As the first female founder of a Canadian private equity firm, Lisa Melchior takes her responsibility as a role model seriously – but she had no idea she would hold that esteemed, glass-ceiling-smashing title when she founded Vertu Capital in 2017.
“It was a little bit of a shocking realization,” Melchior recalled in an interview with BNNBloomberg.ca. She had to check with her industry association after wracking her brain for a female peer in the Canadian venture space, and confirmed she was the first.
“In this day and age it was surprising, but then maybe I shouldn't be surprised, given I've been operating in this market for so long.”
Since then, Melchior said she’s made efforts to be visible and show other women in the business that leadership is an option.
“It’s a fantastic career and we need more women in leadership positions in this industry,” she said.
ADDRESSING PRIVATE EQUITY’S DIVERSITY GAP
Starting her own company wasn’t always a career goal for Melchior, but it was something she felt driven to do decades into her working life. She wanted to “take full control of the next chapter of my career,” Melchior said, as well as fill a financing gap she noticed in Canada for technology companies that had outgrown start-up stage.
It was also an opportunity to build the kind of diverse work environment she wanted to be in after spending 20 years in the largely white and male-dominated private equity industry.
“I got to the point where I said, ‘I feel a little bit lonely … and I want to be part of a team and in an environment that reflects more of who I am,’” she said. “The reality is there aren't very many like that around, especially in Canada.”
Melchior takes pride in Vertu’s employee diversity and the company’s unique approach to business, which she describes as “a very special combination of IQ and EQ” – or emotional intelligence.
“We listen very carefully, we share, we collaborate, we trust,” she said. “That combined with a diverse team … it's a combination that allows for better decision making and ultimately better outcomes.”
That collaborative and diverse culture has served to attract partnerships with businesses that hold similar values, Melchior said, and it means Vertu has easily struck deals with companies that also have diverse management teams.
CAREER PATH AND VERTU’S FOCUS
Melchior’s career in finance began at CIBC Capital Partners and included 17 years at the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System (OMERS) pension fund, where she led the North American technology private equity group before departing to launch Vertu.
She learned a lot at the “excellent organizations” she worked for, but found her interactions with founders and leaders at the companies she invested in even more impactful, taking away key lessons in business leadership.
With Vertu, Melchior moved to seize on what she saw as a “crystal clear opportunity” in the Canadian market that she observed in the early 2000s and 2010s during her time at OMERS, providing funding for established, profitable companies about a decade into their growth that were looking for smaller cheques than those going out to new start-ups.
She noticed that companies at that growth stage didn’t have options in Canada and were only able to make deals in the U.S., and she decided to fill that gap.
Vertu closed its first funding round in March, and the company is now focused on investing the $300 million it raised.
Melchior has her sights set on “rounds two, three and beyond,” increasing brand awareness for the company and finding strong Canadian tech companies who are looking for financing.
CANADA’S TECH FUTURE
Melchior sees a need to “build muscle” behind scaling opportunities for Canadian technology businesses, but she’s motivated by her work and optimistic about the future of the domestic industry, given the talent and skill that exists in the country’s workforce.
In Melchior’s view, Canada is positioned to be a leader in subsections of the tech industry, including artificial intelligence, communications, fintech and carbon capture, among others.
Working with tech innovators from coast to coast, Melchior sees the industry’s strength firsthand, and she has faith in her vision to see global tech companies headquartered in Canada – “a few Shopifys” or even dozens of companies half their size.
“That would be excellent for our country,” she said. “There's absolutely no reason why that can't happen.”