# BEST Funds

> BEST Funds is a VC fund in Toronto backing Software and Financial Services. See 11 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Toronto, Canada
- Total investments: 11
- Last investment: Oct 2022
- Lead investor: 27%
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/b.e.s.t-funds/
- X (Twitter): http://twitter.com/BESTFunds
- Website: http://www.bestfunds.ca

BEST Funds is a VC fund in Toronto focused on Software and Financial Services. Since 1996, BEST Funds has been a leading Canadian venture capital firm, managing Retail VC Funds as well as Private Funds.

## Contacts

5 contacts available for BEST Funds. Shizune tracks 4 team members at BEST Funds. Sign up free to unlock them: https://app.shizune.co/sign-up/investor-profiles/find-team-emails/best-funds?utm_source=investor_profile

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Software | 7 | 64% |
| Financial Services | 3 | 27% |
| Hardware | 2 | 18% |
| Internet | 2 | 18% |
| Information Technology | 2 | 18% |

24 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Series A | 5 | 45% |
| Funding Round | 5 | 45% |
| Seed | 1 | 9% |

## Team

| Name | Title | Investments | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| John Richardson | Founder | 2 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/john-richardson-2 |
| Alan Chettiar | Senior Portfolio Manager | 1 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/alan-chettiar |
| Sean De Agrella | Team Member | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/sean-de-agrella |
| Tom Lunan | CFO | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/tom-lunan-2 |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Perch | Perch is an analytics-driven digital platform that helps Canadians make more informed decisions about their real estate to build wealth. Perch empowers its users by providing personalized insights throughout all aspects of homeownership, from buying, to mortgage renewals, refinancing, and selling. Whether you’re a first-time home buyer or seasonedreal estate investor, Perch helps people manage their home investments, wherever they are in their real estate journey. | $2.9M | Series A | Oct 18, 2022 |  |
| Perch | Through advanced analytics, Perch gives you personalized insights to manage your home investments, wherever you are in your real estate journey. When it comes to buying a home, getting a mortgage or financing your next real estate investment, it can feel pretty overwhelming. At Perch, our mission is to empower Canadians to make more informeddecisions about their real estate to build wealth. Sign up for a free account today! | $2.9M | Series A | Oct 18, 2022 |  |
| Zone·tv | Zone·tv is redefining the TV viewing environment by delivering a personalized entertainment experience filled with expertly curated, exciting new content discoveries. | $4.1M | Seed | Nov 16, 2015 |  |
| PitchPoint Solutions | PitchPoint Solutions is a leading provider of fraud prevention services with the systems, people and experience to quickly validate loan data and enable lenders to reduce in-house effort, meet new compliance requirements and reduce the risk of fraud. PitchPoint provides a comprehensive, independent and objective review of loan data to enablelenders to quickly detect discrepancies, enable compliance and thereby reduce the risk of loan repurchase. | $2M |  | Feb 11, 2014 |  |
| TeamBuy | TeamBuy.ca is a Canadian group-buying website that launched in Toronto in 2009. The site secures impressive savings by using team-buying power, giving users the benefit of buying in bulk without actually having to. With the goal to become one of Canada's top online shopping destinations, TeamBuy.ca offers features that range from the hottestlifestyle and home décor products to travel and spa packages, self-improvement workshops to dinner experiences. Considered a trusted city guide that introduces TeamBuyers to only the finest that their city has to offer, TeamBuy.ca is available in over 20 major cities and local regions across Canada. TeamBuy.ca has grown rapidly since 2009, cultivating relationships with thousands of diverse merchant partners, expanding to offer mobile and Facebook ecommerce apps and generating over $100,000,000 in savings for their members. | $5M | Series A | Aug 28, 2013 |  |
| CogniVue | CogniVue offers the most comprehensive embedded vision solution in the market today. Our revolutionary and patented Image Cognition Processor (ICP) core APEX, tools and software allow developers to achieve >100x advantage in performance per power per area versus incumbent technologies, enabling the creation of previously implausible visionproducts in wearables, automotive and industrial applications.With the APEX ICP core, APEX Programmer tools, APEX-CV library and application software demos, we enable our customers and partners to create or improve their embedded vision solution at all levels. |  |  | Dec 05, 2012 |  |
| Hatsize Learning | Hatsize provides hands-on training and demonstration to complex technology products over the web ... Anytime, Anywhere.Hatsize has a suite of software called TrueLab that gives people access to complex lab environments over the Internet. TrueLab also has tools that let instructors, Marketers, and Sales watch how people interact with the systemand even help them use it. On the back-end, the TrueLab Management System automatically configures each lab environment exactly the way it needs to be for each individual. It can manage both physical devices and virtual machines. TrueLab also includes a business intelligence engine that tracks usage of the labs so that, for example, channel managers can tell which partners have the most experience with the product and even the best close rate after demonstrating the product - extremely valuable business information. | $5M | Series A | Nov 30, 2010 |  |
| iMPath Networks | With over 20 years of experience helping the world's leading system integrators deploy complex video networks, and an early pioneer in the development and introduction of Video over IP solutions, Impath Networks is the Proven Player when it comes to meeting your video networking requirements. The Company is headquartered in Halifax withoperations in Halifax and Ottawa, and sells its solutions to the world's largest systems integrators throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. | $3M |  | Jun 19, 2008 |  |
| Axentra | Axentra is the creator of a Linux-based digital media software platform and applications suite. The company was founded in 1999 and is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada. | $6M | Series A | Oct 23, 2007 |  |
| Agile Systems | Agile Systems is a world leader in the design, development and manufacturing of advanced motion control technology including motor control and power conversion. Our team is highly skilled in integrating power electronics, digital controls and network communications into small, compact and cost effective packages. Based in Waterloo, ON, Canada,Agile Systems has established customers in a broad range of industries. | $7M |  | May 12, 2005 |  |

10 of 11 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [Ontario Centre of Innovation](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/oci-e51e) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Second Century Ventures](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/second-century-ventures) — VC Fund, 2 deals together
- [Business Development Bank of Canada](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/business-development-bank-of-canada) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Capital Angel Network](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/capital-angel-network) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Celtic House Venture Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/celtic-house-venture-partners) — VC Fund, 1 deal together
- [Covington Group](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/covington-capital) — VC Fund, 1 deal together

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## FAQ

### What does BEST Funds invest in?

BEST Funds invests primarily in Software, Financial Services and Hardware startups, most often at Series A and Funding Round stage. Most of the 11 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in Canada. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### How do I contact BEST Funds?

Public channels for BEST Funds include LinkedIn, X (Twitter) and the website linked on this profile. For a verified work email and phone number, create a free Shizune account — contact data is searched across 20+ sources and validated before delivery, so your outreach lands in the right inbox.

### Who are the partners at BEST Funds?

The team at BEST Funds includes John Richardson (Founder), Alan Chettiar (Senior Portfolio Manager) and Sean De Agrella (Team Member). The Team section lists each member with their title, investment count and links.

### Is Shizune's investor data accurate?

Yes — every stat on this profile is calculated from confirmed public funding rounds monitored across hundreds of sources since 2020. This profile was last refreshed in Aug 2026 and is updated monthly. Spotted something off? Use the “Suggest an edit” link near the top of the page.

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