News Summary

Forum Ventures, an American venture capital firm, is setting up a venture studio in Toronto to foster the growth of AI-native, B2B SaaS companies. With a new $11.5-million USD fund, the firm aims to capitalize on Toronto’s burgeoning tech ecosystem and its high concentration of talent, while addressing the region’s lack of early-stage capital. Since its inception, Forum has secured $21.5 million USD across two funds and has launched 17 startups out of a planned 30. The firm invests $250,000 USD in startups at their formation, allowing founders to maintain majority ownership. Led by Michael Cardamone and Jonah Midanik, Forum’s strategy includes partnering with domain experts to launch companies in sectors like FinTech, healthcare, and AI infrastructure. This approach has seen success, with 63% of its portfolio startups raising follow-on capital within 12 months of formation. Forum Ventures, originally Acceleprise, has backed over 500 B2B SaaS businesses, raising more than $1 billion USD in follow-on funding. The firm plans to continue supporting Canadian startups, with a significant portion of its workforce now based in Canada. The Toronto-based initiative is part of Forum’s broader strategy to address the platform shift in the tech market driven by AI.