Venture capital firm announces three new strategic hires to meet the increased demand for VC funding

TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / October 14, 2020 / Information Venture Partners, a Toronto-based venture capital firm that primarily invests in early-stage North American B2B financial technology and enterprise software companies, today announced three strategic new hires as fintech funding is experiencing a strong uptick in demand.

Despite the Coronavirus pandemic, fintech funding globally increased 17% quarter-over-quarter to $9.3 billion in Q2 2020, from $7.9 billion in Q1, according to research from CB Insights. To help meet this demand, Information Venture Partners has appointed the following industry experts to its team:

• Hasan Basrai, Associate, will join the investment team to help execute new investments and provide support to our existing portfolio. Basrai has experience in investment banking and private equity. Prior to joining Information Venture Partners, he was an Operations Manager for Ritual.co and was responsible for new market development including key cities like New York.
• Sara Defina, Director of Finance, will work closely with Kerri Golden, Partner and CFO, to further enhance our operating capabilities. Defina joins Information Venture Partners with experience in investment banking, finance, accounting and audit from prior roles at SurePath Capital Partners and KPMG.
• Peter Carrescia, Venture Partner, will work directly with the senior leadership teams of our portfolio companies on special projects. Carrescia has over 25 years of experience as both a technology executive and a venture capitalist, and has been involved in high growth companies as both an investor and operator. He previously served as Senior Vice President of Strategy and Corporate Development at Wave Financial. Prior to Wave, Peter was the president of NEXT Canada, a national accelerator focused on fast-tracking the development of Canada's most talented young innovators and founders.

'We are delighted to welcome Hasan, Sara and Peter to our team, who collectively bring decades of experience in B2B fintech, enterprise SaaS and start-up through scale operating experience,' said Dave Unsworth, Co-Founder and General Partner at Information Venture Partners. 'As we continue to invest in the next generation of B2B fintech leaders, these new additions to our team will help us provide superior value to our portfolio companies during a time of uncertainty amid the pandemic.'

In addition to these hires, Alex Tong has been promoted to Principal at Information Venture Partners, after joining the company as an Associate in 2016. As Principal, Tong continues to play an integral role as a senior investment professional position with the fund and supports entrepreneurs as they develop new innovations, products and services within B2B fintech.

'We're thrilled to share the promotion of Alex to Principal as he continues to serve in a key role on the investment team,' added Rob Antoniades, Co-Founder and General Partner at Information Venture Partners. 'Over the last four years Alex has demonstrated a proven ability to source new investments, build strong relationships with our portfolio company founders and provide effective strategic guidance as their businesses grow and scale.'

Information Venture Partners is committed to investing in B2B fintech and continues to make strategic investments in companies that are driving innovation in the industry. Recent investments include Jirav, a cloud-based solution provider for business planning software, and Cinchy, the world's first data collaboration platform.

About Information Venture Partners

Information Venture Partners is a Toronto based venture capital firm that invests in start-ups run by committed founders tackling big issues. Our team of experienced venture capital investors is intimately acquainted and primarily focused on investing in B2B FinTech and Enterprise SaaS companies selling to financial services. Our founding team invested together while at RBC Venture Partners for over a decade. In 2014, they purchased the remaining companies in that portfolio, with the support of leading institutional investors to create our first independent fund. Information Venture Partners has a strong investment bias towards entrepreneurs pushing the boundaries on developing solutions based on new and innovative technologies and harnessing data to generate better information at scale.

Contact Information:

Laura Grace Pustmueller
Caliber Corporate Advisers
lauragrace@calibercorporate.com
888.550.6385 ext.12

SOURCE: Information Venture Partners