Less than a month after stepping down as founding CEO of Toronto-based EdTech startup Top Hat, Mike Silagadze joined Ripple Ventures as a venture partner.
Toronto’s Ripple Ventures is a venture capital fund that invests in seed capital for North American B2B series A software startups. In his new role, Silagadze, who has been tasked with supporting fundraising campaigns and advising Ripple’s portfolio companies, aims to help the next generation of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) startups grow.
In the new role, Silagadze aims to help the next generation of software-as-a-service startups grow.
In 2009, Silagadze co-founded the SaaS startup Top Hat for student engagement. He helped grow the company into a dominant global EdTech company with over 500 employees and around CAD 300 million in funding from a list of investors including Georgian Partners, Inovia, Capital, Emergence and Union Square Ventures.
“Mike is known for his vast experience of scaling online businesses and executing efficient go-to-market strategies. He will be a great addition to the Ripple team,” said Ripple Ventures in a statement.
Silagadze told BetaKit that he sees the new role as “a great opportunity to give back while supporting up-and-coming founders and their companies with a great up-and-coming manager like Ripple.”
“I’ve met the Ripple team over the past few years and really enjoyed their approach to venture capital and early stage investing,” said Silagadze. “I’ve spent time with their existing portfolio founders and I strongly believe in their operators’ first approach to working with founders on a daily basis, not just quarterly board meetings.”
In early February, Silagadze announced that he would be stepping down as CEO of Top Hat with the aim of remaining on the company’s board of directors and supporting its day-to-day and general business operations. Silagadze tapped Joe Rohrlich to lead Top Hat in its next phase of growth. Rohrlich took on the role that month.
The news came when Top Hat raised $ 130 million from Georgian Partners, which a spokesperson said BetaKit had valued the company at “roughly half a billion.” [dollars]. ”
RELATED: Georgian Doubles at Top Hat with a $ 130M investment if the company swaps CEOs
With his experience building and scaling online businesses, Ripple sees Silagadze as uniquely positioned to provide expertise to Ripple-powered startups as they grow and implement their go-to-market strategies. Ripple described Silagadze’s ability to use data and software platforms to help transform older industries as “an incredible asset” to his fund’s investment strategy.
“I think Matt [Cohen, Ripple’s founder and managing partner] has built a fund that is not afraid to roll up their sleeves and get in the ring with founders, and I respect their willingness to do so at the earliest stage when founders need it most, ”said Silagadze.
“My goal is to help founders avoid the mistakes I made as a founder and to provide them with knowledge and advice that they may not get from their existing investors or partners,” he added.
Ripple focuses on companies based in Toronto, Waterloo, Montreal, New York, and Boston. The company typically invests up to $ 1.5 million in rounds of $ 2 to 5 million and seeks leadership or co-leadership.
Ripple’s recent investments include Toronto-based trucking management platform Rose Rocket and Vancouver-based project management software startup ZenHub. Ripple invested in these startups through its $ 10 million Fund II, formerly known as the Opportunity Fund, which closed in May last year at the start of the pandemic.
With its second fund, Ripple wants to invest in up to 10 companies and support startups “during the economic slowdown”.
UPDATE 3/31/2021: This article has been updated to include comments from Mike Silagadze.
Photo by Mike Silagadze courtesy of Top Hat
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