Patrice’s practice is focused on the technology industry, whether it is on M&A deals, venture capital and private equity transactions, strategic alliances or complex commercial agreements. He has led transactions in various fields such as artificial intelligence, autonomous vehicles, Ad-Tech and advertising, Formula 1, video games, spas and wellness, Ag-Tech, payment solutions, e-commerce, Internet of things (IoT), industrial production, smart cities, media, telecom & networks, aerospace & defense, photonic, nanocellulose, consulting and IT generally.
He acted on the “2017 Private Equity Deal of the Year” as selected by the Canadian Venture Capital Association (CVCA). He was also recognized as "Information Technology Lawyer of the Year – Montréal" in the 2017 edition of The Best Lawyers in Canada®.
Patrice was the Montréal Regional Manager for BLG’s Corporate and Capital Markets Group from 2007 to 2010 and then again from 2017 to 2019. He was elected to the BLG’s National Partnership Board in 2019.
Experience
- Counsel to Guardian Capital Group Limited in its $1.67 billion go-private transaction with Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc.
- iNovia Capital in Novisto's capital raise of US$27 million in Series C funding led by Inovia Capital with participation from all previous investors including White Star Capital, SCOR Ventures, and Sagard (Diagram Ventures, Portage).
- An investor consortium formed of BDC Capital, Export Development Canada, H&M Group and Investissement Québec as the lead investors in SRTX's US$40 million fundraising round. SRTX is the holding company of Sheertex Inc., the manufacturer and leading brand of rip-resist tights.
- The investor consortium consisting of Investissement Québec (IQ), Fonds de solidarité FTQ, BDC Capital, Groupe W, and Export Development Canada (EDC), in their investment, along with members of its senior management team of Ludia, to acquire Ludia Games from Jam City, Inc. Ludia is the largest independent mobile game studio in Canada and a key player in the industry having developed over 50 games based on popular franchises and original licenses, including Jurassic World Alive, Jurassic World: The Game, Dragons: Rise of Berk, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Legends, Family Feud.
- Optable Technologies, an identity management and collaboration platform designed for the advertising ecosystem in the age of privacy, on the successful close of its US$20M Series A Acceleration Round. The financing was led by TELUS Global Ventures with significant reinvestment from previous investors, including Hearst Ventures, Brightspark Ventures, Desjardins Capital, Deloitte Ventures, AsterX, and others.
- Bell Canada in its acquisition of Stratejm, a cybersecurity service company
- Investissement Quebec and Fonds de Solidarite FTQ in their substantial equity and debt investment in a new business entity formed by a leading Quebec entrepreneur family to acquire Novatech
- Bell Canada in its acquisition of CloudKettle, a provider of tech services and Salesforces capabilities for enterprises
- Groupe Familles d'Affaires Invest L.P., a group of business-owning families based in Montreal, as lead investor in a $300M Canadian private equity fund, Capital Norea II, L.P, focused on mid-sized private companies
- Bell Canada in the negotiation of agreements for the sale of 45 radio stations across Canada to seven distinct buyers: Vista Radio, Whiteoaks, Durham Radio, My Broadcasting Corp., ZoomerMedia, Arsenal Media and Maritime Broadcasting, subject to CRTC approval.
- The environmental and biodiversity consulting firm Habitat in its equity financing round with Fonds de Solidarité FTQ
- Medicus Group and key shareholders in the sale of Medicus to Mable Health Inc. (a fund backed by Seafort private equity)
- Investissement Quebec in its equity investment in Machitech
- Bell Canada in its acquisition of cloud managed and professional service provider FXInnovation.
- Desjardins Capital and BDC Capital in their investment in Leddartech (auto sensor software maker) in connection with its contemplated business combination with Nasdaq-listed Prospector Capital (SPAC).
- iNovia Capital as lead investor in a US$20M Series B round in ESG software reporting company Novisto Inc.
- BDC Capital-Deep Tech Venture Fund and Celesta Capital (Silicon Valley), as co-lead investors, in semi conductor timing tech Stathera's US$15million Series A funding round.
- Optable Technologies, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) data collaboration platform and clean room solution designed for the advertising ecosystem, in its $20M USD Series A financing from a syndicate of investors which included Hearst Ventures, Brightspark Ventures, Desjardins Capital, Deloitte Ventures, asterX, and others.
- Bell Media in its acquisition of a minority stake in TV, film and animation indie production company Sphere Media.
