The Montreal-based firm is elevating principals Kory Jeffrey and Taha Mubashir to its partnership. Inovia also said it will shortly start raising new editions of both its discovery fund, which backs early-stage venture capital managers, and its core venture fund. (The Logic)

Talking point: Both new partners are part of the firm’s growing push to back firms building AI systems or selling AI-powered software to businesses. Waterloo, Ont.-based Jeffrey wrote Inovia’s thesis for generative AI with CTO Steve Woods, with whom he previously worked at Google. The duo made the internal case for the firm to invest in Cohere, the AI model developer. Inovia’s venture fund led Cohere’s US$270-million Series C in June 2023, and its growth fund has followed, leading its most recent US$600-million round earlier this year. Jeffrey is also Inovia’s point person for portfolio firms Spellbook and Reliant AI. Toronto-based Mubashir, meanwhile, has backed AI startups like Signal 1 and Landbase.