Northside Ventures
Venture capitalToronto · Pre-Seed–Series A · 1 people tracked
Investment thesis
Northside Ventures backs wildly ambitious Canadian founders at the earliest stages—often pre-product and pre-revenue, at the point of company inception. The fund aims to be a founder's first investor, operating like an institutional angel by combining the deeply connected network of a large fund with the agility and personal relationships of an angel. It invests in software, AI infrastructure, and frontier technology, focusing on categories where founder insights create durable technical advantages for legacy industries, SMBs, and enterprises. Beyond capital, it supports product iteration, acts as an early sounding board, and connects founders with first design-partner customers and global capital for future rounds.
Source: firm website, verified Aug 3, 2026.
Team · 1 people
from public directories
What they invest in
from 27 of 30 portfolio companiesAI & Machine Learning ×19Enterprise Software ×8SaaS ×7Developer Tools ×6Advanced Manufacturing ×3Cloud Computing ×3Data & Infrastructure ×3Marketing Tech ×3
HQs:United States×9Canada×4
Who they back
founder profiles across 10 portfolio companiesFounding team size:solo founder×32 founders×63 founders×1
Where their founders studiedfrom 11 founders with education data
University of Waterloo ×4Ivey Business School at Western University ×3Nanyang Technological University Singapore ×2PSG College of Technology ×2Western University ×2
Where their founders worked beforefrom 10 founders with career history
Adobe ×2McKinsey & Company ×2NorthOne ×2Rose Rocket ×2
Accelerator rootsportfolio companies that came through a program
Investments · 30 tracked
founders shown can be your intro pathBy year:2026 · 12025 · 12023 · 13 dated
Bread builds tools to help businesses understand and prepare for AI-driven web commerce, including OpenLens, a free tool that shows what AI systems say about a brand, plus agent traffic detection and site-readiness services.
AI & Machine LearningMarketing TechSaaS
Cameron Witkowski(Co-founder)Aman Bhargava(Co-founder)
PartnerAlex McIsaac· solo GP
Co-investorsMenlo Ventures
Actual (previously Atlas) is a hospitality management platform that automates tip division, digital tip payouts, and compliant direct tip payments, along with payroll, reporting, and sales forecasting.
Enterprise SoftwareFintechSaaS
PartnerAlex McIsaac· solo GP
Boardy is an AI-powered networking agent that identifies relevant people for users to meet and facilitates introductions.
AI & Machine LearningSocial
Andrew D'Souza(Founder)in
PartnerAlex McIsaac· solo GP
Co-investorsGolden VenturesNextView VenturesPhaze VenturesCreandum
Canada Rocket Company designs and builds orbital launch vehicles and rocket engines in Canada, including the R-Series fleet with up to 12,500kg lift capacity and the E-1 methalox (LOX/liquid methane) engine.
Deep TechDefense TechSpace Tech
Hugh Kolias(CEO)David Tenny(CTO)
PartnerAlex McIsaac· solo GP
Co-investorsGarage CapitalBDC Seed Venture FundPanache VenturesSpace Capital
Cartage develops an AI logistics coordinator called Wilson that automates freight coordination across the shipping lifecycle, from quoting to exceptions handling.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareLogistics & Supply ChainSan Francisco, US
Abdul Basharat(Founder)inJosh Lampen(Founder)in
PartnerAlex McIsaac· solo GP
Co-investorsY CombinatorRitual CapitalTranspose Platform ManagementWayfinder Ventures
Datacurve develops research and data collection infrastructure for training AI systems.
AI & Machine LearningData & InfrastructureEnterprise SoftwareSan Francisco, US
Serena Ge(Founder)inCharley Lee(Founder)in
PartnerAlex McIsaac· solo GP
Co-investorsAfore CapitalHomebrewY CombinatorBalaji SrinivasanChemistry
ImagineCreate is an AI platform that generates fashion and product photography and video for ecommerce, showing apparel, jewelry, bags, and accessories on AI-generated models from text prompts.
AI & Machine LearningE-commerceMarketing Tech
PartnerAlex McIsaac· solo GP
North Vector Dynamics is a Canadian defence technology company developing precision interception, autonomy, and advanced propulsion systems, including counter-UAS solutions and hypersonics.
Deep TechDefense TechHardwareCalgary, CA
Paul Ziadé(CEO)
PartnerAlex McIsaac· solo GP
Co-investorsACADEMY INVESTORAIN VenturesOne 9 InvestmentsUCeed FundsVanedge CapitalVanedge Capital Limited Partnership
Opener provides AI-driven wholesale account management for brands selling into retail stores, unifying data from POS, inventory, and sales history to acquire new accounts, grow existing ones, and revive dormant accounts.
