Dennis Kavelman
Founding Partner and Associate @ Creative Destruction Lab
Toronto, Canada
Dennis Kavelman is a Series C investor at Creative Destruction Lab in Toronto focused on Software and FinTech. Dennis joined Desire2Learn’s senior executive team in January 2012 as Chief Operating OfficerPrior to joining the company, Dennis was a key member of the senior executive team at Research in Motion (now BlackBerry) for fifteen years – beginning in 1995 – serving as Chief Financial Officer and, subsequently, Co-COO. During that time, theResearch in Motion staff grew from twenty to more than fifteen thousand employees and revenue increased from $2 million to over $15 billion as BlackBerry created and shaped the global wireless data and smartphone industry.Dennis has previously lectured at Wilfrid Laurier University, teaching courses in management accounting and financial analysis. He is a founding director of The Kavelman-Fonn Foundation, which supports education, health, and children’s initiatives in Canada and internationally. In 2005, Dennis received Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 award.Dennis holds a BBA from Wilfrid Laurier University and obtained his Chartered Accountant (CA) designation at KPMG. He also completed the Director’s Education Program at the University of Toronto (Rotman School of Management).
- Total investments:
- 15
- Last investment:
- Lead investor:
- 67%
Last updated:
For AI agents: llms.txt
Industries Dennis Kavelman invests in
Stages Dennis Kavelman invests in
Countries Dennis Kavelman invests in
Contacts
| Type | Contact | Validation |
|---|---|---|
| Work email | ||
| Personal email | ||
| Work phone | ||
| Personal phone | ||
| Socials |
Investment Focus
Industry
- Software 4 (27%)
- FinTech 2 (13%)
- Financial Services 2 (13%)
- SaaS 1 (7%)
- Rental 1 (7%)
Stage
- Series C 5 (33%)
- Series D 3 (20%)
- Series B 2 (13%)
- Series F 1 (7%)
- Funding Round 1 (7%)
Country
- Canada 5 (33%)
- Israel 1 (7%)
Investments
| Company | Description | Round | Links |
|---|---|---|---|
Float Financial
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Float offers modern financial services, powerful software and industry-leading support designed for every company and stage of growth. Our product suite includes corporate cards, bill pay, expense management and high-yield accounts, giving finance teams everything they need to manage spending and cash flow efficiently. | $59.7M / Series C / Jun 24, 2026 | |
Guesty
|
Guesty is a property management platform that provides end-to-end property management software for short-term rentals. The Guesty platform provides property managers and management companies with an end-to-end solution to simplify the complex operational needs of short-term rentals. With Guesty, users across the globe can seamlessly manage listingsfrom multiple online travel agencies including Airbnb, Booking.com, Agoda and more, by utilizing the company’s advanced tools which include: Channel Manager, Unified Inbox, Multi-Calendar, Mobile Management App, Automation Tools, 24/7 Guest Communication Services, Payment Processing, Owners Portal and more. | $130M / Series F / Apr 10, 2024 | |
BenchSci
|
BenchSci uses AI to empower scientists to run more successful experiments to accelerate drug discovery.The company empowers scientists with advanced biomedical artificial intelligence to run more successful experiments. Backed by F-Prime, Gradient Ventures (Google’s AI fund), and Inovia Capital, BenchSci's proprietary technology acceleratesscience pharmaceutical companies and over 4,300 research centers worldwide. | $69.6M / Series D / May 25, 2023 | |
Symend
|
Symend’s digital engagement platform uses behavioral science and data-driven insights to empower customers to resolve past due bills. Leveraging advanced analytics, Symend helps enterprises better engage millions of customers by providing deep insight into consumer behavior. Symend continuously optimizes these insights and empathetically nudgescustomers towards a desired action with personalized communications, self-serve tools and flexible repayment options. Symend’s relationship-based approach keeps enterprises attuned to the changing needs of their customers and empowers them to take action. This increases customer satisfaction, lowers operating costs, and helps resolve past due bills before reaching collections. Founded in 2016, Symend’s platform is purpose built to serve complex global enterprises in telecommunications, financial services, utilities and media. Symend is headquartered in Calgary and privately held, with global operations across Canada, the United States and Latin America. For more information, please visit https://symend.com/ and follow the company on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. | $41M / Series C / Nov 17, 2022 | |
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Symend
|
Symend’s digital engagement platform uses behavioral science and data-driven insights to empower customers to resolve past due bills. Leveraging advanced analytics, Symend helps enterprises better engage millions of customers by providing deep insight into consumer behavior. Symend continuously optimizes these insights and empathetically nudgescustomers towards a desired action with personalized communications, self-serve tools and flexible repayment options. Symend’s relationship-based approach keeps enterprises attuned to the changing needs of their customers and empowers them to take action. This increases customer satisfaction, lowers operating costs, and helps resolve past due bills before reaching collections. Founded in 2016, Symend’s platform is purpose built to serve complex global enterprises in telecommunications, financial services, utilities and media. Symend is headquartered in Calgary and privately held, with global operations across Canada, the United States and Latin America. For more information, please visit https://symend.com/ and follow the company on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. | $41M / Nov 17, 2022 | |
|
Symend
|
