š Ripple Ventures is an early stage venture fund in Toronto šØš¦https://nitter.cf/t.co/bTgRYbQ3SW
Toronto, Ontario
Joined April 2018
- Tweets820
- Following717
- Followers1.8K
- Likes1.4K
In December 2022, fusion had its breakthrough moment.
For the first time in history, a lab experiment produced more energy from fusion than it took to start it.
Overnight, capital started pouring into the "holy grail of energy," and all eyes turned to the reactors.
But you can't stick a thermometer in a plasma hotter than the sun. To know if a reactor is working, you need specialized instruments called plasma diagnostics.
After 4.5 years at @GeneralFusion Henry Gould realised that almost every fusion company had to build their measurement tools from scratch, one machine at a time.
So he started Daedal Systems to build standardized, industrial-grade plasma measurement systems that give the whole industry faster, better data.
Today, Daedal announced its $4M pre-seed round, and we're proud to back Henry alongside @OMERSVentures.
Catch the full story on this week's episode of Tank Talks.
This startup just raised $4M to build game-changing technology for the nuclear industry.
As a teenager, Henry Gould watched a 2014 TED Talk by @GeneralFusion founder Michel Laberge.
Years later, he became an engineer, then physics lead, at General Fusion, one of the oldest fusion companies in the world, backed by @JeffBezos.
Now heās left to build Daedal Systems where they are providing the measurement infrastructure for the entire fusion industry.
Daedal is on a journey to transform the nuclear industry, and today, @ripple_ventures is proud to announce that weāre backing Henry in Daedalās pre-seed, alongside @OMERSVentures .
Hear more about Daedal from Henry himself on this weekās episode of Tank Talks, where we cover:
- Henryās experience working at General Fusion
- The history and current state of the āHoly Grail of Energyā
- The moment in 2022 that changed the trajectory of the fusion industry
- The 18-month bottleneck that fusion companies have to face
- The one thing every fusion company is missing that Daedal is building
Bookmark this episode for a comprehensive overview of the fusion industry and a first look into the company that is redefining the frontier.
links below.
Today, we are announcing our Fund IV.
In 2018, we started Ripple Ventures with a simple thesis:
Back the most ambitious founders we could find, in the markets that move GDP.
Whilst our world has evolved, our role has not.
With this new wave of technologies, our portfolio already spans across frontier industries such as defence, biotech, and nuclear discovery.
The next decade of frontier companies are being started today, and we are here to back the founders building them.
Read our full blog post in the comments below:
Eight years ago I started @ripple_ventures with a simple thesis: back the most ambitious founders we could find, in the markets that move GDP.
Today @_dominiclau and I are announcing that Fund IV is live, anchored by Northleaf Capital Partners, @RBC / @rbcx , and one of Canada's largest private conglomerates. We have completed our first close and already have ten companies in the portfolio.
Our world has changed a lot since 2018, but our role as a VC has not. What has changed is where that ambition is showing up. It is no longer in IT budgets, but in rocket launch, air defence systems, critical minerals exploration, biology labs, and the manual back-office workflows nobody wants to do by hand. These are the markets that decide what a country owns next.
Three things are guiding this fund:
- Following the brightest founders into the most ambitious things being built.
- Investing with conviction in the earliest stages (pre-product and pre-traction).
- Supporting sovereign capabilities with frontier technologies.
Welcoming the newest portfolio companies out of this fund:
@CanadaRocket Company (sovereign launch capability)
@NV_Dynamics (full-stack air defence systems)
Terranox AI (AI uranium exploration)
Daedal Systems (diagnostics for fusion reactors)
Valen (AI to improve drugs)
Green Abundance (plant engineering)
@urunml (infrastructure for the interactive era)
Silmo (AI for the back office)
Blackletter (building a new type of law firm)
Asset (embedded AI accounting)
To the founders we have not met yet: if you are building with this level of ambition, we'd love to partner with you. Come find us early, that is when we are most useful.
Watch the launch video and read our full article below.
cc: @katiekola_smile @okayjay70
WHAT A NIGHT.š
Thank you to everyone who joined us for our annual holiday party!
Thereās nothing better than being in a room full of early-stage founders and operators whoāve spent the year sprinting, shipping, breaking things, learning, and re-imagining the future.
For one night, we all slowed down, shared drinks, laughed way too hard, and celebrated the people who make this community what it is. Congrats again to our award winners, you all continually inspire us: āØ
Most Active Tank Member: Mike Kim (Mycroft)
Fastest Growing Company: @MattEspoz & @theRyanKaufman (@CloverLabsCo)
Most Punctual Updates: @ReamBraden (@voiceflow)
Most Intro Requests: Nauman Hafeez & Eli Costea (NetNow)
Night Owl Texter: @jennaearnshaw (@Wisedocsai)
Most Tenacious Founder: @katibmoe (@picahq)
Most Valuable Venture Partner: Rahul Parmar
Most Co-op Jobs Created: Shiva Bhardwaj (Pitstop)
Huge appreciation to our partners ā @FaskenLaw, Kraft Berger LLP, Singer Steinberg, Linkus Group, @caylentinc, and @DoiT ā for their continuous support and helping us bring the night to life.
