Upper Canada Ventures

Upper Canada Ventures

Upper Canada Ventures was founded in February 2006 by Graham Matthews, who built the firm to invest in and advise growing technology and service companies. Matthews previously served as General Partner at VenGrowth Private Equity Partners and Vice-President of Investments at Working Ventures, where he co-founded the firm's technology practice and deployed over $190 million across 33 transactions. The firm operates from Toronto and reflects an investing style forged during Canada's early venture-capital expansion. The firm targets early-stage technology and service businesses, executing principal investments while also offering strategic finance consulting, business planning, valuation, and contract CFO services. Confirmed engagements include Matthews serving as contract CFO for Iotum Corp, Peraso Technologies Inc., and evandtec Inc., a clean-tech water firm later acquired by Newterra/Calco Environmental (per firm website, 2006). Investment holdings encompass direct equity stakes and limited partnership interests, though specific current portfolio companies are not publicly listed beyond the CFO assignments. Upper Canada Ventures operates as a lean, principal-led practice — Graham Matthews is the sole named professional. Matthews brings significant governance experience, having served as Chairman of the Board of Q9 Networks Inc., a co-founded data-center company later acquired, and holding board roles across portfolio companies that achieved liquidity through public offerings and M&A. Notable exits include Philsar Semiconductor Inc. (acquired by Conexant Systems), RoweCom Inc. (Nasdaq: ROWE, acquired by Divine Inc.), and VERSUS Technologies Inc. (TSE: V, acquired by E*Trade Group) (per firm website, 2006). No recent operational events from the last 24 months are publicly available. The firm's architecture is an individual investing and advisory practice, not an institutional fund. This structure allows Matthews to commit personal capital alongside a service model that embeds him as a fractional CFO, creating alignment and operational involvement that formal fund vehicles rarely permit. The model leverages a two-decade track record in Canadian private equity but remains opaque in current scale, making it a distinctly personal platform rather than a scalable capital-management business.