Extreme Venture Partners

The four founding partners — Ray Sharma, Ken Teslia, Imran Bashir, and Ian Ainsworth — share investment decision-making collaboratively. There is no separate investment committee. The group collectively sources deals, conducts due diligence, and manages portfolio companies, often taking board seats themselves.

EVP sources primarily through the deep Toronto and Bay Street technology networks of its founding partners. Ray Sharma's track record as a serial entrepreneur and top-ranked equity analyst, combined with Ken Teslia's decades of institutional sales relationships at firms like GMP Securities and Credit Suisse, provides a concentrated referral funnel. The firm does not publicly describe a data-driven or outbound sourcing model.

The firm's capital comes from three funds raised from institutional and high-net-worth limited partners. The founding partners also bring personal wealth generated from prior technology exits, most notably Ray Sharma's sale of Xtreme Labs and XMG Studios. Ian Ainsworth's institutional asset-management background at Altamira and Mackenzie Investments adds a public-markets dimension to the partnership's aggregate experience.

EVP's website does not detail its stance on co-investments. Its partnership model, with four senior partners actively operating portfolio companies, suggests a preference for leading or heavily influencing seed rounds rather than participating passively in syndicates. Any co-investment activity would likely flow through the partners' personal Bay Street and venture networks.

EVP is a distinct venture capital management firm. Ray Sharma's other ventures, such as Hackergal and ThinkData Works, are separate entities he co-founded or advises. The firm does not pool assets with these ventures, though personal relationships and Sharma's board seats create informal connectivity.