Hereās to ending the year on a high, and to everything weāll build together in 2026. Grateful for our community and the splashes we're making. š
Excited to congratulate our portfolio company Mycroft on closing a $3.5M USD seed round led by @LugeCapital, with participation from @BrightsparkVC, Graphite Ventures, and others!
We first got introduced to Mycroft through one of our existing portfolio founders, @jennaearnshaw from @Wisedocsai. She insisted we had to meet this incredible founder, Mike Kim, whom she had previously worked with at @partnerstack she was already using his new product at Wisedocs.
After just a few meetings, we were convinced Mike was the founder to bet on, and we proudly led their pre-seed round.
At Ripple Ventures, we love leaning in early and getting our hands dirty to support exceptional teams. Weāre thrilled to have helped connect Mycroft with the lead investors for this latest round and canāt wait to see them continue simplifying security and compliance for startups with their agentic AI platform.
Read more about it here: betakit.com/mycroft-nabs-3-5ā¦
Another AGM in the books! We are grateful to everyone who joined us for an afternoon of sharing and learning.
This AGM was not only a chance to share fund updates and highlight new investments, but also an incredible moment to reflect on the past year and the platform strategy weāve been building ā including the launch of RippleOS, our internal operating system, and our broader ambitions for @joinripplex.
The afternoon featured rich discussions ā from fund and platform initiatives to market insights and founder perspectives on building, pivoting, and navigating challenges in 2025.
š Hereās to the year ahead and the exciting journey weāre on together!
A sincere thank you to our speakers for sharing their expertise and perspectives:
Market Update Panel: @mattybcohen (@RippleVentures) John Rikhtegar (@rbcx), @ruffoloj (@MaverixPe)
Founder Panel ā Building in 2025: @_dominiclau (@RippleVentures), @aliasaria (@transformerlab), Ben Cox (Page)
Founder Panel ā Navigating Pivots: Jenna Earnshaw (Wisedocs), @katibmoe (@picahq)
We also want to extend our appreciation to our LPs, portfolio founders, and broader community for your continued support.
Your trust and engagement enable us to keep building, learning, and striving to make an impact. And a special thank you to our sponsors ā Trevor (Northwood Family Office), Justin, Jay (Kraft Berger LLP Chartered Professional Accountants), and Adam (OSF Partners) ā for supporting this event.
Ripple Ventures retweeted
late night pizza hang w/ @Soma_Capital next tues ā see you there :) luma.com/w5p9xcx4
cc: @irenekoo9 @Aryanr271
RT @katiekola_smile: Waterloo! Iām in town for Tech Week (Sep 8ā12) āļø
Been seeing so much energy here latelyāthree of our latest investmeā¦
Ripple Ventures retweeted
Kicking off our Wave Hello š series with Mike Kim, Founder of Mycroft.
I got to sit down with Mike and put this video together ā and behind the scenes, heās exactly the kind of founder you want to root for: enthusiastic, kind & deeply knowledgeable about security.
Ripple Ventures retweeted
vancouver founders said ābetā and actually showed up. PACKED room at dwell & swell, 15+ demos. @ripple_ventures x @althra snapped. š„š„
@_dominiclau @katiekola_smile and Jay Lee
Ripple Ventures retweeted
š New Tank Talks Episodešļø
The Power of Pre-Seed with @gjain from @AforeVC
What if your best investment happened before a founder even had an idea?
In Episode 267 of @TankTalkPodcast, I sat down with Gaurav Jain, co-founder of Afore Capital, one of the OGs of pre-seed VC to unpack:
š„ Why momentum is the only moat at the earliest stage
š§ How to back founders before they build a product (or even have an idea)
š¤ How AI-native startups are scaling faster with less capital
š The rise of seed-strapping and capital-efficient growth
š Gauravās honest take on the Canadian tech scene
We also dive into Aforeās wild bets like their Founder-in-Residence programsāand why Gaurav believes being ātoo earlyā is actually the sweet spot.
š” If youāre a founder who hasnāt even figured out the āwhatā yetābut know youāre meant to buildāthis oneās for you.
Ripple Ventures retweeted
Clover Labs is the fastest growing startup in Canada ever.
$0 -> $1M ARR (annual revenue run rate) in just 42 days
1/ Here's how we did it:
Ripple Ventures retweeted
Clover Labs just reset the bar for SaaS growth in Canada. Are you ready to catch up?
Theyāre not just solving distribution at scale-theyāre rewriting the playbook.
If youāre not studying what Cloverās doing, youāre already behind.
@ripple_ventures is excited to be one of your earliest backers!