- Cycle Capital, Desjardins-Innovatech, Fonds de solidarité FTQ and Investissement Québec in a $38-million funding round in Airex Energy to accelerate the company's plans to expand its production of low-carbon industrial and agricultural products made from biomass.
- Cycle Capital, Desjardins Capital and Brightspark Ventures in a US$10M Series A financing round in Prevu3D (3D digital twin technology).
- iNovia Capital and Fonds de solidarité FTQ as co-leads in a US$50 million Series D funding round in Workjam (online workforce management). Blumberg Capital and Demopolis Equity Partners also participated in the round.
- Two high profile Canadian family offices in their investment in Inlandsis II Fund (carbon emission reduction projects in government regulated carbon markets in North America).
- CDPQ in a private equity financing round of US $325M in global cybersecurity leader eSentire. This round led by CDPQ and Georgian Partners allowed eSentire to achieve the unicorn status, with a valuation above US$1B
- BDC Capital in the sale of Budge Studios, one of the world’s biggest mobile developers within the children’s entertainment and education category, to Tilting Point, a leading free-to-play games publisher.
- BDC Capital, Fonds de Solidarité FTQ, Desjardins Capital and UI Investissement on their equity investment in a US$140 million financing in LeddarTech, a Canadian ADAS and AD sensing technology group ($116 million in Series D funding plus debt facility of $24 million).
- InvestX Capital, a leading private market secondaries platform and financial technology company based in Vancouver and New York, in its equity raise from strategic investors Jefferies Financial, Virtu Capital and Canaccord Genuity.
- Investissement Québec in the going-private transaction of EXFO Inc., a provider of testing, monitoring and analytics solutions for fixed and mobile network operators.
- Optable Technologies Inc., a SaaS data connectivity platform designed for the on-line advertising ecosystem, in its Seed round financing.
- Bell Media in its acquisition of Octane Racing Group , the exclusive promoter of the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix, the largest annual sports and tourism event in Canada.
- Sports IQ Analytics Inc., the sports betting technology supplier and odds provider, in its US$7 million series seed funding round.
- iNovia Capital (as lead investor) and Fonds de solidarité (F.T.Q.) in a $70M venture capital round in WorkJam Inc.
- Fonds de Solidarité (F.T.Q.), BDC Capital and all other shareholders in the sale of Reflex Photonics Inc. to Smiths Interconnect (U.K.)
- McKinsey Consulting in its capital investment and strategic agreement with Element AI (AI)
- Lightspeed POS in its acquisition of iKentoo (POS solutions) in Switzerland
- Fonds de Solidarité (F.T.Q), Gestion Allard Dubé and other shareholders in the sale of Embrionix Design (IP video processing) to Riedel Communications (Germany)
- iNovia Capital and other investors in a VC round in Planned Enterprises
- Lightspeed POS in its acquisition of Chronogolf Inc. (POS solutions)
- Astral Media in its acquisition of Newad Media
- Factora Solutions and its shareholders in the sale to PTC (IoT)
- Enertech, Cycle Capital, Fonds de Solidarité FTQ, BDC Capital and Investissement Quebec in various VC financing rounds of Power Survey
- BDC Capital, i-Source, Go Capital, Fonds de Solidarité FTQ and Desjardins-Innovatech in a US$23 million financing of Leddartech (LiDAR tech)
- Cycle Capital, BDC Capital, Desjardins Capital and Lune Rouge on several VC investments in Agrisoma Bioscience Inc
- BDC Capital, i-Source, Go Capital, Fonds de Solidarité FTQ, Desjardins-Innovatech and Acces Capital in a $130 million financing transaction of Leddartech (LiDAR tech)
- Cycle Capital and Desjardins-Innovatech in an aggregate $68 million series B financing round in Inocucor Corporation with TPG Art and Pontifax AgTech
- BDC Capital in its investment in Altitude Sports/Plein Air
- Bell Media in the acquisition of Cieslok Media Ltd. from Clairvest Fund
- Christie-Innomed on several acquisitions in the medical equipment industry
- BDC Capital, EDC, Blackberry Fund and other investors in the sale of Guavus Inc. to Thales Inc. for US $215 million
- Bell Canada on several outsourcing agreements with different Canadian financial institutions
- Fonds de Solidarité FTQ in respect of a VC investment in Kaloom Inc
- Cycle Capital and Desjardins-Innovatech for VC investment rounds in Airex Energy
- CelluForce Inc. in various financing and strategic alliance agreements, including with Fibria Cellulose S.A. (Brazil)
- AdGear Technologies and its shareholders in the sale to Samsung Electronics
- Bell Media in the acquisition of Metromedia from Cogeco
- BDC Capital on investments in Budge Studios
- Cobalt Intelligence, Siama Systems, Panache Digital Games and others on early financing rounds
- FPInnovations on several strategic alliances on innovative wood-fibre based biomaterials (cellulose filaments) and demonstration plants
- Several major Canadian telecommunications providers in complex infrastructure co-ownership and management arrangements
- Counsel to Guardian Capital Group Limited in its $1.67 billion go-private transaction with Desjardins Global Asset Management Inc.
