Van Berkom and Associates

Van Berkom and Associates

Van Berkom and Associates was established in Montreal in 1991 by J. Sebastian van Berkom, who remains President and Chief Investment Officer. The firm emerged as a dedicated small- and mid-cap equity specialist serving Canadian and select international institutional investors, including pension funds, endowments, and foundations. It operates as an independent, employee-owned investment counsel. The firm's strategy concentrates on North American small- and mid-capitalization equities, executed through a fundamental, bottom-up stock selection process. The investment team focuses on companies with sustainable competitive advantages, strong management teams, and attractive growth profiles that the market has overlooked or undervalued. Portfolio construction typically results in 40 to 60 high-conviction holdings. The geographic scope covers both U.S. and Canadian markets. The firm offers its strategy through segregated accounts structured as long-only mandates, with no reported direct co-investment, SPV, or fund-of-funds activities. Van Berkom and Associates is majority owned by its founder and senior investment professionals. The team has maintained a deliberately narrow product focus, avoiding expansion into large-cap, international, or alternative asset classes. The firm's investment committee structure vests final decision-making authority with Sebastian van Berkom, supported by a research team that averages over 15 years of tenure. In September 2023, the firm marked its 32nd year of managing institutional small-cap mandates with no reported changes to its leadership structure. A defining structural feature is the firm's persistence as a single-strategy, founder-led investment boutique. In an industry where scaling AUM often leads to capacity closure or style drift, Van Berkom has managed concentration risk by capping strategy assets to preserve its ability to invest meaningfully in smaller issuers. This discipline has allowed the firm to maintain its investable universe without migrating up the market-cap spectrum, a governance choice that ties the firm's longevity directly to the founder's continued leadership and the deep institutional knowledge embedded in its long-tenured research team.