# Ventures West

> Ventures West is a VC fund in Vancouver backing Software and Biotechnology. See 62 investments, check sizes, portfolio and contact details. Updated Aug 2026.

- Type: VC Fund
- Location: Vancouver, Canada
- Total investments: 62
- Last investment: Oct 2018
- Lead investor: 34%
- Fund size: $115M
- Last fund: Nov 2003
- Last updated: Aug 2026
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/ventures-west/about/
- Website: http://www.ventureswest.com

Ventures West is a VC fund in Vancouver focused on Software and Biotechnology. Ventures West is one of Canada's largest privately owned venture capital companies. In addition to providing capital, they contribute a wealth of resources to each investment.With 10 professional technology investment managers, and one of the most productive Entrepreneur-In-Residence programs in Canada, the Ventures West team has over 120years of technology venture investing and hands-on operating experience.Ventures West has a unique set of capabilities - a long and successful track record in venture capital investing, management depth, extensive contacts in North American technology, financial, and venture capital industries, and the ability to form investor syndicates.

## Contacts

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

## Round sizes

| Stage | Round size |
| --- | --- |
| Series A | $3.5M–$15M |
| Series B | $7.4M–$26M |

## Investment focus

### Industry

| Industry | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Software | 14 | 23% |
| Biotechnology | 10 | 16% |
| Health Care | 7 | 11% |
| Internet | 5 | 8% |
| Energy | 4 | 6% |

65 industries tracked in total.

### Stage

| Stage | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Series B | 17 | 27% |
| Series A | 13 | 21% |
| Funding Round | 11 | 18% |
| Series C | 7 | 11% |
| Series D | 6 | 10% |

10 stages tracked in total.

### Country

| Country | Investments | Share |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Canada | 28 | 45% |
| United States | 11 | 18% |

## Team

| Name | Title | Investments | Profile |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| David Berkowitz | General Partner | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/david-berkowitz |
| Sam Znaimer | General Partner | 1 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/sam-znaimer |
| Howard Riback | General Partner and CFO | 0 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/howard-riback |
| Kenneth Galbraith | General Partner | 12 | https://shizune.co/investors/profile/kenneth-galbraith |