- iNovia Capital in Novisto's capital raise of US$27 million in Series C funding led by Inovia Capital with participation from all previous investors including White Star Capital, SCOR Ventures, and Sagard (Diagram Ventures, Portage).
- An investor consortium formed of BDC Capital, Export Development Canada, H&M Group and Investissement Québec as the lead investors in SRTX's US$40 million fundraising round. SRTX is the holding company of Sheertex Inc., the manufacturer and leading brand of rip-resist tights.
- The investor consortium consisting of Investissement Québec (IQ), Fonds de solidarité FTQ, BDC Capital, Groupe W, and Export Development Canada (EDC), in their investment, along with members of its senior management team of Ludia, to acquire Ludia Games from Jam City, Inc. Ludia is the largest independent mobile game studio in Canada and a key player in the industry having developed over 50 games based on popular franchises and original licenses, including Jurassic World Alive, Jurassic World: The Game, Dragons: Rise of Berk, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Legends, Family Feud.
- Optable Technologies, an identity management and collaboration platform designed for the advertising ecosystem in the age of privacy, on the successful close of its US$20M Series A Acceleration Round. The financing was led by TELUS Global Ventures with significant reinvestment from previous investors, including Hearst Ventures, Brightspark Ventures, Desjardins Capital, Deloitte Ventures, AsterX, and others.
- Bell Canada in its acquisition of Stratejm, a cybersecurity service company
- Investissement Quebec and Fonds de Solidarite FTQ in their substantial equity and debt investment in a new business entity formed by a leading Quebec entrepreneur family to acquire Novatech
- Bell Canada in its acquisition of CloudKettle, a provider of tech services and Salesforces capabilities for enterprises
- Groupe Familles d'Affaires Invest L.P., a group of business-owning families based in Montreal, as lead investor in a $300M Canadian private equity fund, Capital Norea II, L.P, focused on mid-sized private companies
- Bell Canada in the negotiation of agreements for the sale of 45 radio stations across Canada to seven distinct buyers: Vista Radio, Whiteoaks, Durham Radio, My Broadcasting Corp., ZoomerMedia, Arsenal Media and Maritime Broadcasting, subject to CRTC approval.
- The environmental and biodiversity consulting firm Habitat in its equity financing round with Fonds de Solidarité FTQ
- Medicus Group and key shareholders in the sale of Medicus to Mable Health Inc. (a fund backed by Seafort private equity)
- Investissement Quebec in its equity investment in Machitech
- Bell Canada in its acquisition of cloud managed and professional service provider FXInnovation.
- Desjardins Capital and BDC Capital in their investment in Leddartech (auto sensor software maker) in connection with its contemplated business combination with Nasdaq-listed Prospector Capital (SPAC).
- iNovia Capital as lead investor in a US$20M Series B round in ESG software reporting company Novisto Inc.
- BDC Capital-Deep Tech Venture Fund and Celesta Capital (Silicon Valley), as co-lead investors, in semi conductor timing tech Stathera's US$15million Series A funding round.
- Optable Technologies, a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) data collaboration platform and clean room solution designed for the advertising ecosystem, in its $20M USD Series A financing from a syndicate of investors which included Hearst Ventures, Brightspark Ventures, Desjardins Capital, Deloitte Ventures, asterX, and others.
- Bell Media in its acquisition of a minority stake in TV, film and animation indie production company Sphere Media.
- Cycle Capital, Desjardins-Innovatech, Fonds de solidarité FTQ and Investissement Québec in a $38-million funding round in Airex Energy to accelerate the company's plans to expand its production of low-carbon industrial and agricultural products made from biomass.
- Cycle Capital, Desjardins Capital and Brightspark Ventures in a US$10M Series A financing round in Prevu3D (3D digital twin technology).
- iNovia Capital and Fonds de solidarité FTQ as co-leads in a US$50 million Series D funding round in Workjam (online workforce management). Blumberg Capital and Demopolis Equity Partners also participated in the round.