Ripple Ventures retweeted
š Why We're Passionate About Rewarding Canada's Risk-Takers: Our Latest Build Canada Memo
As someone who's spent years in the trenches of venture capital at Ripple Ventures, I've seen firsthand how outdated policies are stifling Canadian innovation. It's heartbreaking to watch our brightest entrepreneurs and investors pack up and head southāor worse, never even start here at all.
That's why Jay Lee and I poured our hearts into this passion project: the new Build Canada memo, "Reward the Risk Takers Who Build Canada."
We didn't just crunch numbers; we dove deep because we believe in Canada's potential. With only 33 small businesses per 1,000 people (vs. 124 in the US), we're losing ground fast. Our capital gains rules? They're driving talent away, making it tougher to fund and scale the next big thing. But imagine flipping that scriptāunleashing innovation, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs, and keeping our world-class grads (like Nobel Prize winner Geoffrey Hinton) building empires right here.
This memo is our rallying cry: Let's reform capital gains to match the US's QSBS edge, with $15M caps, 100% exclusions, and inclusive rules for all industries.
Key ideas we're championing:
ā
Broaden access: Cover healthcare, clean energy, tech, and moreāplus ditch ownership minimums to reward early employees and investors.
ā
Amp up incentives: Shift to per-business limits and make structures like SAFEs eligible from day one.
ā
Hit big goals: Double SMBs per capita, boost early-stage funding to 1,000+ rounds/year, and push VC investment to 0.5% of GDP.
At Ripple, this isn't just policy talkāit's personal. We're investors who bet on dreamers every day, and we know rewarding risk is how we build a thriving economy. Canada's got the talent, grit, and education to lead globally. Let's make sure our policies match that fire.
Dive into the full memo: lnkd.in/gKTau_eA
Listen to our discussion on the memo below in the comments!
Canada's outdated capital gains policies are driving entrepreneurs and investors away. We need competitive tax reform to keep talent and investment here, building the businesses of tomorrow.
Today, Canada has two policies to encourage builders to start businesses the Lifetime Capital Gains Exemption (LCGE) and a proposed Canadian Entrepreneur's Incentive (CEI). Together, these mean that instead of paying taxes on half their profits, business owners might only pay on one-third, or sometimes nothing at allābut only up to $3.25 million.
But, these policies simply canāt compete with the US. The USAās Qualified Small Business Stock (QSBS) lets entrepreneurs avoid taxes on up to $15 million in profits or ten times their original investment. That's five times more than Canada's maximum.
What's more the QSBS excludes fewer categories of company and can be used per business rather than over the lifetime of a single individual. This means repeat entrepreneurs in Canada, who have a higher chance of building successful businesses are discouraged from trying again. While, entrepreneurs, early employees, and investors in the US can use the QSBS again and again for subsequent companies.
The good news is that for the largest exits the gap between Canada and the US decreases due to a more competitive basic capital gains inclusion rate in Canada. This means that if we match the QSBSās capital gains limit and exclusions it could actually give the Canadian policy an edge driving more investment in the country and supercharging our SMB ecosystem.
However, if we leave the policy as it stands right now companies can never get started because investors and entrepreneurs are scared away.
If we want to keep our entrepreneurs, Canadaās capital gains policies must become competitive with US policies.
You can read the full memo at the link below:
RT @katiekola_smile: A fun recap of last week's event! Thank you to our amazing cohosts, @IndexExchange, @Deel & @TDBank_US for joining usā¦
Ripple Ventures retweeted
We are proud to support the Misfits Assemble in Vancouver connecting 2SLGBTQIA+ entrepreneurs, investors, experts and leaders.
April 10 @Osler_Law Vancouver.
Get your free ticket today. Over 50% are sold out: eventbrite.ca/e/misfits-asseā¦
ALT Misfits Assemble. 3:30-7 P.M. in Osler's Vancouver Office.
Ripple Ventures retweeted
PSA: if ur customers still own a fax machine, i made an event just for u :) come mingle (or trauma bond lol) with other founders going through the same, this thursday @ the well in Toronto!
hear the untold stories from founders of roserocket, wisedocs, netnow & mero on how they managed to sell & scale into stubborn industries, moderated by our own @mattybcohen.
we're also grateful to host a fireside chat with meltem (head of growth at @deel) and mayuran (founding cto at @IndexExchange) about their journey and lessons in bringing these companies from 0 to 10000!
we're capping off the evening with cocktails & good company... see you there? lu.ma/t9exmc9z
cc: @ripple_ventures
Big news for one of our earliest bets! Page (withpage.com) just raised a $4.1M seed round led by @twelve_below with participation from Go Global Ventures and @canaanpartners, bringing their total funding to over $5M.
cc: @mattybcohen @_dominiclau @byronling1
This one is personal for us. We led Pageās pre-seed round before the company was even incorporatedāno product, no team beyond the co-founders, just conviction. We believed in Ben and Elliot from day one and have been in the trenches with them since.