Existing anchor investor Portag3 Ventures—the fintech arm of Power Financial—led the investment in Diagram, which uses its money to co-found new businesses with entrepreneurs in financial services, health care and insurance. Angela Strange, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz, and Bruce Heyman, the former U.S. ambassador to Canada and former managing director of Goldman Sachs, were among the high-profile angel investors who also participated in the fund. (Financial Post)

Talking point: Access to Diagram’s portfolio companies could help Power’s core insurance operations understand what new technologies to apply to their businesses. In the past, the firms have also matched up the startups in which they have invested to increase their chances of finding customers. In 2017, one of Diagram’s first investments, Dialogue, integrated its service—which allows customers’ employees to chat with doctors—with benefits platform League, a Power Financial portfolio company. A year later, Power Corp. subsidiary Great-West Life launched Dialogue to employers across Canada. Power and its subsidiaries own robo-adviser Wealthsimple, while Portag3 has invested in digital account service Koho and Borrowell, which provides credit scores and facilitates personal loans. The startups in Diagram’s second fund could benefit from the customer base of those existing scale-ups.