Stop. Watching. The. US. (13)
I am mad today at investors who are based in Québec or in Canada but are never seen in the local startup scene. And then once in a while, we get words from them from across the southern border. TC reported that Cellfish, a startup operating in mobile and socials networks, got $60million in funding from Humagade Group and from the Fonds de Solidarité FTQ. Why they are investing in a New York based startup is beyond me. The FTQ fund advertise on their website:
The Solidarity Fund QFL is a development capital fund that calls upon the solidarity and savings of Quebecers to help create and maintain jobs in Québec by investing in small and medium-sized businesses.
$60million is a lot of money, an amount that could be well served here. I know many startups here in Montreal such as fonome, mycarpoolstation who would are looking for investors and who would truely blossom (and get some real ROI) if they get proper funding.
There is also the case of montrealangels, a group of early investors in Montreal, but who are blatantly looking to invest in the US. I have never seen those guys in Montreal, I sent them an email a while ago and their answer proved that they knew nothing of what was going on in Montreal or in Canada. I would bet they spend their time travelling in the US.
Investors and entrepreneurs in Québec should realize that there are more potential here than wasting their efforts at scouting the US. Cellfish has a technology that I believe would never get in Québec, and no Québecer will never benefit from the service. The fact that it’s based in California or in New York City doesn’t mean anything. If everyone starts at watching with envy at the US and start hoping they could be there, we might as well raise the white flag. I don’t know about Montreal Tech Watch readers but I believe that all the ressources can be found in Montreal — or in Quebec/Canada — People must just stop doing their stuff alone, see what others are doing, and work together.
Have they invested in any web startups here?
Why don’t you try to set up a meeting with the ppl at Fonds de Solidarité FTQ and see what they have to say for themselves?
I’d be very interested in your report!
[...] a une nouvelle plutôt triste concernant la FTQ sur ce que je crois être une utilisation inappropriée de leur fonds. Ils ont récemment investit [...]
and yes, they invested recently 3.5millions$ in Trellia, a Montreal company working in mobile phones. but this was a series-B funding, so I dont consider it as support for startups.
@Mat. i will think about it. the weirdest is that I haven’t seen any local news or press release from FTQ about this. seems they want to keep the deal quiet.
i had a look at http://www.cellfishmedia.com/contact_us.php and they dont have official offices in montreal. IBM would be more ‘Montrealer’ than them
Cellfish Media is an international organisation with offices in New York, Paris, Dusseldorf and as of this week, we are delighted to announce the opening of our new R&D center in Montreal. (We are in the process of updating the corporate webiste info – thanks Heri).
Our Montreal operation is key to the development of our latest project Cellfish.com – please check it out our site http://www.cellfish.com
Cellfish.com is a social network and entertainment destination allowing consumers the freedom to store, play, share music, videos and images between their PCs and mobile devices.
Cellfish.com is currently being launched in both France and US, and we are planning launches in other key markets including Canada. Coming soon, Cellfish.ca !
You’ll probably hear about it shortly but for the moment I need your help for a survey (4 min) that will really help in my market study (sorry it’s only in french).
Thanks!
Here it is: http://www.symbiosegestion.com/sondages
Thanks!
I am responding to your post regarding MontrealAngels.com: We do not spend our time traveling in the US as you assumed “wrongly” I might add. We live in Montreal, I have invested in companies in Canada, Quebec, and Montreal to be more specific. It would be nice to publish and talk about what you know instead of simply “bashing” for no reason.
That being said, if you have startups in Montreal that you would like me to take a look at, please feel free to inform me accordingly. We are very intsrested in investing locally!
[...] previously wrote a post about Canadian investor backing US companies, and I have to say this is great [...]
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