The Sobey School of Business and the Venture Capital program at Saint Mary’s University have won the New England Venture Capital Investment Competition, marking the latest success for the Halifax university’s young venture capitalists.

VCIC is an international organization that trains student venture capitalists and hosts regional and international competitions.  This time, the undergraduate team of Lydia Ramsey, Matt Chapman, Katie Murray, Brennan Campbell and Vaishali Sandech took the New England Regional first prize. The SMU team beat out five other schools, including the Ivy League school Dartmouth College, which placed second. 

The Canadian version of the contest is run by the Venture Capital program at the Sobey School of Business at SMU.For both founders and young venture capitalists, the contest is a unique and challenging experience, said business professor Ellen Farrell in an earlier interview. 

Saint Mary’s students have had a lot of success in making venture capital investments, exits, and placing in the competition through their experience with their own VC fund, Venture Grade: Student Venture Capital Fund. In 2022 for example, SMU's graduate and undergrad teams won silver medals at the New England competition. 

Founded in 2016, Venture Grade is a VC fund raised and managed by graduate and undergraduate students at the university. The fund is connected to Silicon Valley’s C100 group, Boston’s Canadian Entrepreneurs in New England, and local VC funds like Invest Nova Scotia, Build Ventures, Concrete Ventures, Tidal, NBIF, and Island Capital Partners, Farrell said. 

Among the companies SMU students have invested in are regional ventures such as Aurea’s Shine, Ashored, Bright Breaks, and they have had a 2X exit for a 26 percent return on Trip Ninja.

The global finals of the latest contest will be held in April.