Google Sister Company Sidewalk Labs Partners with Plaza Ventures to Launch an Urban Technology Fund
November 26, 2019
THE GLOBE AND MAIL VIA THE CANADIAN PRESS, TORONTO (NOV 26, 2019)
Google sister company Sidewalk Labs has partnered with Plaza Ventures to launch a venture capital fund focused on urban technology
Dan Doctoroff, CEO of Sidewalk Labs, walks to a press scrum outside the Sidewalk Labs office in Toronto on June 24, 2019. Fred Lum / The Globe and Mail
The fund, which includes a $10-million commitment from Sidewalk tied to its proposed Quayside development in Toronto, will focus on a range of early-stage Canadian companies that fall under the category.
Nicole LeBlanc, director of investments at Sidewalk Labs, says part of the early work of the fund will be to define more specifically what falls under urban technology, and what kind of companies in the space would be suitable for venture capital investments.
Matthew Leibowitz, General Partner at Plaza Ventures, says the urban tech space is still in the early days with untapped potential.
He says the main focus for Plaza Ventures, which hasn’t disclosed its financial commitment to the fund, is to find companies that can scale and go global.
The fund, set to launch next year, will also create advisory networks of companies and executives to help the start-up companies grow.
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