are also leading the initiative, according to the post.
“Mila is entering a new era where commercialization is a higher priority, along with its top-tier research,” Shaanan wrote. “As part of this shift, I will be leading the creation of my own venture fund. It's early days, but things are moving quickly and I hope to share more details soon.”
Formed in 2020, Circle K Ventures said it has invested more than half of its initial $100 million in companies including grocery delivery startup Food Rocket, which closed in 2023, and Jackpocket, which was acquired by sports betting company DraftKings last year.
“Venture investing is inherently volatile, and in today's market environment, ACT shareholders are understandably looking for more predictable returns. As a result, the decision has been made to close the fund,” Shaanan wrote. BetaKit has reached out to Couche-Tard for comment.
Shaanan, who was previously an early-stage technology investor at government-backed BDC Capital, said the Mila fund is still in the “exploration” stage, so details about the fund's size or investment objectives have not yet been finalized.
Marceau told BetaKit via email that informal conversations made it clear that “strategic partners are showing strong interest in a potential Mila fund.”
Marceau said more than 50 startups associated with Mila have raised more than $100 million in recent years, with just “one and a half people” managing startup support. “We think now is the time to focus and scale these activities,” he wrote.
According to Marceau, several venture capitalists have expressed interest, including some from the US, who want to “get closer to the Mila community.” Some American venture capitalists invested in Mila's students immediately after they published their doctoral dissertations, he said. He said these students plan to build companies in the US “following the guidance of their American investors.”
“Our goal is to increase the number of startups emerging from Mila's extraordinary talent pool, while ensuring that as many of them as possible are created here in Canada,” he wrote.
CONNECTED: New era at Mila: Hugo Larochelle appointed scientific director
While the drain of tech talent in the US has long been a concern, concerns has intensified recently among some Canadian investors and startup executives. New data Toronto-based venture capital firm Leaders Fund found a sharp decline in the share of “high-potential” startups headquartered in Canada compared to just a few years ago. At the same time, Canadian technology leaders advocated immigration policy lure technology and artificial intelligence talent away from the US.
Interest in venture capital comes in a new era for Mila, founded in 1993 Turing Award Winner and leading computer scientist Yoshua Bengio. Hugo Larochelle, associate professor at the University of Montreal and former head of the Montreal Google Brain Research Laboratory, was appointed last month as Mila's new supervisor.
Larochelle told BetaKit he wants the nonprofit to be more “ambitious.” His priorities are maintaining the high quality of Mila's research, helping participants commercialize their work, and supporting the creation of new start-ups.
According to Marceau, Mila's “biggest impact point” is helping its AI scientists become “venture scientists,” turning their scientific achievements into world-class companies.
Since its founding, Mila has grown into a joint initiative of leading academic institutions in Quebec, including the University of Montreal and McGill University. Mila and its affiliates, the Vector Institute in Toronto and the Alberta Institute for Machine Intelligence in Edmonton, are funded by the federal government through Pan-Canadian AI Strategy.
The institute also serves as a research hub for industry partners, including Canadian startups Protexxa and AbCellera. New enterprise AI startup Cohere chief artificial intelligence scientistJoel Pinault, is one of Mila's core academic members.
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