OVCF invests in rewards & recognition company – I Love Rewards

Rob Lewis, Founder of Techvibes – a self described “hyper-local technology blog”, reported on the announcement that I Love Rewards landed the first direct co-investment from the OVCF. Here’s what he had to say. For the full post click here.

 

I Love Rewards adds another $1.8 Million to Series B

Posted by Rob Lewis on Wed, June 17, 2009 10:45 AM • Filed under Toronto , Venture Capital

In May we reported that Toronto’s I Love Rewards had secured $6.9 Million in Series B funding led by GrandBanks Capital with prior investors JLA Ventures and Laurence Capital participating.
Today they announced that they have closed that Series B financing round with a total of $8.7 Million in funding thanks to an additional $1.8 Million from the Ontario Venture Capital Fund (OVCF). This announcement marks the first direct co-investment made to a company by the OVCF.

The $205 million Ontario Venture Capital Fund is a joint initiative between the Government of Ontario and leading institutional investors to invest primarily in Ontario-based and Ontario-focused venture capital and growth equity funds that support innovative, high growth companies. OVCF is structured as a fund of funds with the primary objective of generating attractive returns for its investors. The Fund is managed by TD Capital Private Equity Investors.

This financing round caps off a tremendous last 12 months of growth for I Love Rewards who has seen a 187% growth in gross billings and a 253% increase in customer acquisition. The company has raised a total of $13.6 Million in the past 18 months.

Today marked an important day for I Love Rewards. The Ontario Venture Capital Fund (OVCF) invested $1.8 million, closing I Love Rewards‘ Series B financing round with $8.7 million in total.

 

The OVCF is a joint initiative between the Government of Ontario and leading institutional investors. The lead investors include the Government of Ontario, TD Bank, OMERS Private Equity, RBC, the Business Development Bank of Canada, and Manulife Financial. At a time when US venture capital investment was down 50% in Q1 2009 and the Canadian venture capital market has reached its lowest level in 12 years, securing financing from leading investors is a challenge for high-performing growth companies.

Tags: Ontario Venture Capital Fund, OVCF, Series B Round