One year after launching Atlantic Canada’s newest venture capital fund, Patrick Hankinson has a portfolio of eight startups and is working toward his goal of having 20 to 30.

Hankinson heads Concrete Ventures, the $18 million early-stage investment fund that kicked off in early 2019 with the backing of the Nova Scotia government and several tech investors. On its first anniversary, Hankinson chatted to Entrevestor about his experiences in building up his portfolio of Atlantic Canadian IT companies.

“The startup scene is alive and well,” said Hankinson on the phone call. “We’ve seen over 250, maybe 300 companies in the last year that we’ve been tracking since we opened. And we’ve made eight investments in companies from most provinces in the region.”

Though barely into his thirties, Hankinson is an old hand at the tech game. He was a co-founder of Tether, a sensation in the Nova Scotia tech community about eight years ago. He then founded Compilr, which he sold to Lynda.com (now part of LinkedIn, which is part of Microsoft) for more than $20 million. He has also made 14 investments as an angel investor, focusing on IT as that’s the sector he knows best.

A few years ago, the Nova Scotia government wanted to establish a privately managed VC fund in Halifax to complement Innovacorp, the Crown corporation that makes VC investments. It selected Hankinson to manage the fund, seeding it with $15 million in capital, and private investors came forward with almost $3 million more.

Concrete began to make investments last April when it led a $325,000 round by Halifax-based SalesRight, which helps business-to-business Software-as-a-Service companies find the right pricing model for their products. Last month, Concrete joined SalesRight’s second round, a $600,000 deal, when the Halifax company became the first member of the Concrete portfolio to book a follow-on funding round.

Hankinson has announced investments in six other companies: Motryx, Proof, Talkatoo, and Squiggle Park, all of which are based in the Halifax area; Securicy of Sydney; and Rally, which is based in St. John’s. Concrete has invested in an eighth company, but the announcement hasn’t been made yet.

The portfolio of young companies has raised more than $6 million in total, said Hankinson, about one-third of which came from outside Atlantic Canada. At the end of 2019, the companies employed a total of 64 people. Hankinson said the CEOs are being cautious in the face of the pandemic and are largely optimistic with some seeing increased demand for their products despite the downturn.

As an investment strategy, Hankinson has always invested in a range of companies. He learned the value of diversification at a young age as most of his initial investments became zombie companies. He has also co-invested with most other VC groups in the region, which he said helps in building up networks not just for himself but also for the portfolio companies.

Concrete itself offers other benefits to its portfolio companies beyond the capital it brings, through mentorship and other resources.

“We’re just trying to add value across the portfolio in some ways,” said Hankinson. “We try to produce a talent data bank and we have partnerships that bring in about $250,000 in products and in-kind services for our founders. . . . I’m also starting to see our founders are using each other’s products as well, which is pretty cool.”

Patrick Hankinson collects data on Atlantic Canadian startups, and is asking founders in the region to complete his survey on how they are faring through the pandemic. You can find his survey here.