Richard Black

Richard Black is a Toronto-based venture capitalist with more than 30 years of experience investing in private growth companies. He began his institutional investing career in 1991 as Vice-President and Partner at Helix Investments Limited, one of Canada's oldest venture firms, where he remained until the firm wound down. He subsequently ran the Technology Venture Fund at RBC Capital Partners — a $210 million private capital fund investing in technology, advanced manufacturing, and alternative-energy opportunities across North America. In 2004 he founded the Walsingham Fund (Walsingham Growth Partners), the private-company investment vehicle for a Canadian family office.

In 2015, Black co-founded First Ascent Ventures alongside Tony van Marken, and the two serve as the firm's Managing Partners. First Ascent focuses on early- and growth-stage enterprise software companies in the information and communications technology sector. The firm has raised two funds — a $100 million Fund I (fully invested) and a $125 million Fund II (closed August 2021) — and operates out of Toronto with a secondary office at 1 Ferry Building in San Francisco.

Black holds an Honours Business Administration (HBA) degree from the Ivey Business School at Western University, where he graduated on the Dean's List. Over his career he has served on numerous boards; his more recent board roles include Thentia, Darwin CX and Shinydocs (Fund II investments), and he has acted as a board observer for companies including Assent and Sportlogiq.

• Invests in disruptive enterprise/B2B software built on cloud, AI/ML, big data, 5G, mobility, blockchain and IoT, with a strong emphasis on data privacy and security.
• Targets companies at Series A/B and beyond that have "growing monthly recurring revenues with a strong product offering and top tier customer references" — i.e., post-product-market-fit, revenue-generating businesses rather than pre-seed bets.
• Writes meaningful institutional checks (reported ~$5M–$10M initial) with the capacity to follow on from a $125M fund.
• Prioritizes capital-efficient, path-to-profitability enterprise SaaS. Reflecting on the Assent outcome, Black noted the rarity of the profile he seeks: *"There aren't a lot of enterprise software companies…approaching $200 million in ARR and are profitable."*
• Relationship-driven: he has repeatedly backed founders and CEOs he has known for years or decades, valuing management quality and track record.