BDC Venture Capital and GrowthWorks are the joint recipients of the 2014 ‘Deal of the Year’ Award for the venture capital category, CVCA Canada’s Venture Capital & Private Equity Association announced earlier this week.
Established in 1998, the purpose of the CVCA’s ‘Deal of the Year’ Award competition is to promote, highlight and celebrate the achievements of CVCA members who have had outstanding investment successes. The selection process focused on CVCA members with the most significant investment return realized primarily during calendar 2013. The CVCA celebrates ‘Deal of the Year’ awards for both venture capital and private equity.
“It is my pleasure to announce that BDC and GrowthWorks have won this year’s venture capital category award for their successful realization of Layer7 Technologies,” said Sandra Bosela, chairwoman of CVCA’s Awards Committee and managing director, OPTrust Private Markets Group.
Layer7 and its investors showed a great deal of patience and although the company was approached by potential buyers several times over the course of its 12 years of existence, it chose not to sell until it had established itself as a market leader and had achieved the value enhancing milestones of sustained profitability and revenue growth.
In 2013, Layer7 was sold to CA Technologies. On their US$17.7 investment, BDC and GrowthWorks realized cash proceeds of US$77.7 million to date, with further proceeds to come out of escrow in November 2014
The honour was accepted by Andrew Lugsdin, Partner of BDC Venture Capital’s IT Fund and Joe Timlin of GrowthWorks at the CVCA’s Annual Conference in Ottawa, Ontario on Wednesday, May 21.
BDC Venture Capital first invested in Layer 7 in 2003. In 2011, Layer 7 was named the 71st fastest-growing private or public technology company in North America on the Deloitte Fast 500 list.