Canal Partners, a venture capital firm founded in 2008, has added two seasoned investors as partners, expanded its investment thesis to include high-growth, anything-as-a-service (XaaS) and subscription-based, recurring revenue companies to diversify its portfolio, and is actively seeking investments in Arizona and southern California.
The two new partners, Chad Horstman and Perry Jacobson, will help source potential investments, raise capital and serve as board members to portfolio companies. Both bring a wealth of experience and a vast network to Canal Partners. Horstman has a successful track record in entrepreneurship as the founder and former CEO of Yandy, an online retail company that he launched in his garage in 2006, completely bootstrapped and successfully scaled to a $50-million-revenue company before exiting in 2015. Today, he is the majority owner of three new startups.
Jacobson, who comes from the finance world, was a managing partner for the New York-based private equity firm Brookstone Partners for more than 15 years. At Brookstone, he sourced several major deals for the company that resulted in 9x returns on invested capital, actively served on several boards including Anomatic, Dension Pharmaceuticals and Virginia Abrasives, and formed strategic alliances with high-net-worth investors to raise funds for portfolio companies. Prior to Brookstone, Jacobson spent nearly two decades on the NYSE trading floor as a floor governor, specialist and owner.
“Since our inception in 2008, we’ve aimed to form true partnerships with the founders and teams we invest in and provide them the resources they need to succeed,” said Todd Belfer, managing partner at Canal Partners. “The connections, resources, and experience Chad and Perry bring to Canal Partners are invaluable and will prove a tremendous asset to our portfolio companies and investors.”
Horstman and Jacobson will join current partners Belfer and Robert Lunny, who have demonstrated consistent success in helping Software-as-a-Service and B-to-B tech companies scale. Current and past portfolio companies in the technology space –– WebPT, Picmonic, PetDesk, CallRail, Attribytes, and Allbound, to name a few –– have continued to experience year-over-year growth and tremendous gains in market share, and several have realized healthy exits. Now, the Canal Partners team is expanding their experience and expertise to other high-growth, anything-as-a-service (XaaS) and subscription-based, recurring revenue companies.
“With the current skyrocketing valuations in SaaS and B-to-B tech, there are a lot of opportunities to be capital efficient in the consumer market right now,” Belfer said. “We’re already evaluating several promising early stage companies in Phoenix and the surrounding markets.”
Canal Partners is a venture capital firm founded in 2008 in Scottsdale, Ariz. that provides strategic capital to highly scalable, growth-oriented companies with market-proven products and services. With extensive track records in launching and scaling multiple businesses, Canal Partners aims to form true partnerships with each of our portfolio companies, providing not just the capital but the strategic guidance to empower early stage companies to reach the next level of growth.
