François Legault’s CAQ government has just invested no less than $25 million in a new venture capital firm private investment fund backed by Power Corporation.
Diagram Ventures, a subsidiary of management company Sagard, which is controlled by the Desmarais family, announced on Friday the closing of an initial round of financing for its new Climate Technology Fund. Of the nearly $50 million in confirmed commitments, no less than half will come from Quebec public funds.
The office of Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy Pierre Fitzgibbon confirmed the information in a press release on Friday, shortly before leaving with a delegation of about 120 companies from Quebec to Dubai, the host city of COP28. By the time we asked our questions, the minister had already left.
Taken from Diagram Ventures website
Diagram Ventures is led by François Lafortune, a Stanford University graduate who worked for a long time at the consulting firm McKinsey (from 2006 to 2015). Immediately after co-founding Diagram in 2016, the latter was appointed to the board of Hydro-Québec alongside Paul Desmarais III, grandson of Paul Desmarais Sr. He worked there as director for four years, from July 2017 to 2021.
Radio silence from diagram
Despite the importance of public money invested in the adventure, both Mr. Lafortune and his spokesman, Adam Daifallah of the PR firm Taneo, ignored our requests for an interview and information.
According to the Quebec press release, the MEIE contribution to this new Diagram fund will be made through Investissement Québec (IQ), the financial arm of the Quebec government led by Guy LeBlanc. IQ is also well represented in Dubai.
Investissement Québec CEO Guy LeBlanc (foreground) and Economy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon. Archive photo
Other sponsors include the company Sagard, Fondaction CSN, the investment company Mavrik, owned by Montreal multimillionaire Mark Pathy, and Teralys Capital, a company financed by the Caisse de dépôt etplacement du Québec (CDPQ).
In the absence of responses from key stakeholders, it was impossible for us to determine the return that Quebec can expect from its investments and to know the significance of the sums invested by the fund’s other sponsors, including Sagard Holdings, Power’s investment platform alternatives Corporation.
Charging electric vehicles
According to Diagram’s press release, the new fund will seek to create companies from the ground up and invest in others “to develop digital and capital efficient solutions that help accelerate the global transition to a greener future.”
One of Diagram Ventures’ next investments will be in electric vehicle charging systems, the CEO told Bloomberg. Archive photo
According to the Bloomberg agency, which was able to speak with the former administrator of Hydro-Québec, the first of a dozen planned financial agreements concerns a company that produces charging infrastructure for electric vehicles. The announcement, with or without the participation of the national company, would be planned for January.
Since its founding in 2016, Diagram has raised four venture capital funds and invested in 23 companies, including mortgage lender Nesto and Dialogue Health Technologies, a virtual healthcare provider. After a detour to the stock market, the latter was finally purchased by Sun Life Financial in July.
In collaboration with Francis Halin.
Diagram Ventures in brief
Founded: 2016
Founders: Paul Desmarais III and François Lafortune
CEO: François Lafortune
Subsidiary of: Sagard Holding
Investment: 50% in Quebec
Companies that have benefited from Diagram’s investments:
Baseline, New York/Toronto
Breath, Montreal
Clear Estate, Montreal
Collage, Toronto
Dialogue, Montreal
Flow, virtual crypto
Nesto, Montreal
Novisto, Montreal
Column, Montreal
Extendable, New York
StreamingFast, Montreal
Synctera, San Francisco
Wingocard, Montreal
Source: Diagram
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