Portage Ventures CEO Adam Felesky, photographed at Koho Financial's Toronto office in 2020, says many Point72-backed fintechs 'are close to IPO stage or strategic exits.'Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail
Power Corp. of Canada’s POW-T Portage Ventures established a vanguard position in the financial technology sector a decade ago by backing startups that grew into valuable companies, including Wealthsimple Financial Corp.
Now as fellow venture capital firms focus on artificial intelligence and other areas, Portage is not only sticking with fintech but expanding its strategy to buy into more mature companies.
Portage will announce Wednesday it has taken over management of Point72 Ventures’ fintech portfolio. That comprises stakes in 40 private, relatively mature companies that Point72, funded by New York hedge fund billionaire Steve Cohen, has backed. The group includes DriveWealth LLC, which builds online trading platform technology.
The Point72 portfolio has been rolled into a new Portage fund valued at US$280-million. Point72 is keeping a 40-per-cent stake in the vehicle. The balance was financed by Goldman Sachs Asset Management, Portage and an unnamed European family. In addition, the Point72 partner who oversaw the assets, Tripp Shriner, has joined Portage as a general partner.
Power Corp. investment firm Sagard buys European private equity business from Unigestion
The new Portage fund is a continuation vehicle, a term that describes funds that buy “secondary” stakes in established companies typically from other investors and employees. Portage chief executive officer Adam Felesky said many Point72-backed fintechs “are close to IPO stage or strategic exits. It is a great portfolio, that’s why we got super excited about it.”
Secondary deals have become a growing part of the later-stage venture funding market as companies have sought to remain private longer. Secondaries enable equity owners to sell despite lacking access to liquid public markets.
The new fund is a departure for Portage, which hasn’t bought into secondaries nor launched continuation vehicles before. Regular private capital funds typically run 10 to 12 years, with managers earning fees of 2 per cent of assets under management annually plus 20 per cent of investment profits. By contrast, Portage’s continuation fund will run four years, pay less than 1 per cent in annual fees and take 10 per cent to 15 per cent of profits, a more typical structure for that type of fund.
It’s also different from other continuation vehicles: VC firms typically create the structures to buy stakes in winners they have already backed. Portage only owns a stake in one Point72-backed company, Toronto-based Flybits.
Mr. Felesky said expanding into secondary and continuation assets “is something we potentially will pursue this coming year or next depending on individual circumstances. We believe that this is a business for Portage going forward” that will be “active in the secondary market for fintech.”
Portage’s play is part of an effort to expand parent Sagard Holdings, Power Corp.’s alternative asset management arm. Power also controls Great-West Lifeco Inc. and IGM Financial Inc. Sagard manages about US$40-billion in non-public markets assets financed by Power and other investors, up from US$3.6-billion in 2020, and Mr. Felesky expects that to reach US$100-billion in five years.
In addition to VC, Sagard has a booming private markets platform, which pursues investment strategies in private equity, private credit and real estate.
The growth has come primarily from investor demand. For example, Wealthsimple more than tripled assets under management in less than two years to $100-billion as of Sept. 30 and is now valued at $10-billion. (Portage owns 8.7 per cent of Wealthsimple, and Power affiliates own just over half of the company in total.)
Sagard entered into the retail space with the 2024 launch of a private credit fund distributed through Wealthsimple. Mr. Felesky said the goal is for Sagard to generate 10 per cent of assets from retail investors within five years – four times the current rate.
Last year, Sagard positioned itself to grow further into global markets. U.S-based financial services firm Baird & Co. acquired a 5-per-cent interest in the Power unit and said it would distribute Sagard’s products through its U.S. private wealth business. Sagard also in 2025 combined its private equity platform with that of Geneva-based Unigestion, allowing the company to market its products across Europe and Asia.
The fintech sector had a robust 2025. In addition to the growth at Wealthsimple and other Canadian companies, several U.S. fintechs went public, including Wealthfront Corp., Klarna Group PLC, Neptune Insurance Holdings Inc. and Figure Technology Solutions Inc.
Mr. Shriner said Point72, which invests across an array of tech subsectors, has done well in fintech and recouped nearly all of the US$240-million it invested in the area since 2016. But in mid-2024 the hedge fund decided to “strategically rebalance” its VC investment focus and offload its remaining fintech holdings, he said. “As you can imagine, something like AI and defence tech are very attractive sectors. So it was perfectly logical for them to say, ‘Okay, let’s put more emphasis in those different types of areas.’ ”
That was just fine by Portage, which not only remains committed to fintech, but was also hoping to recruit Mr. Shriner before the portfolio went on the market. “We are fintech nerds,” said Mr. Felesky. “We think it’s pretty sexy.”
“It became very quickly apparent that Portage was the right home for the business,” Mr. Shriner said.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Portage Ventures' transaction is with Point72 Asset Management. It is with Point72 Ventures. Point72 Asset Management is a hedge fund led by Steve Cohen that manages money on behalf of multiple investors, while Point72 Ventures is a separate but affiliated entity led by Steve Cohen that invests his own personal money.