Symend’s digital engagement platform uses behavioral science and data-driven insights to empower customers to resolve past due bills. Leveraging advanced analytics, Symend helps enterprises better engage millions of customers by providing deep insight into consumer behavior. Symend continuously optimizes these insights and empathetically nudgescustomers towards a desired action with personalized communications, self-serve tools and flexible repayment options. Symend’s relationship-based approach keeps enterprises attuned to the changing needs of their customers and empowers them to take action. This increases customer satisfaction, lowers operating costs, and helps resolve past due bills before reaching collections. Founded in 2016, Symend’s platform is purpose built to serve complex global enterprises in telecommunications, financial services, utilities and media. Symend is headquartered in Calgary and privately held, with global operations across Canada, the United States and Latin America. For more information, please visit https://symend.com/ and follow the company on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. | $42M / Venture - Series Unknown / Nov 17, 2022 | |
WorkJam
|
WorkJam is an employee engagement suite that unleashes the potential of enterprise workforces through agile scheduling, transformative communication, experiential learning, and tailored recognition, empowering the shift-based, hourly, and non-desk workers. It manages and optimizes the entire employee-employer relationship life cycle with dynamicmobile communication and workforce management to drive operational efficiency and productivity. It also enables employers to improve labor cost management and sales through better communication with their workforce, enhanced employee self-service, and a better customer experience through a more motivated and engaged staff.WorkJam was founded in 2014 and is headquartered in Montréal, Quebec, Canada. | $50M / Series D / Nov 14, 2022 | |
|
BenchSci
|
BenchSci uses AI to empower scientists to run more successful experiments to accelerate drug discovery.The company empowers scientists with advanced biomedical artificial intelligence to run more successful experiments. Backed by F-Prime, Gradient Ventures (Google’s AI fund), and Inovia Capital, BenchSci's proprietary technology acceleratesscience pharmaceutical companies and over 4,300 research centers worldwide. | $49.9M / Series C / Jan 24, 2022 | |
AlayaCare
|
AlayaCare is a start-up that delivers an end-to-end home health care software platform and hardware ecosystem.The platform allows home care agencies to deliver mixed telehealth/visiting health solutions enabling empowered patients to live better while driving down the cost of care. The founders are a proven team of entrepreneurs who havefounded, scaled, and sold two mobile software businesses. AlayaCare aims to provide a solution to a market mired in legacy software and suboptimal business processes. In doing so, it delivers better outcomes for the patient, better tools for the providers, and better economics for the payers. It promotes an open culture where every team member has the obligation to dissent, but the obligation to always keep the big picture in mind. Through its association with The Madiro Fund, the company also contributes its solution free of charge to NGOs working in the developing world who are seeking to leverage mobile technology to improve the lives of those less fortunate.Adrian Schauer and Neil Grunberg launched the company in Montréal, Quebec in 2014. | $182.8M / Series D / Jun 23, 2021 | |
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Symend
|
Symend’s digital engagement platform uses behavioral science and data-driven insights to empower customers to resolve past due bills. Leveraging advanced analytics, Symend helps enterprises better engage millions of customers by providing deep insight into consumer behavior. Symend continuously optimizes these insights and empathetically nudgescustomers towards a desired action with personalized communications, self-serve tools and flexible repayment options. Symend’s relationship-based approach keeps enterprises attuned to the changing needs of their customers and empowers them to take action. This increases customer satisfaction, lowers operating costs, and helps resolve past due bills before reaching collections. Founded in 2016, Symend’s platform is purpose built to serve complex global enterprises in telecommunications, financial services, utilities and media. Symend is headquartered in Calgary and privately held, with global operations across Canada, the United States and Latin America. For more information, please visit https://symend.com/ and follow the company on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. | $43M / Series B / Feb 09, 2021 | |
| See all 15 investments → | |||
Co-Investors
About Creative Destruction Lab
Creative Destruction Lab (CDL) is a no-fee/no-equity organization that delivers an objectives-based mentoring program for massively scalable, pre-seed stage, science- and technology-based companies. Its nine-month program allows founders to learn from experienced entrepreneurs, increasing their likelihood of success. Founded in 2012 byProfessor Ajay Agrawal at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Management, the program has expanded to thirteen sites across seven countries: Seattle, Oxford, Paris, Atlanta, Estonia, Wisconsin, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, Berlin, Melbourne and Halifax.
Creative Destruction Lab Contacts
| Name | Phone | Socials | |
|---|---|---|---|
Daniel Mulet Lind
Associate Director, Quantum Machine Learning
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Dennis Kavelman
Founding Partner and Associate
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Frederic Bastien
Fellow
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Mark Dobbin
Founding Partner and Fellow
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Nils Herrmann
Stream Lead AgriFood
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FAQ
What does Dennis Kavelman invest in?
Dennis Kavelman invests primarily in Software, FinTech and Financial Services startups, most often at Series C and Series D stage. Most of the 15 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 Dennis Kavelman?
Public channels for Dennis Kavelman 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.
When did Dennis Kavelman last invest?
The most recent investment recorded for Dennis Kavelman closed in Jun 2026. Shizune tracks 15 investments in total for this profile, including round sizes, stages and portfolio companies, all sourced from confirmed public funding rounds and refreshed monthly.
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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