The circle of life is playing out in venture capital this week, as the rumour mill has veterans of EdgeStone Capital Partners venture group being reborn as part of Silicon Valley-based fund Bridgescale Partners.
The Canadian Venture Capital Association annual shindig, playing out in Ottawa from Wednesday to Friday, kicked off talk that EdgeStone owner GMP Securities will roll its venture capital team into Bridgescale, currently a $200-million (U.S.) fund fund run by Canadian ex-pat Rob Chaplinsky.
A tip of the hat to Wellington Financial's Mark McQueen for getting the news out first, in a blog from the CVCA. He noted that if the deal is done, "Bridgescale will now be perfectly positioned to inherit EdgeStone's $20-million commitment from the Ontario Venture Capital Fund and drive forward with Bridgescale II."
Bridgescale is based in Menlo Park, California, but has a number of Canadian holdings, and a Toronto office run by tech veteran Howard Gwin.
GMP is expected to gracefully wind down EdgeStone and exit private equity and venture capital: The investment bank took an $80.4-million write down on its EdgeStone stake in last quarter's financial results. The investment bank bought EdgeStone in 2006 for $62-million in cash, and 4.02 million GMP shares, a deal worth $152-million at the time.
There is also speculation that the private equity arm of the Winnipeg-based Richardson family's empire is being quietly wound down, after posting disappointing results. Richardson Capital has seen a number of its professionals depart over the past year.