Highly touted telecom startup Innovance Networks has raised $26.5 million in debt
financing, the Ottawa Business Journal has learned.
Toronto-based MM Venture Partners (MMVP), which recently debt financed Tropic
Networks, was the sole Canadian investor in a four-company syndicate. MMVP put
up $6.5 million, while three American financiers chipped in $20 million. According
to an Innovance spokesperson, the specifics of the deal will be announced at
the end of the month.
The company declined to comment on rumours that it is on the verge of closing
a strategic investment - the centrepiece of the company's recent financing efforts
- worth in excess of $45 million. For now, the company is focused on moving
forward. "We're still in development and growth mode, so we'll be using
this money to build up our laboratory facilities and IP infrastructure,"
says Innovance chief financial officer Wayne Edmunds.
Innovance emerged on the local tech scene last December with a record-breaking
$115-million VC deal. The company operates in the long-haul networking industry.
Minhas Mohamed, managing partner of MMVP, says the Innovance deal rounds out
his company's three-pronged optical sector strategy. The venture firm wanted
something in the last mile and invested in a Vancouver company called fSONA,
which addresses the last mile through free-space wireless laser technology.
It also wanted something in the metro space, which the Tropic deal satisfied.
The last component was a company addressing the long-haul market, which is where
Innovance fits in.
"For us, it completes our strategy in the optical sector. They're our long-haul
play." Edmunds says the attraction is mutual. "It was a treat for us
to become associated with MM Venture Partners because they've picked a lot of
winners."
Ottawa has become a definite target area for MMVP, says Mohamed. "We have
found over time that the calibre of management and technology that exists in
Ottawa is second to none in Canada."