Dennis Bennie

Dennis Bennie is an entrepreneur and early-stage investor based in Toronto, Canada. He co-founded Mission Electronics in 1979; co-founded Aviva Software in 1982; co-founded Delrina in 1988; raised two venture funds under XDL Group and is currently a mentor, advisor and angel investor to early-stage technology companies.[1]

Dennis Bennie
Born
Dennis Bennie
Alma materUniversity of the Witwatersrand

Career

Bennie qualified as a chartered accountant in 1975. He entered the world of technology in 1979, when he co-founded Mission Electronics, a high-end home entertainment equipment producer. In 1982, he sold his interest in Mission and co-founded Aviva Software, a PC software developer. The company expanded to include software distribution and in 1986 merged with Ingram Micro to become Canada’s largest software distributor.[2]

From 1988 to 1996, Bennie was co-founder, Chairman and CEO of Delrina Corporation, which forged new software strategies and was best known for producing WinFax. Listed on both the Toronto Stock Exchange and NASDAQ, Delrina was sold to Symantec in 1995 for share consideration valued at $760 million.[3]

In 1996, he founded the first XDL Venture Fund, focusing on early-stage technology opportunities. The XDL funds raised a total of $185 million venture capital and are fully invested. Bennie currently manages the XDL Capital Group, investing at the venture and angel levels.

Venture Investments

Current active venture investments include ScribbleLive, Sensibill, Q4 Inc., and Akumin.[4]

Angel Investments

Current active angel investments include Quandl, Thalmic Labs Inc., Nuco, Platterz, Vouchr, Newtopia Inc., Tulip Retail, Nymi Inc., Linkett, Validere Technologies, Interaptix Inc, Edsby, Mimosa Diagnostics Inc., Luminari, and Xanadu.[4][5][6][7]

Creative Destruction Lab

Bennie is one of the co-founders of the Creative Destruction Lab[8] at the Rotman School of Management.[9] The Creative Destruction Lab is a seed-stage program focusing on the transition stage from pre-seed to seed-stage funding.[8]

Investment Exits
  • Appinions Inc., acquired
  • Backweb Technologies Inc., IPO
  • Commtouch (now Cyren), IPO
  • Delano Technology Corp., IPO
  • Entercept Security Technologies, acquired
  • Firmex, acquired
  • Lanacom Inc., acquired
  • Lorex Technology (now Lorex by FLIR), acquired
  • MGI Software, acquired
  • Mill Street Brewery, acquired
  • Netect, Ltd., acquired
  • Reimage Inc., acquired
  • Semagix, Inc., acquired
  • Tucows, IPO

References
  1. "Dennis Capital Bennie: Executive Profile & Biography - Bloomberg". www.bloomberg.com.
  2. "Ingram Micro History" (PDF). Corporate History. Ingram Micro. Retrieved 31 May 2017.
  3. "Symantec, Delrina to merge". Software Magazine. September 1, 1995. Archived from the original on February 13, 2016. Retrieved August 25, 2009.
  4. "Portfolio".
  5. http://www.marketwired.com/press-release/platterz-raises-67m-seed-round-to-reinvent-corporate-catering-2207552.htm
  6. "Your heartbeat is your password" – via The Globe and Mail.
  7. "2014 Report on Angel Investing Activity in Canada" (PDF). National Angel Capital Organization. NACO Canada. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-08-15. Retrieved 2017-05-31.
  8. "Scale your tech startup - Creative Destruction Lab". Creative Destruction Lab.
  9. "Dennis Bennie - Creative Destruction Lab".


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