Early-stage venture capital fund Rhino Ventures has announced a $120 million Fund III.
Rhino is best known for their largest investment to date, Thinkific, and the celebration that ensued when the online course platform rang the opening bell at the TSX to celebrate the company’s first day of public trading.
Article, Aspect Biosystems, Curatio, Fatigue Science, FISPAN, Klue, and Dan Mangan’s Side Door are also part of the Rhino’s portfolio, or ‘crash’ as they prefer to refer to their group of investments.
Rhino Ventures was founded in 2015 originally as the Vancouver Founder Fund (VFF) by startup co-founders Dan Eisenhardt and Fraser Hall after they sold their Recon Instruments to Intel for $175 million.
Joined by Partner Jay Rhind, the trio set out to fill the void of early-stage capital in Western Canada by supporting world-class companies in their own backyard.
Why the name change from VFF to Rhino?
Rhino was the project code name Intel used when acquiring Recon Instruments and has been part of their pitch to entrepreneurs as they believe a Rhino is a better representation of the entrepreneurial journey than a Unicorn.
Unlike their inaugural $14 million Fund I which tool 8 months to close, Rhino has accelerated their fundraising process over its three funds, wrapping up Fund III in 3 months and $20 million oversubscribed.
According to today’s announcement, Rhino Fund III will support the most ambitious founders of early-stage tech startups across Canada and will remain sector agnostic. From pre-seed through to Series A, Rhino’s initial cheques will range from $500,000 to $5 million and they plan to retain significant reserves for follow-on investments.
“Our commitment to founders remains the same; be the funders we wished we had as founders. We remain focused on delivering unmatched support to our customers, the entrepreneurs. By holding ourselves to a continuously upward-moving bar, we earn the right to be the partners that support founders in achieving their highest potential,” wrote Hall today.
“Founders are the captains of their ships and are responsible for the success of their companies. We operate on the principles that founders deserve partners who will put in the time, bring up the hard topics, celebrate their milestones, be a shoulder to cry on, and ultimately push them to win.”
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