Capital Programs

Krista has been the driving force behind the creation of Momentum, a MaRS program helping scaling Canadian companies reach $100 million in revenue by 2024. Krista has been a passionate innovator and builder of technology-based businesses for over 30 years. She has spent her career working in and advising over 200 organizations, including public companies, high-growth firms and startups. Krista is an engineer, entrepreneur, mentor and expert problem solver. She has a unique combination of strategic, technical, operational and marketing expertise. And she is known for her comprehensive knowledge of the existing and emerging enterprise tech stack (architectures, technologies) and commercialization practices. Her greatest joys come from working with and learning from diverse, talented and ambitious people, as well as being a mother to three amazing young adults.

Scale-up experience:

• CEO of TransGaming (now FinDev, TSX-V: FDI), a leading digital media company Previously served as CFO/COO
• Took company public via RTO and raised over $25M
• Through strategic M&A acquired key talent and titles/brands to become first cloud-based games provider in cable TV segment
• CFO of Viron Therapeutics
• Raised US$20M Series B including venture and strategic investors

• Directly involved in over $500M of financing and M&A transactions in the past 10 years
• Past-CEO of Equation Angels, Canada's second largest Angel network, whose model he helped architect in 2017
• Investor and Past-Chair of the Board of Sensory Technologies, a health-tech venture
• Chartered Business Valuator

• Strategic Planning
• Inorganic growth / M&A
• Pitching for capital
• Mentorship

Asvini leads projects focused on the implementation of strategic priorities across the MaRS Venture Services team. Most recently, she’s helped run the Women in Cleantech Challenge, a joint collaboration between MaRS and Natural Resources Canada. The goal of the challenge is to identify and empower top female innovators from across the country who are developing technologies to tackle the world’s most daunting environmental challenges. Prior to joining MaRS, Asvini worked at Oracle Canada where she headed projects that introduced customized software solutions to improve operational efficiency and client management processes. Before that, Asvini worked at a boutique consulting firm where she helped clients develop their learning and development strategy. Asvini has an MBA from the Schulich School of Business, York University, and a B.A. in economics from the University of British Columbia.

Farzin leads MaRS' Intensive Capital Program for Seed and Series A startups improving the odds of success for Canada's highest potential ventures. She works across cleantech, health, digital and emerging technologies, helping ventures navigate their fundraising strategy and investor readiness. Prior to MaRS, Farzin rose up the ranks at RS Energy Group, an energy analytics SaaS scale-up, which was acquired by US-owned Enverus for $1 billion. From roles in investment research to customer success and product management, Farzin married her data-driven nature with delivering customer-centric technology solutions. Before that, she worked at Suncor Energy and Imperial Oil after graduating from the University of Calgary's Mechanical Engineering program.

Scale-up Experience: Head of Drug Development at Allelix Biopharmaceuticals

• Successful product development partnership with multinational Pharma
• Team member raising venture capital financing and eventual IPO
• Early-stage research through to clinical development

• Growth of drug development programs from 10 staff to over 200.
• Successful regulatory approval and marketing authorization

• Founder of Advanced Regenerative Medicine and Tissue Engineering Consortium - industry-academic partnership
• Integrated multi-site contract manufacturing and clinical development facilities

• Biotech strategic partnerships
• Therapeutics product development strategies
• VC interactions and financing
• Product licensing (in-/out)

Rick is a leader in the Canadian cleantech sector, a serial entrepreneur, and angel investor. He serves as a Senior Advisor to the cleantech sector at MaRS Discovery District. Rick is also a Director and CEO of Aclarus Ozone Water Systems, a Director of Sentry Water Monitoring Technologies, a partner with Toronto based private equity investment group 1440 Capital, and past Chair of the Board of WaterTAP Ontario, the province’s water technology accelerator until 2019. Aclarus Ozone engineers and produces globally leading ozone-based water and wastewater treatment technology and solutions for municipal, industrial, and commercial use, now in over 1000 applications in 9 countries. Sentry Water Monitoring Technologies provides advanced biologic monitoring systems. The SENTRY water sensor platform is a disruptive solution for real-time monitoring of microbial activity in smart water and wastewater treatment applications. They are installed in China, Africa, Europe, Latin America, and North America. From 2002 to 2018 he was President and founding CEO of UV Pure Technologies, a Canadian environmental technology company that develops and manufactures advanced UV water disinfection technology. It has an installed base of over 19,000 applications globally. Prior to UV Pure, Rick founded several public and private companies and was a member and Director of the Young Presidents’ Organization, in Toronto. He has a BA in Astro-geophysics from Colgate University, a MEd from St. Lawrence University, and is a graduate of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Business’ Institute of Corporate Directors program.

An entrepreneur angel investor, Jenny brings vast experience to the Enterprise team. Prior to joining MaRS, she was co-founder and CEO of Aida (acquired by Vision Critical) and Metafor Software (acquired by Splunk). Jenny also worked for BDC Capital where she led investments in technology startups, and was a consultant with both the Boston Consulting Group and Bain & Company. Jenny holds a bachelor of applied science in electrical engineering from the University of British Columbia and an MBA from INSEAD.