Portage Ventures Research
Investment Thesis
Portage is a global fintech and financial services investment platform with $6.4 billion in assets under management (as of March 31, 2026). Founded in 2016 by Adam Felesky and Paul Desmarais III (Chairman & CEO of Sagard), Portage operates as the fintech investment arm of Sagard, a multi-strategy alternative asset manager with over $46 billion in AUM.
Portage's mission is to be the leading fintech investor globally, partnering with the most innovative financial technology companies across all stages. The firm brings together deep fintech expertise, relationships with the global financial services ecosystem, and in-house domain experts and value creation specialists to support portfolio companies in their journey from early-stage through growth.
The firm operates two primary investment strategies:
- Portage Ventures (VC strategy): Seed to Series C investments in fintech globally
- Portage Capital Solutions (PCS): A later-stage capital partner for growth-stage fintech and financial services businesses
Sector Focus
Portage Ventures focuses exclusively on fintech and financial services companies, organized around four key verticals:
Consumer & SMB Finance — Democratizing access to financial products and disrupting existing financial services monopolies. Portfolio includes KOHO, Albert, Borrowell, Kikoff, Fondeadora, Lopay, and Nesto.
Insurance — Full-stack insurtech companies, MGAs, and insurance infrastructure across the value chain globally. Portfolio includes Clark, Hellas Direct, Acheel, Angle Health, Qover, CoverTree, and Socotra.
Wealth & Asset Management — Technology-driven wealth and asset management platforms democratizing investment access. Portfolio includes Wealthsimple, Alpaca, Boosted.ai, Conquest, Getquin, Pearler, and Haruko.
Enablers & Payments — Infrastructure powering embedded finance, payments, and modern financial services rails. Portfolio includes Atomic, Conduit, Formance, Synctera, ThetaRay, Tuum, integrate.ai, LoanStreet, Mooncard, Najar, and ZILO.
Stage Focus
Portage Ventures targets Seed through Series C for the VC strategy. Check sizes range from $2.5 million to $15 million for early-stage investments, with mid to late-stage range of $25–45 million.
Portage Capital Solutions handles growth-stage rounds at Series C and beyond, as evidenced by leading FINN's €140 million Series D in June 2026 to unicorn status.
Check Size
- Early-stage (Portage Ventures): $2.5M–$15M per investment
- Growth-stage (Portage Capital Solutions): $25M–$45M and larger
With 4 active funds and growing AUM, current PV IV checks are likely at or above the upper bound of the historical range.
Lead Tendency
Portage consistently leads rounds. They led FINN's €140M Series D via PCS (June 2026). The firm is described as co-leading or leading many of their early-stage investments. When they back a company they typically take a board seat.
Recent Activity
Portage has been exceptionally active in 2025–2026:
- June 2026: Led FINN's €140M Series D, valuing the German car subscription platform at over €1 billion (unicorn status) via Portage Capital Solutions
- June 2026: Portfolio company KOHO raised $130M CAD at $1.33B valuation (Portage participating as existing investor)
- June 2026: Portfolio company LeapXpert raised $180M
- January 2026: Finalized agreement to manage select assets from Point72 Ventures' fintech portfolio via a $280M continuation vehicle led by Goldman Sachs Alternatives — a landmark transaction that brought Tripp Shriner on as GP
- December 2025: Angle Health raised $134M to scale its AI-native health benefits platform for SMBs
- December 2025: Flex raised $60M Series B for its AI-native private bank for high net worth business owners
Portfolio Highlights
Portage has 130+ portfolio companies across 15+ countries. Notable companies include:
- Wealthsimple (Canada): Canada's leading digital wealth platform with millions of users
- KOHO (Canada): Alternative banking platform pursuing federal bank license; $1.33B CAD valuation
- FINN (Germany): Europe's leading car subscription platform, unicorn ($1B+) as of June 2026
- Marshmallow (UK): Innovative car insurance for immigrants and underserved markets
- Dialogue (Canada): Virtual care and employee wellness platform
- Auxmoney (Germany): Germany's leading digital lending marketplace
- ThetaRay (Israel): AI-powered AML and transaction monitoring for financial institutions
