Led by A&S alumnus, former Shopify product lead and entrepreneur-turned-investor Fahd Ananta (BSc 2018), Toronto-based Roach Capital has closed about $6.4 million CAD (approximately $5 million USD) to invest in early-stage internet businesses.
After founding and selling his own Canadian tech companies and spending years working as a product lead at major tech firms like Shopify and Snap — the company behind Snapchat — Ananta launched Roach Capital in 2019 as a vehicle to invest his own money.
Following some early success, Ananta has now brought on a diverse group of outside limited partners (LPs) that includes “anchor” Tiger Global partners, hedge fund managers, Shopify leaders, members of Canadian venture capital funds, family offices, and Twitter personalities. Through Roach Capital Fund I, Ananta aims to ramp up his seed-stage investment efforts.
“I [was] in this interesting position, where I’ve been an operator, been a founder, been a [product manager], and I can now sort of redistribute some capital, and that actually helps LPs and companies,” Ananta told BetaKit in an exclusive interview.