Calgary tech startup closes $42 Million CAD Series B funding round Strategic Group an early investor in Athennian
Calgary-based technology start-up Athennian has officially closed its $42 Million CAD Series B funding round. The fast-growing company received early investment from Strategic Group’s private equity team which invested in both the Seed round in 2019 and the Series A round in 2020.
“Strategic Group is among a group of early-stage technology investors that are helping to diversify Calgary’s economy,” said Adrian Camara, CEO of Athennian. “We have been very fortunate to partner with the Strategic Group team as we build a world class company.”
While Strategic Group is known for owning and developing office, retail, and apartment properties across Canada, its private equity team invests in a wide variety of opportunities across industries and asset classes. Athennian’s innovative software powers legal, tax and finance teams to seamlessly digitize, streamline and manage business entities and company structures. Since real estate firms often operate large collections of legal entities, Athennian’s value proposition was immediately clear to Travis Callaway, Managing Director of Private Equity at Strategic Group.
“We’ve done very well on this investment; our return has been terrific,” said Mr. Callaway. “As an investment team, we’re here to find opportunities exactly like this.”
The relationship between Strategic Group and Athennian began nearly five years ago with conversations between Mr. Callaway and co-founders Adrian Camara and Josh Malate.
“Adrian, Josh, and their entire team have achieved something incredibly special right here in Calgary,” said Mr. Callaway. “They are true champions for Calgary’s technology ecosystem, and they are building a world-leading tech company right here in Alberta.”
Over the course of the past decade, Strategic Group has pivoted from commercial real estate to multi-family residential real estate. At the same time, the organization’s private equity investment team started to become more active. Over the past seven years Strategic Group has built a portfolio which includes dozens of start-up ventures in addition to investments across a variety of other asset classes.
“We’re industry agnostic and asset class agnostic investors,” said Mr. Callaway. “We have the flexibility to look at anything.
“Finding the Athennians of the world is the absolute best part of this job. Working with entrepreneurs who are committed to changing the world—doing something that has never been done before—it doesn’t get any better than that.”