- Socotra (US): Cloud-native insurance policy administration platform
- Synctera (US): Banking-as-a-service infrastructure for fintechs and community banks
- Clark (Germany): Multi-line digital insurance broker across Europe
- LeapXpert (US/Global): AI-powered governed communications platform that raised $180M (2026)
- Hellas Direct (Greece/Cyprus): Digital-first full-stack insurance company
- Boosted.ai (Canada): AI-driven quantitative modeling platform for asset managers
- Alpaca (US): Stock and crypto brokerage infrastructure APIs
- Qover (Belgium): Embedded insurance infrastructure provider
- Formance (France): Open-source ledger and payments infrastructure
Team
- Adam Felesky — Co-Founder & CEO, Portage; previously Founder/CEO of Horizons Exchange Traded Funds, JPMorgan Derivatives, CIBC investment banking
- Paul Desmarais III — Co-Founder; also Chairman & CEO of Sagard ($46B+ AUM multi-strategy platform)
- Stephanie Choo — General Partner and Co-Head, Portage Ventures (NYC); focuses on consumer fintech, embedded infrastructure, payments, and crypto; formerly led digital advice platform serving 2M+ Canadians; prior BCG
- Hélène Falchier — General Partner (Paris); Europe & UK geographic focus, specializes in insurtech, regulated businesses, and financial services infrastructure; formerly Founder/CEO of Open CNP (corporate venture program of CNP Assurances) and Head of PE (€7.5B AUM portfolio)
- Ricky Lai — General Partner (Toronto); North America focus, specializes in SMB finance, CFO tech stack, and regtech; board director for KOHO, Clark, Nesto, TheGuarantors; joined 2017, became GP in 2021
- Tripp Shriner — General Partner (NYC); joined January 2026 from Point72 Ventures where he was a founding employee and Managing Partner leading fintech investing; CFA Charterholder, Princeton AB
- Jake Bodanis — Partner, Portage Ventures
- Gabi Makari — Principal, Portage Ventures
- AJ Okereke — Principal, Portage Ventures
- Victoire de Lavigne — Principal, Portage Ventures
Decision Process
Portage operates as a true partnership with multiple General Partners making investment decisions collaboratively. The team is organized with geographic specializations (North America: Choo and Lai; Europe: Falchier; global/US: Shriner) and sector expertise distributed across the team. The firm is backed by 34+ institutional LPs including financial services corporations (insurers, banks, credit unions) whose commercial partnerships are a key value-add for portfolio companies.
Geographic Focus
Portage has a truly global presence with offices in:
- Montreal, Canada (primary HQ: 1172 Sherbrooke Ouest)
- Toronto, Canada (161 Bay Street, Suite 5000)
- Paris, France (49-51 Avenue George V)
- New York, USA (280 Park Avenue, 29th Floor)
- London, UK (54 Brook's Mews)
Investment portfolio spans US, Canada, Europe (Germany, UK, France, Belgium, Greece, Estonia, Austria), Australia, Latin America (Mexico), and Israel — 15+ countries.
Founder Preferences
Portage backs ambitious fintech entrepreneurs building companies that reshape financial services globally. As former founders and operators, the Portage team takes a hands-on partnership approach. They are drawn to founders who:
- Are building in underserved financial markets with massive TAM
- Have deep domain expertise in their specific financial services vertical
- Are comfortable navigating regulated environments inherent in financial services
- Seek a strategic partner with capital plus access to a strong commercial network of financial institution LPs
- Are building category-defining infrastructure for financial services
The firm's LP base of corporate financial institutions (insurers, banks, credit unions) creates direct commercial partnership opportunities between Portage and its portfolio companies.
Insights & Thought Leadership
Portage produces extensive research and thought leadership including:
- Fintech Outlook 2026 (July 2026): Annual outlook on fintech trends
- AI Disruption in Business Process Outsourcing (March 2026): AI's impact on financial services operations
- The Next Wave of Embedded Finance (July 2025): Thesis on embedded financial services
- Technology Innovation in P&C Claims Management (April 2025): Deep-dive on insurtech
- AI Disruption of the Financial Services Data Industry (February 2026)
These publications reflect Portage's focus on fintech AI disruption, embedded finance, insurtech, and wealth management infrastructure.