AI & Machine LearningRetail TechSales Tech
PartnerAlex McIsaac· solo GP
Parameter provides AI agents that continuously test web apps, APIs, cloud, and infrastructure for vulnerabilities, delivering validated findings with a working proof-of-concept for each.
AI & Machine LearningCybersecurityDeveloper Tools
PartnerAlex McIsaac· solo GP
Co-investorsY Combinator
PolarGrid runs open-weight AI models on GPU nodes distributed at the edge across North America, offering an OpenAI-compatible API for low-latency inference including sub-300ms voice pipelines (STT, LLM, TTS).
AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingData & Infrastructure
PartnerAlex McIsaac· solo GP
Postilize offers an AI platform for law firms to grow client relationships and originate new matters, detecting client needs early ("Proactive Signals"), turning relationship data into partner follow-ups ("Proactive ERM"), and cleaning CRM contact data ("Proactive Cleanse").
AI & Machine LearningLegalTechSales Tech
PartnerAlex McIsaac· solo GP
Co-investorsEast Valley Ventures
Predictive Horizons builds an intelligence layer for the mobility service industry that ingests telematics, work-order, technical documentation, and parts data to help diagnose vehicle issues, surface evidence for technicians, and capture resolution reasoning for reuse.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareMobility & TransportationSaaSSan Ramon, US
Mohamad (Moe) Yassine(Founder)Mohamad Yassine(Board Member, Chief Executive Officer)
PartnerAlex McIsaac· solo GP
Co-investorsSarah Smith
Ranger provides an AI platform that connects industrial teams, workflows, and documents across an operation, mapping workflows to reduce time spent searching, drafting, and reviewing.
AI & Machine LearningEnterprise SoftwareSaaS
PartnerAlex McIsaac· solo GP
Co-investors25MadisonPanache Ventures
Reflex offers a low-latency GPU cloud for training, fine-tuning, and serving robot models, streaming observations in and returning actions in under 30 ms.
AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingRobotics
PartnerAlex McIsaac· solo GP
Relling builds AI-powered robotic cells for high-mix assembly, inspection, cleaning, machine tending, and labeling tasks, engineered and safety-qualified before shipping.
Advanced ManufacturingAI & Machine LearningRobotics
PartnerAlex McIsaac· solo GP
Sellit9 lets people sell items by dropping them off at partner store locations, where the items are assessed on the spot and the customer receives payment immediately.
Circular EconomyConsumerMarketplaces
PartnerAlex McIsaac· solo GP
Solcoa produces rare earth metals using proprietary chemistry for use in electric motors, generators, and speakers.
Advanced ManufacturingCleantechNew Materials
Artem Iurkovskyi(Cofounder)Hooman Reza Nezhad(Cofounder)
PartnerAlex McIsaac· solo GP
Co-investorsGigascale CapitalLaunch HouseLong Journey Ventures
Subtrace is a tool that captures and displays HTTP traffic to and from running processes in real time without requiring code modifications or elevated permissions.
Developer ToolsEnterprise SoftwareSan Francisco, US
Adhityaa Chandrasekar(Founder)inSachin Sridhar(Founder)in
PartnerAlex McIsaac· solo GP
Co-investorsRoot Ventures Manager, LlcY Combinator
Switch is a software platform that uses AI and machine learning to unify marketing, sales, and finance data across online and offline channels, providing predictive insights such as lead scoring, LTV prediction, and incrementality modeling to improve cross-channel marketing ROI.
AdTechAI & Machine LearningMarketing Tech
PartnerAlex McIsaac· solo GP
Terminal provides telematics data infrastructure that connects commercial fleet products to 316 telematics providers, eliminating the need for individual integrations.
Data & InfrastructureDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareLogistics & Supply ChainToronto, CA
Raghav Midha(Founder)inConnor Giles(Founder)in
PartnerAlex McIsaac· solo GP
Co-investorsWayfinder VenturesY CombinatorGolden Ventures
Thinkwell is a go-to-market platform that monitors B2B companies and curates data to generate account-specific research and personalized outbound messaging for each stakeholder in a buying committee.
AI & Machine LearningSaaSSales Tech
PartnerAlex McIsaac· solo GP
Thoras provides predictive autoscaling software for Kubernetes environments, using machine learning to forecast workload demand and automatically right-size CPU and GPU resources.