- Two high profile Canadian family offices in their investment in Inlandsis II Fund (carbon emission reduction projects in government regulated carbon markets in North America).
- CDPQ in a private equity financing round of US $325M in global cybersecurity leader eSentire. This round led by CDPQ and Georgian Partners allowed eSentire to achieve the unicorn status, with a valuation above US$1B
- BDC Capital in the sale of Budge Studios, one of the world’s biggest mobile developers within the children’s entertainment and education category, to Tilting Point, a leading free-to-play games publisher.
- BDC Capital, Fonds de Solidarité FTQ, Desjardins Capital and UI Investissement on their equity investment in a US$140 million financing in LeddarTech, a Canadian ADAS and AD sensing technology group ($116 million in Series D funding plus debt facility of $24 million).
- InvestX Capital, a leading private market secondaries platform and financial technology company based in Vancouver and New York, in its equity raise from strategic investors Jefferies Financial, Virtu Capital and Canaccord Genuity.
- Investissement Québec in the going-private transaction of EXFO Inc., a provider of testing, monitoring and analytics solutions for fixed and mobile network operators.
- Optable Technologies Inc., a SaaS data connectivity platform designed for the on-line advertising ecosystem, in its Seed round financing.
- Bell Media in its acquisition of Octane Racing Group , the exclusive promoter of the Formula 1 Canadian Grand Prix, the largest annual sports and tourism event in Canada.
- Sports IQ Analytics Inc., the sports betting technology supplier and odds provider, in its US$7 million series seed funding round.
- iNovia Capital (as lead investor) and Fonds de solidarité (F.T.Q.) in a $70M venture capital round in WorkJam Inc.
- Fonds de Solidarité (F.T.Q.), BDC Capital and all other shareholders in the sale of Reflex Photonics Inc. to Smiths Interconnect (U.K.)
- McKinsey Consulting in its capital investment and strategic agreement with Element AI (AI)
- Lightspeed POS in its acquisition of iKentoo (POS solutions) in Switzerland
- Fonds de Solidarité (F.T.Q), Gestion Allard Dubé and other shareholders in the sale of Embrionix Design (IP video processing) to Riedel Communications (Germany)
- iNovia Capital and other investors in a VC round in Planned Enterprises
- Lightspeed POS in its acquisition of Chronogolf Inc. (POS solutions)
- Astral Media in its acquisition of Newad Media
- Factora Solutions and its shareholders in the sale to PTC (IoT)
- Enertech, Cycle Capital, Fonds de Solidarité FTQ, BDC Capital and Investissement Quebec in various VC financing rounds of Power Survey
- BDC Capital, i-Source, Go Capital, Fonds de Solidarité FTQ and Desjardins-Innovatech in a US$23 million financing of Leddartech (LiDAR tech)
- Cycle Capital, BDC Capital, Desjardins Capital and Lune Rouge on several VC investments in Agrisoma Bioscience Inc
- BDC Capital, i-Source, Go Capital, Fonds de Solidarité FTQ, Desjardins-Innovatech and Acces Capital in a $130 million financing transaction of Leddartech (LiDAR tech)
- Cycle Capital and Desjardins-Innovatech in an aggregate $68 million series B financing round in Inocucor Corporation with TPG Art and Pontifax AgTech
- BDC Capital in its investment in Altitude Sports/Plein Air
- Bell Media in the acquisition of Cieslok Media Ltd. from Clairvest Fund
- Christie-Innomed on several acquisitions in the medical equipment industry
- BDC Capital, EDC, Blackberry Fund and other investors in the sale of Guavus Inc. to Thales Inc. for US $215 million
- Bell Canada on several outsourcing agreements with different Canadian financial institutions
- Fonds de Solidarité FTQ in respect of a VC investment in Kaloom Inc
- Cycle Capital and Desjardins-Innovatech for VC investment rounds in Airex Energy
- CelluForce Inc. in various financing and strategic alliance agreements, including with Fibria Cellulose S.A. (Brazil)
- AdGear Technologies and its shareholders in the sale to Samsung Electronics
- Bell Media in the acquisition of Metromedia from Cogeco
- BDC Capital on investments in Budge Studios
- Cobalt Intelligence, Siama Systems, Panache Digital Games and others on early financing rounds
- FPInnovations on several strategic alliances on innovative wood-fibre based biomaterials (cellulose filaments) and demonstration plants
- Several major Canadian telecommunications providers in complex infrastructure co-ownership and management arrangements