## Investments

| Company | Description | Amount | Stage | Date | Website |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Epic Games | Epic Games is an American video game and software company that creates games and offers its game engine technology to other developers. It specializes in developing games and engine technology and operates a game store that empowers others to make quality games and 3D content, thereby providing game developers the ability to build high-fidelity,interactive experiences for PC, console, mobile, and virtual reality devices. | $1.3B |  | Oct 26, 2018 |  |
| Viigo | Viigo is revolutionizing the way users access information on their smartphone. Every day, people around the world rely on Viigo as their gateway to a vast array of up-to-the-minute content and useful services, wherever they are and whenever they need it. In one simple, fully customizable application, Viigo delivers news, weather, flight schedulesand status, real-time sports scores, stock quotes and market data, entertainment, hotel and restaurant reviews, blogs, and much more. Viigo is the one application smartphone users cannot be without. | $4.7M | Series A | Dec 18, 2013 |  |
| Aquinox Pharmaceuticals | Aquinox Pharmaceuticals Inc., a pharmaceutical company, engages in discovery, development, and commercialization of small molecule therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and inflammatory disease. It offers AQX-MN100, a drug used to treat cancer and inflammatory disease, as well as SH2-containing inositol 5'-phosphatase inhibition program forblood cell recovery. The company was founded in 2004 and is based in Vancouver, Canada. | $18M | Series C | Apr 03, 2013 |  |
| Spectra7 Microsystems | Spectra7 Microsystems is a semiconductor company delivering unprecedented bandwidth, speed, and resolution to enable disruptive industrial design for leading consumer electronics manufacturers in virtual reality, augmented reality, data centers, and other connectivity markets. It specializes in the fields of wireless infrastructure and data centeractive cables. | $11M |  | Aug 14, 2012 |  |
| Alder Biopharmaceuticals | Alder's mission is to help alleviate human suffering by generating better and safer antibody therapeutics through novel technologies. Alder plays two roles: As a biopharmaceutical company, Alder uses its proprietary technologies to uniquely identify, develop, produce and market its own antibody therapeutics. The work being done at Aldertoday will help those who suffer from cancer, autoimmune diseases, and inflammatory diseases. As a licensing partner, Alder is revolutionizing the way the pharmaceutical industry discovers, develops and produces antibody therapeutics. Through various licensing agreements, Alder has used its proprietary technology to help major biopharmaceutical partners advance novel therapeutics to the clinic in less time and at lower cost. Alder's licensing strategy also includes identifying strategic partners to assist in the development and marketing of its preclinical and clinical pipeline programs. | $38M | Series D | Apr 19, 2012 |  |
| NeurAxon | NeurAxon, Inc. discovers and develops pain therapeutics targeting neuronal nitric oxide synthase. It has oral products in pipeline addressing acute migraine, neuropathic pain chronic daily headache, inflammatory pain, migraine prophylaxis, and severe pain. The company was founded in 2004 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada. | $14M | Debt Financing | Sep 30, 2010 |  |
| Celator Pharmaceuticals | Celator Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a biopharmaceutical company, develops therapies to treat cancer. The company focuses on CombiPlex, a drug ratio technology platform that enables to the development of combination therapies. Its products include CPX-1 (Irinotecan HCI-Floxuridine), a treatment for colorectal cancer; and CPX-351(Cytarabine-Daunorubicin), a treatment for acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Celator Pharmaceuticals, Inc. was formerly known as Celator Technologies, Inc. The company was founded in 2000 and is headquartered in Princeton, New Jersey. | $20M | Series D | Sep 01, 2010 |  |
| Aquinox Pharmaceuticals | Aquinox Pharmaceuticals Inc., a pharmaceutical company, engages in discovery, development, and commercialization of small molecule therapeutics for the treatment of cancer and inflammatory disease. It offers AQX-MN100, a drug used to treat cancer and inflammatory disease, as well as SH2-containing inositol 5'-phosphatase inhibition program forblood cell recovery. The company was founded in 2004 and is based in Vancouver, Canada. | $25M | Series B | Jun 17, 2010 |  |
| SWITCH Materials | SWITCH Materials develops revolutionary new materials based on proprietary organic molecules that "switch" optical properties on command.SWITCH’s molecular switches can be developed for a number of applications, especially in the areas of molecular electronics and health sciences, including optical filters, photochromic inks, paintsand fibers, high-density optical information storage systems, molecular sensors and biomarkers for labeling and tracking of live cells.SWITCH has assembled a team of cutting-edge materials scientists with combined expertise in synthetic chemistry, polymer processing, optics, and molecular & materials engineering. SWITCH conducts its research and development activities in our own laboratories and the state-of-the-art analytical and clean room facilities at 4D LABS, Simon Fraser University's new $40 million materials science research centre. | $7.5M | Series B | Jan 15, 2010 |  |
| Fresco Microchip | Fresco Microchip is a fabless semiconductor company that has taken a different approach to an old problem - the challenge of converting analog to digital. Focused on the broad consumer electronics market, the company uniquely brings together three core technologies: next-generation RF, mixed-signal and digital signal processing (DSP).Televisionlevel video quality has long been the goal of legacy demodulator designers using digital technology. Fresco uses Agile Signal Processing (agileSPâ„¢) technology to create universal legacy demodulation in low cost CMOS. Digital technology provides television quality video without the part to part variation of the traditional analog implementation. Combining digital demodulation technology with patentable iSAWâ„¢ and agileSPâ„¢ provides the complete hybrid solution. | $10M |  | Oct 08, 2009 |  |

10 of 62 investments shown.

## Co-investors
- [GrowthWorks Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/growthworks) — VC Fund, 13 deals together
- [BDC Venture Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/bdc-venture-capital) — VC Fund, 10 deals together
- [Business Development Bank of Canada](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/business-development-bank-of-canada) — VC Fund, 7 deals together
- [H.I.G. Capital](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/hig-capital) — VC Fund, 6 deals together
- [Celtic House Venture Partners](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/celtic-house-venture-partners) — VC Fund, 5 deals together
- [Oregon Life Sciences](https://shizune.co/investors/profile/oregon-life-sciences) — VC Fund, 5 deals together

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## FAQ

### What does Ventures West invest in?

Ventures West invests primarily in Software, Biotechnology and Health Care startups, most often at Series B and Series A stage. Most of the 62 investments tracked by Shizune back companies in Canada. The Investment Focus section breaks down every industry, stage and country in the portfolio.

### What is Ventures West's check size?

Ventures West typically joins rounds of $3.5M–$15M at Series A and $7.4M–$26M at Series B. These ranges are 10th–90th percentile round sizes calculated from confirmed public funding rounds, so they are a realistic guide to the rounds Ventures West participates in.

### How do I contact Ventures West?

Public channels for Ventures West include LinkedIn 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 Ventures West?

The team at Ventures West includes David Berkowitz (General Partner), Sam Znaimer (General Partner) and Howard Riback (General Partner and CFO). 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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