When Annick Charbonneau was starting out as a tech entrepreneur looking for business funding, she was so inexperienced that she once sent VCs cupcakes with her company logo on them and a note saying she’d love to meet them.
Today, Charbonneau is a serial tech entrepreneur and a fervent promoter of the presence of women in entrepreneurship. In 2021 she launched Montreal-based Accelia Capital, a venture capital fund she co-founded with partner Christine Beaubien. Their mission is to invest in innovative companies owned or led by women. At C$60 million, Accelia invests in start-ups and other early stage companies based in Quebec and elsewhere in Canada.
At age eight, Charbonneau was a synchronized swimmer and made it to the junior national team. Getting in the pool every day at 6 a.m. taught her the power of discipline and resilience, and she says these skills have been integral to her success as a venture capitalist.
Where were you born and where did you grow up?
I was born in Montreal but grew up in Quebec City. My mother was the head of human resources at Laval University and my father was a linguist and book editor. Sadly my dad died of cancer when I was only five years old. As my mom likes to say, “You didn’t have him for very long but you had the very best.”
Even though I was raised by a single mom I never lacked for anything, and this taught me the value of financial independence. It was only later in my life that I realized what it meant to have a mother who was so highly educated and with an excellent career.
Were you always driven to succeed?
Yes! At age eight I was a synchronized swimmer and made it all the way to the junior national team. It taught me the power of discipline and resilience.
Tell me about your career.
In 1997 my first job ever was in tech at Matrox Graphics, a chip manufacturing company whose main competitor at the time was Nvidia (then a small company). From there I joined an image analysis startup and opened up the U.S. market for them. I later joined medical supplies manufacturer Medicom in Montreal, working with U.S. distributors.
I moved to San Francisco in 2003 with Medicom, and this experience had a significant impact on my decision to become an entrepreneur. It was such an effervescent time, with the start of many companies using tech to advance our society – these were the early days of Amazon, eBay, PayPal and Google.
One year later I was pregnant with my first daughter, and my husband and I returned to Montreal. I was looking to buy stuff online for my new baby and have it delivered to my door like I did in San Fran. I quickly realized this service didn’t exist in Canada. I decided to tackle the problem head on and formed one of the first e-commerce platforms in Canada. I ran Chiccane.com profitably for five years until the financial crisis hit in 2009. Looking back, I see clearly how green I was – believe it or not when I was looking to get funding at Christmastime I sent cupcakes with my company logo on them to VCs. I made all the mistakes in the world as a solo entrepreneur, but I sure learned a lot.
After the economic downturn I started my second company with two partners, which was a city discovery app called Soul City. We raised enough capital from angel investors to get us off the ground and a few B2B contracts covered our payroll. Soul City allowed users to discover a city’s points of interests based on how they felt in the moment. In 2019, I chose to exit, right before the pandemic hit and killed travel for a few years. Timing is everything!
I had the good fortune to meet Christine Beaubien – she was among the first female investors to join Anges Québec, a network of high-net-worth individuals who invest in promising startups. Christine has held key positions in various companies such as SGF, Bombardier Capital, EDC, the Quebec Ministry of International Affairs, Desjardins, and Banque Paribas in Paris.
We saw the same problem: Most of our angel investors in Quebec are men. The reason? They are all part of the same networks.
There are a significant number of wealthy women who have money to invest but they are rarely asked to become limited partners. Our idea for Accelia was based on the fact that under 3 per cent of venture capital goes to women founders globally, yet one-third of the people founding technology companies are women. It doesn’t take a math genius to see the opportunity here.
What is Accelia’s investment focus?
Accelia Capital is a venture capital fund that invests in innovative companies with high technological potential. We aim for diversity, performance and impact by fostering businesses owned or led by women. It took us two years to fundraise, and we closed in 2021. Part of our initial strategy was to contact 20 wealthy women in our ecosystem, which allowed us to raise our first million within five days.
Institutional investors took a chance on Christine and I with $60 million because they wanted to change the stigma around women founders. We created a model that involves dealing with an unconscious bias: 90 per cent of the people who have the ability to sign cheques are men and they tend to invest in people who are like them.
How do you select the companies that you are investing in? How do you get your deal flow?
It always starts with the founder and the founding team. Throughout all of the highs and lows you need a team that will stay the course.
Private market tech valuations are lower than they were a couple of years ago. How do you view this? Has it been good for your firm?
We have been lucky with Accelia and our timing. We did our first closing of $54 million in December, 2021, at the peak of venture capital valuations, and raised another $6 million the following year when valuations were lower. Fortunately, we didn’t start investing until after valuations were already down. Investing at lower valuations than the highs of 2021 will hopefully mean better returns over time. We’ll know more in 10 years.
What is the venture capital community focused on today?
I think it is great that the investment community is now more attuned to the realities of the market. VCs are looking beyond ‘hockey stick’ moonshot-style returns, although we’ll still invest in some of those potential companies. We are largely looking to invest in companies that will be more sustainable financially; we want to see a decent forecast, not a crazy forecast. This more realistic outlook makes sense – the focus is on creating more sustainable businesses.
What do you think the markets will do for the balance of this year?
According to PitchBook research, close to 30 per cent of all current venture capital transactions are either flat or down rounds. We are definitely out of the inflationary bubble of 2020/2021 – the VC market is coming back to more reasonable valuations. Today the investment thesis is stronger behind the companies.
Responses have been lightly edited for clarity and length.
Barbara Stewart is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 33 years of investment industry experience; five years as a foreign currency trader, more than two decades as a portfolio manager for high net worth entrepreneurs, and for the past eight years doing interview-driven research for multiple global financial institutions. She is a keynote speaker for CFA Societies, banks, stock exchanges and industry conferences globally, and she is a columnist for CFA Institute, Canadian Family Offices and Canadian Money Saver magazine. She is on the Advisory Board of Kensington Capital Partners and also is the Ambassador for the Kensington Women’s Forum.
Fifteen years ago Barbara saw a need to challenge outdated financial industry stereotypes and share positive messages about women and money. Today, Barbara is recognized worldwide as one of the leading researchers in women and finance. Her Rich Thinking® global research papers quote smart women and men of all ages, professions and countries and are released annually on International Women’s Day, March 8. To find out more about Barbara’s research, visit www.barbarastewart.ca.
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