Canada-based alternative asset manager Kensington Capital Partners reached the second close of its Kensington Venture Fund yesterday at C$193m ($154m), after securing capital from media company Torstar Corporation.
Kensington Venture Fund is a fund of funds that will make investments in venture capital funds and companies developing IT, telecommunications, energy, cleantech and digital media technology. Kensington Capital is targeting a final close of C$300m.
The fund initially launched in November 2014 with C$160m of capital from limited partners including wealth management firm RichardsonGMP, which committed additional money for the second close, and enterprise software company OpenText.
The lead investor for the first close was the Canadian government’s Venture Capital Action Plan (VCAP), a $400m initiative meant to encourage private sector investment in Canada-based technology startups.
Rick Nathan, managing director of Kensington Capital Partners, said: “The current venture capital market remains very strong, and our pipeline of high quality investment opportunities continues to grow.
“In this environment, our team has been moving quickly to implement our strategy and assemble the core building blocks of our portfolio.”
Companies that have been funded by Kensington in the past two months include online snack delivery service NatureBox, mobile pregnancy care app Babyscripts and restaurant point-of-sale system TouchBistro.