Information Venture Partners Appoints Jane Podbelskaya as Principal

Venture capital firm strengthens investment team with the addition of 20-year industry veteran

TORONTO, ON / ACCESSWIRE / February 3, 2021 / Information Venture Partners, a Toronto-based venture capital firm that primarily invests in early-stage North American B2B financial technology and enterprise software companies, today announced the appointment of Jane Podbelskaya as Principal. Podbelskaya will be responsible for sourcing and executing new investments and providing operational support to Information Venture Partners’ existing portfolio companies.

Podbelskaya brings 20 years of experience in software, operations, investment and management consulting. Prior to joining Information Venture Partners, she most recently worked at Georgian Partners, a North American fund investing in growth-stage SaaS companies, where she held a number of roles over her six year tenure. Focusing both on new investments and portfolio support, Podbelskaya was instrumental in designing the fund’s portfolio acceleration program; she optimized investment and due diligence processes, successfully closed numerous investments and led many post-investment value-add projects within the portfolio.

“I am very excited to join Information Venture Partners – one of the top funds in Canada with an impressive portfolio and a great team with a strong reputation in the venture ecosystem,” said Podbelskaya. “Having partnered with world-class entrepreneurs as a growth equity investor, I am keen to bring my perspective to early-stage investing and support founders in their journey growing successful businesses.”

Prior to Georgian Partners, Podbelskaya was a Consultant for Bain & Company where she played a key role in developing strategy for a European division of an international life insurance and wealth management company as part of its global portfolio strategy design, and advising on customer loyalty strategies in retail banking and the insurance sectors around the world. Earlier in her career, Podbelskaya was a Consultant and Solutions Architect for Xerox in both Toronto and Moscow. Among her notable achievements was her role as a chief architect for a major business process outsourcing engagement for a large Canadian bank, where she implemented a document imaging and records management solution streamlining the bank’s lending processes.

“Jane brings a wealth of experience and deep roots within the industry to Information Venture Partners. She will be an incredibly valuable asset to our team, and we are delighted to welcome her onboard,” said Dave Unsworth, Co-Founder and General Partner at Information Venture Partners. “We are committed to investing in the next generation of B2B fintech leaders and Jane will be a major part of our growth and the development of our portfolio companies.”

As fintech funding has experienced a strong uptick in demand over the last year, Information Venture Partners has prioritized investing in and expanding their team. This announcement follows the addition of three strategic hires: Hasan Basrai as Associate, Sara Defina as Director of Finance, Peter Carrescia as Venture Partner, as well as the promotion of Alex Tong from Associate to Principal.

“As we continue to build our industry-leading venture capital franchise, we’re thrilled to have Jane join our team” added Rob Antoniades, Co-Founder and General Partner at Information Venture Partners. “We’re confident that she will be a tremendous resource to entrepreneurs, startups and our portfolio companies as we continue to build our industry-leading venture capital franchise.”

Podbelskaya has an MBA from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto as well as an MSc in Applied Mathematics and Computer Science from Lomonosov Moscow State University.

About Information Venture Partners

Information Venture Partners is a Toronto based venture capital firm that invests in start-ups run by committed founders tackling big issues. Our team of experienced venture capital investors is intimately acquainted and primarily focused on investing in B2B FinTech and Enterprise SaaS companies selling to financial services. Our founding team invested together while at RBC Venture Partners for over a decade. In 2014, they purchased the remaining companies in that portfolio, with the support of leading institutional investors to create our first independent fund. Information Venture Partners has a strong investment bias towards entrepreneurs pushing the boundaries on developing solutions based on new and innovative technologies and harnessing data to generate better information at scale.

Contact Information:
Laura Grace Pustmueller
Caliber Corporate Advisers
lauragrace@calibercorporate.com
888.550.6385 ext.12