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Frederic Bastien
Tech Investor, Serial Entrepreneur, Board Member, Startup Advisor
Frédéric Bastien is a prominent figure in the Montreal tech ecosystem, known for his extensive experience as a technology investor, serial entrepreneur, and people leader.12 He is currently a Co-Founder & Managing Partner at Amiral Ventures, a scale-up and growth venture capital firm.3
Bastien's career highlights include:
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Co-founding Mnubo, an AI and IoT company, which he led as CEO to a successful acquisition by Aspen Technology for over $100 million.23
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Serving as Chairman of the Board at Anges Québec since September 2023.3
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Acting as a Fellow and mentor at Creative Destruction Lab - Montreal since October 2019.3
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Holding board positions and advisory roles for various companies and organizations, including ENCQOR, Hilo, and White Star Capital.3
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Receiving recognition as Quebec's 2014 EY Emerging Entrepreneur of the Year and the 2014 PWC Vision to Reality award.2
Bastien holds a B.Eng. in Electrical Engineering – Telecommunications from École Polytechnique de Montréal.2 His LinkedIn profile (username: fbastien) showcases his extensive experience in technology investment, entrepreneurship, and board memberships.3
Highlights
July 12th 2019 - already 5 years since Aspen Technology acquired Mnubo!
It's difficult to realize how time flies by so fast. I still feel like our last "mnuday" with the team was last week! When we exited, I remember talking to BetaKit and telling them 2 key things:
- it would have never been possible without the most amazing team in the country - they were the ones constantly delighting customers in 20+ countries AND keeping us on the bleeding edge of AI & IoT technology. and
- that the team would be for sure giving back to the Montreal ecosystem that supported us throughout those 7 years
Well, looking back, I think those statements hold true. I still think we had assembled one of the best team ever. And I'm very proud to see ex-mnubers contributing in so many hot startups and tech flagships here in the province, while many of us now act as mentors, coaches and investors!
And we are just getting started!
Aditya Pendyala Jean-Charles Beaudin Jean Christophe Cimino Robert Boucher, eMBA, Charles Marsh, Evens Bernier, Jean-Francois Martin, Lyne Jacques, Susan Harvey, Sebastien Coutu, David Lemieux, Yaacoub Awad, Diego Antonino, Jennifer Sewell, Nicolas Quinones, Jean Lecavalier, Racha Slaoui, Julien Potvin, Andrew Riachi, Bartek Borowinski, David Francoeur, Nep Vijayaraja, Jules Perrot, Bruno Hivert, Maude Royer, CHRP, David Masse, Mireille Trempe, Jacob Benchetrit, Charles Ashby, Jeremy Attali, Philippe Beauchamp, (suite in first comment)
Jean-Francois Marcoux, Whitney Rockley, Bernard Blouin, Thomas Martinuzzo, Pelra Azondekon, CPA, CA, Matt McElhattan, Jonathan Guido
I have been saying for many years how disappointing is the Canadian Corporate VC contribution to our tech ecosystem. In the USA and Europe, large corporations realize that if they want to strive, they need to embrace innovation, and use CVC positions as a way to stay close to the external innovative players in their domains.
The lack of such strategies in Canada is one (of many) reasons behind our lower productivity.
This excellent report from Deloitte and BDC highlights one key number to picture it: 6% of Canadian corps (with revenues over 1B) have a Corporate VC play, compared to 40% in the US!
I had the chance to recently meet with the CVC leaders at Deloitte (Talia Abramowitz ), Quebecor (Pelra Azondekon at asterX ) and Bell (Dana Abdullah ), and we definitely need more of our large corporates to follow their fantastic lead!
