Sagard CEO and chairman Paul Desmarais III at the Wealthsimple office in Toronto in 2020. Sagard’s key holdings include stakes in Wealthsimple, Koho and Nesto.Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail
Power Corp. of Canada POW-T and its two main publicly traded subsidiaries announced a combined US$150-million investment Wednesday in a new fund focused on artificial intelligence.
Power, along with Great-West Lifeco Inc. and IGM Financial Inc., provided the funding to establish Sagard AI Fund LP. The fund will back AI companies focused on accelerating use of the technology across financial services and other sectors, Power said in a release.
Evan Kerr has joined Sagard to lead the fund as general partner, after serving as a lead investor with Georgian, the Toronto-based growth capital firm. He follows Parinaz Sobhani, the former head of AI at Georgian, who joined Sagard in a similar role two years ago.
Mr. Kerr said in a LinkedIn post he is “both humbled and excited” to take on the new role, adding that the new fund would invest globally “across the technology stack, remaining stage and sector agnostic, with a focus on helping founders scale by leveraging the network, experience, and global access of Sagard and the Power group of companies.”
Sagard is Power’s alternative asset management arm and has more than US$46-billion in assets under management in venture capital, private equity, private credit and real estate. Power is controlling shareholder of Sagard, and it has added minority investors in recent years that include Bank of Montreal, Robert W. Baird & Co., Groupe Bruxelles Lambert and Abu Dhabi-based investment company ADQ.
The Power-controlled unit is led by Paul Desmarais III, son of the conglomerate’s chairman, Paul Desmarais Jr. On his watch, Sagard’s assets under management have ballooned from US$3.6-billion in 2020. Sagard’s goal is to reach US$100-billion in assets under management by 2029.
Sagard’s key holdings include stakes in Canadian financial technology powerhouses Wealthsimple, Koho and Nesto. Its Denver-based real estate arm and the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec recently teamed up to buy $490-million of industrial outdoor storage properties located near major U.S. ports.
Sagard has been bulking up with acquisitions, buying Swiss boutique asset manager Unigestion’s private-equity business last year. Baird also agreed to distribute Sagard’s products through its U.S. private wealth arm when it bought its 5-per-cent stake in the business last year.
Sagard’s Portage Ventures earlier this year took over management of Point72 Ventures’ fintech portfolio, comprised of stakes in 40 private companies.