White Star Capital has reached the final close on its first venture capital fund for entrepreneurs on both sides of the Atlantic, the firm has announced.
White Star has head offices in London, New York and Montreal and its first institutional fund has $70 million in Limited Partner commitments. It will deploy between $500,000 and $5 million in initial investments into companies in North America and Western Europe.
This first institutional fund is primarily backed by sovereign and institutional funds supported by entrepreneurs and family offices from over 18 markets.
White Star was co-founded by Eric Martineau-Fortin, an experienced technology M&A banker, and Christian Hernandez Gallardo, a former Facebook executive. Jean-François Marcoux, the co-founder of gaming company Ludia, joins Eric and Christian and a team of experienced former entrepreneurs, who have founded scaled and exited businesses.
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With this new institutional fund, the partners wish to continue to identify and back ambitious entrepreneurs with global ambitions.
“We are thankful for the support we have received from our Limited Partners in North America and Western Europe, and our peer funds, in evolving White Star Capital from our personal investment vehicle into an established transatlantic VC fund,” said Eric Martineau-Fortin, co-founder and managing partner of White Star Capital.
“We have built an investment team that can borrow from our combined operational expertise to support our entrepreneurs as they scale globally.”
Christian Hernandez Gallardo, also co-founder and managing partner of White Star Capital, added that “the ability to create and scale world-class companies is now a global phenomenon”.
“We founded White Star Capital to partner with ambitious entrepreneurs from established tech hubs like London and New York, and from fast-emerging clusters like Montreal and Berlin,” he continued. “We see ourselves as active partners to the entrepreneurs we back and will deploy funding, but also add our experience and global network to allow them to succeed in their ambitions.”
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