AI & Machine LearningCloud ComputingDeveloper ToolsSan Francisco, US
Nilo Rahmani(Founder)
PartnerAlex McIsaac· solo GP
Co-investorsFocal VenturesSINEWAVE VENTURESStorytime Capital
Traces is a platform for developers and software teams to publish, share, and browse AI coding agent sessions ("traces") from the CLI, with support for 10+ agents such as Claude Code, Cursor, and Codex.
AI & Machine LearningDeveloper ToolsSaaS
PartnerAlex McIsaac· solo GP
Unbound builds security infrastructure to govern AI coding agents in enterprise environments.
AI & Machine LearningCybersecurityDeveloper ToolsEnterprise SoftwareSan Francisco, US
Rajaram Srinivasan(Founder)inVignesh Subbiah(Founder)inRajin
PartnerAlex McIsaac· solo GP
Co-investorsY CombinatorRace Capital
Valstad develops AI-enabled manufacturing systems for distributed ship production and repair, including robotic fabrication cells, phased array laser welding, and precision structural steel kits.
Advanced ManufacturingAI & Machine LearningRoboticsAustin, US
Dustin Walper(CEO, Founder)Ryan Cook(Chief Operating Officer)Wisam Abdullah(Director)
PartnerAlex McIsaac· solo GP
veritree provides a platform for corporations to fund and track verified tree-planting and reforestation projects, offering measured data on restored land and forecasted carbon sequestration.
Climate TechImpact & Social GoodSaaS
PartnerAlex McIsaac· solo GP
Co-investorsDiagramGarage CapitalPender Ventures
PartnerAlex McIsaac· solo GP
Co-investorsGarage CapitalAmplify.LA
Portfolio news
latest coverage across their companiesUnbound · ascendants.in · Apr 16, 2026
Boardy · upstartsmedia.com · Jan 6, 2026
Terminal · finsmes.com · Nov 6, 2025
Datacurve · theaiinsider.tech · Oct 23, 2025
Predictive Horizons · growthshuttle.com · Aug 26, 2025
Frequently asked questions
- How many investments has Northside Ventures made?
- Northside Ventures has 30 tracked investments, including 2 dated in the last 24 months.
- What stage does Northside Ventures invest at?
- Northside Ventures invests at the Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A stages.
- What is Northside Ventures's typical check size?
- Northside Ventures typically writes checks of $73K – $365K.
- What sectors does Northside Ventures focus on?
- Northside Ventures focuses on AI & Machine Learning, Data & Infrastructure, Deep Tech, Developer Tools, Enterprise Software, Fintech, New Materials, SaaS.
- Where is Northside Ventures located?
- Northside Ventures is headquartered in Toronto, CA.
- Who does Northside Ventures co-invest with?
- Northside Ventures most often shares deals with Y Combinator, Garage Capital, Panache Ventures, among 33 tracked co-investors.
Images
Co-investors · 21
Golden Ventures is a seed-stage venture capital firm that backs early-stage technology companies, with a portfolio concentrated in Canada.
Craft Ventures is a venture capital firm run by a team of former founders, operators, and investors who partner closely with founders to help build and scale technology companies.
FJ Labs is an early-stage investment firm specializing in marketplaces and network-effect businesses, taking an angel-style co-investment approach alongside institutional venture funds worldwide.
BCV Labs is the platform and hands-on support arm of Bain Capital Ventures, providing portfolio founders with go-to-market strategy, brand development, hiring assistance, and customer introductions.
Canaan Partners is a venture capital firm with over 30 years of history, backing companies across technology and healthcare sectors through close, hands-on partnerships with founders.
Quiet Capital is an early-stage venture firm run by builders who back founders from day zero.
Susa Ventures operates two early-stage technology funds that invest in companies leveraging data, network effects, and economies of scale.
Liquid 2 is an early- and growth-stage venture capital firm that invests in founders across all sectors of technology, providing capital along with support from a network of operators.
Inovia Capital is a full-stack venture capital firm based in Canada with a presence in the EU, partnering with founders to build global technology companies.
Weekend Fund is an early-stage venture fund started by Ryan Hoover (founder of Product Hunt) and Vedika Jain, writing checks into consumer and B2B startups globally.
BAM Ventures is an early-stage investment firm made up of experienced entrepreneurs based in Southern California, backing founders building consumer-focused technologies, products, and services that transform commerce.
Banana Capital is Turner Novak's early-stage venture capital firm, run as a one-person operation investing up to $250k as a first or lead investor.
▶9 more co-investors
GSV AccelerationThe Finger GroupWhite Star CapitalGraph VenturesDarling VenturesFocalFormic VenturesBrandProject CapitalStaircase Ventures
Firms observed investing alongside Northside Ventures, from public investor directories. Shared companies are the overlap with Northside Ventures's recorded portfolio.
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