White Star Capital has raised a $180 million investment fund, which it will use to support around 20 new companies.
The global venture capital fund, which has offices in London, New York, Montreal and now Paris and Tokyo, said it will continue to focus on companies that use data as a competitive advantage. It will look to provide companies with an initial investment of between $1 million and $6 million.
White Star has backed 26 core businesses since 2014, including FinTech and insurtech companies Borrowell in Canada and Clark in Germany. It was also invested in UK-based digital health firm Echo.
The VC fund was founded by Eric Martineau-Fortin, an experienced transatlantic technology M&A banker; Jean-Francois Marcoux, the former co-founder of mobile game publisher Ludia; and Christian Hernandez Gallardo, a former Facebook executive.
Martineau-Fortin said: “We have purposely sought a diverse and global investor base for our second fund, many of whom are repeat investors from fund one, and we would like to thank them for their continued support.
“Our growing team has extensive operational experience and we are passionate about supporting ambitious entrepreneurs with truly global ambitions.
“Internationalisation represents a huge opportunity for many high-growth companies and our global reach means we can support companies looking to scale outside of their home market.
“We become active partners to all the entrepreneurs we work with and the new fund will enable us to help even more companies realise their potential.”