Back

Motivate Venture Capital Quarterly Newsletter | Q1 2024

by admin
Quarterly Newsletter – Q1 2024
Announcing Seed Fund II
We are humbled to formally announce the launch of our second fund, an $81M vehicle that fuels our commitment to enabling the next wave of builders.
We are immensely grateful to our investors for their unwavering confidence and to the amazing founders we’ve already welcomed into the portfolio. 
(Thanks to our friend, George Khalife for this recognition at the Toronto Stock Exchange. )
Q4 Investments
Clyr is the leading expense management platform
for project-based and field-employee-based companies
MarkIII provides principal loan insurance to banks and credit unions enabling them to make more loans with less risk and increased financial inclusion
Apeiros pools equity holdings from different startup equity holders to reduce risk and increase diversification of high-risk assets
Boom is reinventing the way to buy, sell, and invest in small manufacturing businesses by creating an AI-powered transaction platform with end-to-end support for businesses and their potential buyers
Funding Rounds
Lazarus AI – $5M Seed+ led by Motivate 
CryptoFi – $5M from CU Digital One
Aucto – $5.2M Series A led by BIP Ventures
Payall – $6M Series A Extension led by Thomson Reuters Ventures

Check out the entire Motivate Ventures Portfolio
It’s 5 o’clock somewhere…
In December, we hosted a happy hour at our office with the team from Inside the Loop

Portfolio Job Board
Click here to view all the open positions across our portfolio
Asks from the Portfolio
  • Stargazr | Connecting with any CFOs or Continuous Improvement Leaders
  • CryptoFi | Intros to credit unions, banks, or potential trade desk clients
  • Notoros | Intros to customers of municipal bond financing and/or invoice factoring (public or private sector)
  • SureBright | Intros to retailers selling warrantable products through any sales channel
  • Moove.ai | Intros to Auto & Truck OEMs, Fleet Companies, Insurance, Public Sector/Govt. Agencies
Worth Reading & Listening
  • Ed Zitron’s take on how the relationship between venture capital and technology with Software Is Beating The World
  • Dan Held shares one of the best videos explaining money and Bitcoin 
  • Is a coin toss actually random? Shi En Kim finds that might not be the case in  Scientists Destroy IllusionThat Coin Toss Flips are 50-50
  • FICO: A High Score Business Zach Fuss at Irenic Capital breaks down Fair Isaac Corp (FICO) which is best known for its consumer credit scores product. However, a major piece of the business is FICO’s software offering that helps financial businesses with fraud detection, CRM, and loan origination. Who knew?!
  • Fan favorite podcast, Armchair Expert with host Dax Shepard features his guest, Dr. Peter Attia (Outlive: The Science & Art of Longevity) to discuss the morality of cloning, why he wanted to be a professional boxer, and what the act of achievement-seeking does to the body
  • A tad intense for a beach read, but The Fund by Rob Copeland, is an unauthorized, unvarnished story of famed Wall Street hedge-fund manager Ray Dalio & Bridgewater Associates…a total page-turner!

Working on something new? We’d love to chat!

Share your company with us below
Pitch Motivate

Who is Motivate?

Motivate invests at the pre-seed and seed stages of high-growth technology companies located in the US and Canada. We encourage and appreciate referrals to exciting companies and talented individuals in your network.

Stage: Pre-Seed + Seed
Check Size: $250k – 3M

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world” 

– Anne Frank