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Celtic House Venture Partners
Celtic House Venture Partners was co-founded in the late 1990s, with Managing Partner Tom Valis joining as a founding partner in 1996.
Celtic House Venture Partners
Celtic House Venture Partners was co-founded in the late 1990s, with Managing Partner Tom Valis joining as a founding partner in 1996. The firm retains deep operational roots in Canada’s technology corridor, with Finance Director Denis Martel’s prior tenure at Sir Terence Matthews’ Wesley Clover Corporation anchoring a history of institutional-grade financial control rarely seen at smaller venture firms. The team has raised over $600 million from institutional, family office, and high-net-worth investors across multiple funds. Celtic House targets early-growth stage companies that have demonstrated product-market fit and embrace a tools-driven approach to applied, cloud-based AI. The portfolio spans enterprise IT operations, last-mile logistics, manufacturing SaaS, consent management, and food tech. Confirmed positions include Auvik, which ranked #11 on Deloitte Canada’s 2025 Technology Fast 50, and Mappedin, a spatial-technology platform backed by a $24.5 million growth round led by Edison Partners in April 2026. The firm’s geographic footprint concentrates on Canadian hubs — Ottawa, Waterloo, and Vancouver — while the Asia Partners arm extends sourcing into cross-border B2B SaaS and industrial deal flow with exposure to China and the broader Asian immigrant-founder network. In 2019, the firm formalized a parallel structure with the launch of Celtic House Asia Partners, led by Larry Liu and Charlie Wang. This vehicle builds on a GCI Capital relationship dating to 2015 and now accounts for 30 portfolio companies. Financing structures include direct equity and special purpose vehicles, with Denis Martel overseeing investor onboarding, quarterly reporting, and the firm’s online investor portal. The largest operational event from the current cycle arrived in May 2026, when portfolio company UniUni announced a definitive purchase agreement to go public via a reverse takeover of MAK Acquisition Corp. Celtic House’s structural distinction lies in its generator model: a veteran Ottawa-based partnership — Valis studied AI under Geoff Hinton at the University of Toronto — paired with an Asia-focused franchise that co-invests and shares the brand but operates its own governance and fundraising. That configuration gives the firm reach into two discrete founder networks without diluting the investment committee’s original mandate, a deliberate architecture for sourcing in markets where cultural proximity is the edge.
General information
Firm type
Venture Capital
Year founded
—
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
North America
Country
Canada
City
Ottawa
Corporate office
Ottawa, ON, Canada
Additional offices
Vancouver, BC · Waterloo, ON
Principals
David Adderley
Managing Partner
Tom Valis
Managing Partner
Denis Martel
Finance Director
Larry Liu
Managing Partner, Celtic House Asia Partners
Charlie Wang
Partner, Celtic House Asia Partners
Sky Yu
Partner, Celtic House Asia Partners
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
Who makes investment decisions at Celtic House?
Day-to-day investment decisions rest with Managing Partners David Adderley and Tom Valis for the core Canadian fund. Larry Liu, as Managing Partner of Celtic House Asia Partners, leads the Asia-focused vehicle alongside Partners Charlie Wang and Sky Yu. The two teams share the Celtic House brand but run independent investment committees and fundraising processes, with cross-referral of deal flow.
How is Celtic House Asia Partners related to the main firm?
Celtic House Asia Partners was launched in 2019 by Larry Liu and Charlie Wang under a brand license and co-investment framework with Celtic House Venture Partners. Liu’s prior firm, GCI Capital, had been co-investing with Celtic House since 2015. Asia Partners maintains its own governance, fundraising, and portfolio of 30+ companies, with offices in Vancouver and reach across the Asian immigrant-founder network in North America and China.
What is Celtic House’s typical check size and investment stage?
The firm targets early-growth equity — companies that have established product-market fit and are ready to scale, rather than pre-revenue seed rounds. Celtic House does not disclose a standard check size, but its total deployment exceeds $650 million over 75 startups, and it structures some exposures through special purpose vehicles managed by its finance team.
What does the portfolio composition look like by sector?
Enterprise SaaS and applied AI dominate, with confirmed board seats at Auvik (cloud-based IT operations), Raven AI (manufacturing SaaS), and Enzuzo (consent management). The portfolio also includes logistics and last-mile delivery through UniUni, food tech via Fantuan and Big Way Hot Pot, and cross-border e-commerce logistics assets. The firm does not concentrate on hardware, deep biotech, or consumer marketplaces.
How does Celtic House source its deals?
The core partnership leans on over two decades of Canadian technology corridor relationships — Ottawa, Waterloo, and Vancouver — combined with a proprietary network of immigrant founders through the Asia Partners franchise. Finance Director Denis Martel’s background at Wesley Clover, Sir Terence Matthews’ holding company, provides an additional channel into operator-led hardware-to-software succession plays.
Are there philanthropic or family-office structures attached to the firm?
No philanthropic or family-office entity is disclosed as directly attached to Celtic House. The firm operates as a venture capital manager for institutional, family office, and high-net-worth limited partners. Finance Director Denis Martel’s prior role at the private holding company of Sir Terence Matthews provides an indirect link to single-family-office financial discipline, but no shared balance sheet exists.
What is Celtic House’s track record on exits?
The firm reports 30 IPOs and M&A transactions over the past 20 years. Named realized exits include CanvasPop (acquired by Circle Graphics), Nuvyyo (acquired by E.W. Scripps), and Coherent Path (acquired by Movable Ink). The most visible pending liquidity event is the May 2026 announcement of UniUni’s reverse takeover of MAK Acquisition Corp., which would take the last-mile delivery platform public on the TSX (per firm website, May 2026).
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