The Newfoundland and Labrador government will kick in $10 million to the first close of the Venture Newfoundland and Labrador II fund, adding on to a $6.3 million private sector funding raise.

Like the first Venture NL fund, Fund II will be managed by Pelorus Venture Capital and the partners say the fund will have enough capital to back pre-revenue companies in the province for a decade.

The original Venture NL fund has spent $9.7 million to invest in 10 startups since its founding in 2015. A press release from the fund said its portfolio companies have leveraged that for another $36 million of private sector backing.

Venture NL II will invest exclusively in Newfoundland and Labrador companies. Several of the startups backed by the first fund have made waves in the Atlantic Canadian startup community, including smart thermostat maker Mysa, which raised raised $8 million in November, 2020, and smart asthma inhaler BreatheSuite, which received U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval for its product last week.

Pelorus has also made a handful of new hires: Sarah Murphy as a partner, Ed Clarke as a venture partner based in St. John’s, and Greg Smyth, also as a venture partner but based in San Francisco. According to Business Insider, a venture partner is a VC investment manager who is not a full partner. They are often tasked with finding new investments for funds.

“Both Ed and Sarah are entrepreneurs I have invested in before, and their experience aligns with our strategy to be an active resource for early-stage founders,” said President Chris Moyer in a press release. “And having Greg in California offers the entrepreneurs a strategic connection to a much bigger market and to US investors.”

Murphy ran workplace safety startup Sentinel Alert until it ceased operating in 2017 and went on to become Vice President of Growth at construction fintech specialist Harbr. Clarke was the Founder and CEO of Global Ad Source, which exited to a British buyer in 2018. Smyth has worked as a supervisor at ExxonMobile and overseen about $1 billion worth of annual spending at Tesla, and now serves on the advisory board of St. John ‘s-based CoLab Software.

“So far, we have strong commitments from the VNL I investors and we have already commitments from new private investors that have taken an interest in Newfoundland and Labrador’s growing innovation sector,” said Moyer. “We will double the size of VNL II which will allow Pelorus to support companies longer, through future investment rounds.”