Anges Québec seeks to boost deal flow via agreement with tech transfer societies

Provincial angel network Ange Québec is aiming to boost its annual deal flow by nearly one third by gaining access to the vast pool of technologies generated by Quebec's valorisation organizations. The agreement will see the four technology transfer organizations — representing all sectors and all major academic institutions in the province — present their most promising business opportunities to Anges Québec.

In return, Ange Québec members will provide advice and establish a pipeline to identify the best investment candidates and present them to its members. The agreement will give members the ability to assess potential investment opportunities from the perspective of technology readiness, commercial potential and entrepreneurial expertise — the latter being in short supply at the academic level.

"This is the first time we've partnered with technology transfer organizations. Our criteria for doing a good job is to bring good deals in front of our members," says Stéphane Pilette, Ange Québec's VP investment support and its resident life sciences specialist. "This will allow us to generate better deal flow by looking at deals and orient projects 24 months before they knock on our door."

Pilette says his organization currently relies on an Internet portal and agreements with individual technology incubators and accelerators to drum up investment opportunities. It also manages the $30-million Anges Québec Capital Fund, created in 2012 totals with $20 million and $10 million from member angels. A relatively new organization, it has more than 130 members who have invested in more than 30 businesses in the seed and star-up phases. But Pilette acknowledges that Anges Québec must be more proactive to uncover new deals.

Anges Québec struck an initial agreement with MSBiV and Univalor before extending it to the province's other two valorisation societies. The societies have access to Anges Québec activities usually reserved for members.

"We often don't see the best deals. They don't come to Anges Québec. The objective is to augment the quality of deals presented to us, not only more quantity," says Pilette. "We have 10 meetings a year and four deals are presented at each meeting. Out of the 40 presented, members will invest in 12 to 15 a year. The agreement will add to this and raise it to 20 a year."

The four valorisation societies were created nearly 15 years ago with the assistance of Valorisation-Recherche Québec, a $220-million initiative to stimulate the province's research strengths (R$, November 28/01). Since their formation, they have evolved along somewhat differing trajectories, tailered to the institutions they represent.

"We will look at their portfolios and their readiness levels. Their collaboration can help generate good deals because our members are entrepreneurs, " says Pilette. "We will have think tank meetings to present projects to our members and to exchange ideas on how to make them successful businesses."

In addition to its regular networking and think tank meetings, Anges Québec will also host training sessions to share entrepreneurial and business expertise.

"We'll see how it goes. We will re-evaluate the agreement in September 2014 to see if we will extend it," says Pilette. "We're looking for market pull so we examine the trends and needs in the market for technologies. Then we try to find a match."

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