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Ron Warburton

Managing Partner at BDC IT and Seed Venture Funds

Ottawa, Ontario

Overview 

Ron Warburton is the Managing Partner at BDC IT and Seed Venture Funds in Ottawa, Ontario. With a background in venture capital and IT management, Ron has successfully invested in notable companies like Hubdoc and Auvik Networks, demonstrating expertise in seed and Series A funding rounds. As a seasoned executive, Ron has led successful investments in companies such as Axonify and CENX while also holding key leadership positions at Simetra Inc. and McLeod Bishop Systems, showcasing a strong track record in entrepreneurship and strategic partnerships.

Work Experience 

BDC IT and Seed Venture Funds

  • Managing Partner

    2000 - Current

    Ron is a Managing Partner of the BDC IT Venture Fund which manages over $300 million in venture capital investments across Canada in emerging and mid-stage internet, mobile and enterprise companies. Initial investments typically range from $2M to $5M in Series A or B rounds with up to $15M invested over the life of the company. Our investment team includes five partners based in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, Vancouver and San Francisco. Altogether, the five partners have founded 8 companies. We lead the majority of our investments and use our knowledge, resources and worldwide networks to help promising early-stage companies become global leaders. The fund has invested in a number of successful companies including Radian6 (acquired by Salesforce), Q1 Labs (acquired by IBM), Axonify (acquired by Luminate), Trulioo, Hopper, Cymax, Solink and Vendasta. As part of his Managing Partner role, Ron actively participates on the board of directors of a number of IT companies and has led investments into Tarian Software (acquired by IBM), Blaze Software (acquired by Akamai), CloudLink Technologies (acquired by EMC), Privacy Analytics (acquired by IMS Health), Analyze Re (acquired by Verisk), Hubdoc (acquired by Xero) and Axonify (acquired by Luminate ). In addition, he also manages investments in Solink and Klipfolio on behalf of BDC Capital’s IT Venture Fund. Ron is also the Managing Partner of the BDC Seed Venture Fund with early stage investments in over 70 companies across Canada.

Simetra Inc.

  • President and CEO

    1991 - 2000

    Led the acquisition of Simetra Inc. through a management buy-out (MBO) in October 1991. Subsequently, as CEO, facilitated the company’s turnaround and established Simetra as one of Canada’s leading enterprise project management software vendors. Co-founded a spin-off company in October 1996 that specialized in providing consulting services for large US clients based on the Cognos BI software tools. As CEO of Simetra Development Ltd., the company built a solid reputation in the industry until its acquisition by NewSys Solutions in February 2000. End user clients included Goldman Sachs, Concur Technologies and First Union Bank.

Simetra Inc.

  • Sales Manager

    1989 - 1991

McLeod Bishop Systems

  • Marketing Manager

    1986 - 1989

SHL Business Systems

  • Product Manager

    1984 - 1986

CANA CONSTRUCTION

  • Assistant Superintendent

    1981 - 1982

    Assistant Superintendent of the major RockyView Hospital extension.

Education 

Investments 

Solink

Series Unknown

Total funding: $94M

Hubdoc

Seed

Total funding: $5M

Axonify

Series Unknown

Total funding: $27M

CENX

Series D

Total funding: $13M

Articles About Ron

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