Colin Deacon, the Halifax startup founder turned senator, says Nova Scotia should privatize its venture capital Crown corporation Innovacorp and instead become a limited partner in a basket of private-sector VC funds.

Deacon co-founded BlueLight Analytics in 2009 and was appointed to the senate in June, 2018, where he now serves on the standing committee for banking, trade and commerce.

Deacon’s privatization comments came in response to reporting by Entrevestor that Innovacorp's investments are performing so well it hopes to self-finance its operations going forward. He posted on Twitter that now “would be a great time to privatize it” and later detailed his proposal in an interview.

“I have a very strong view that the role of government is to catalyze the private sector, not compete with the private sector,” he said. “And so, where there is already an industry in place that can deliver that service, [government should] add to it as an investor. I strongly believe government has a role as a limited partner, but not as a general partner.”

Deacon spent nearly a decade running BlueLight, which sold equipment for testing the strength of the specialized lights dentists use to cure resin fillings. 

Under his leadership, the company inked sales and distribution deals with several large medtech companies and continues to sell its checkMARC technology under a partnership with materials giant 3M that was finalized shortly after Deacon left the business.

Innovacorp has historically received funding from the Nova Scotia government about every five years, but last week, Vice President of Investment Andrew Ray said the fund’s portfolio has performed so well that no more government backing is likely to be necessary. Innovacorp runs an “evergeen” fund, meaning it reinvests its profits, rather than returning them to shareholders.

Deacon said he believes the concept of Innovacorp is fundamentally flawed because Crown corporations are not necessarily subject to market forces in the same way that private companies are, meaning capital might be allocated less efficiently than it would be at a private fund.

He also sees a mismatch between the experiences of Innovacorp execs and the founders they back.

“In a startup company, you’re putting everything on the line,” he said. “You don’t have a pension, you don’t have a secure employer, you don’t have a secure job, you don’t have benefits. You’ve got everything on the line.

“And the person judging your investment doesn’t. They’ve got a secure government job. They’re well paid, they’re reliably paid, they’ve got benefits and a pension. It’s very different than knocking on the door of a venture capitalist who’s got everything on the line and their own money in the fund.”

From an economic perspective, Deacon considers Innovacorp’s dominance in the province’s venture capital landscape to be problematic because it reduces founders’ options for seeking funding.

“A smaller market is not helping,” he said. “It's not optimal for startups. Companies... if they've only got one door to walk to and knock on, it’s game over if they’re not successful.

“But if they’ve got four or five competitors who are all looking at the same sorts of investments, you can screw up on one and you’ve still got another door or two to knock on.”

In lieu of a Crown business like Innovacorp, Deacon suggested that the government invest, for example, $20 million every five years in private sector VC funds with the stipulation that the money be spent exclusively in Nova Scotia. That pace of investment roughly mirrors the rate at which Innovacorp has historically received government funding.

“I think the provincial government should invest annually an amount of money to focus on places in the funding spectrum where they need to catalyze more availability of capital -- be it in a certain sector... or they make an investment in a certain fund that’s going to focus on a stage, as they did with helping be the backbone of [early-stage VC firm] Concrete Ventures,” said Deacon.

Deacon was referring to the fact that the Nova Scotia government already acts as a limited partner in Concrete Ventures, as well as Build Ventures and the female-focused Sandpiper Ventures.

“Keep going!” he said in a direct message on Twitter. “Stop being a GP [general partner] and keep encouraging the development of existing or growth of new funds by being an active LP [limited partner].”

Disclosure: Innovacorp is a client of Entrevestor.