Rho Canada: More Seed Money You Might Never Have Heard of

Here's another fund that has recently established a Canadian arm for seed investing. In 2006, New York-based Rho Capital announced it had set aside $100 million for seed stage investing. Rumblings about this initiative had been circulating since 2005 as Rho searched for partners to staff the Canadian office.

Jeff Grammer and Antoine Paquin came on board in 2006 and now run Rho Canada's office in Montreal. Many of you will remember Antoine as the CEO of Skystone and Philsar Semiconductor, some of the first Ottawa-area successful startup exits of the dot-com boom. Antoine then went on to the far less successful Bitflash, before heading to California for some surfing and RF power amp designig. I understand he has now settled back in Ottawa.

Although quiet, Rho appears to be taking its first steps in joining the seed investing community. He has re-teamed with Su Abu-Hakima to revive AmikaNow, for one. But its strategy is far from clear; the contact information is sparse,and plans are not actively solicited through their web site. Anyone who can enlighten us, write on in.