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Allied Venture Partners
LP Newsletter: 21 January 2026
Matt Wilson
January 21, 2026 • Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes
Hello Partners,
As a current or prospective partner, this newsletter provides exclusive insights into our investment strategy, portfolio companies, and industry trends.
Thank you for your continued trust and support,
Matt Wilson
Founder & Managing Director | Allied Venture Partners
Not an LP? Click here to join the Allied Venture Partners syndicate.
Team Updates
Our core team includes Steve, Melinda, Brendan, and Leia.
The Allied Scout and Advisory programs continue to expand with several new members each week, providing quality, diversified deal flow from across Canada and the United States.
If you know a great startup that we should meet, please introduce us!
New Deals
Thank you to everyone who participated in our two follow-on investments over the holidays. We’re starting the year strong, with more than $300K invested across both deals.
We have two more exciting deals in our pipeline, including another follow-on Series A investment that I look forward to sharing with you in the coming weeks.
LPs can join the Allied syndicate for free and gain access to our dealflow here.
Portfolio News
Fonbnk delivered another record year for both revenue and GMV, growing several hundred percent year-over-year. Congratulations to Chris and the team on building one of Africa’s leading fintech and financial infrastructure platforms, now operating in 20 countries.
Glow (formerly doFlo) reached 3,000 integrations and rolled out a complete UI overhaul, earning the nickname “the Apple of automation” from customers. Congrats to Will and the team. The new UI looks great!
Tiliter unveiled a suite of Vision Agents that enable customers to stream images from existing CCTV or IP cameras directly into the Vision Agent Platform.
Ediphi delivered a record year for both revenue and app users and is now the leading VR hospitality training platform in Asia.
On January 29, I’ve been invited to speak at the Founders Lunch Series on fundraising in 2026, hosted by Innovate Calgary and the University of Calgary. If you’re attending, please come say hello.
Industry Insights
Happy New Year. I hope you had a chance to recharge over the holidays, because 2026 is already keeping us busy.
If last week's deal flow is any indication, I think we've officially hit peak AI euphoria. I reviewed a Series B opportunity for an AI startup raising at a $2 billion valuation with $10 million in revenue. That's genuinely impressive revenue for any startup, but at a 200x multiple, the venture math simply doesn't work—at least not at our stage. The firms writing those checks are playing a completely different game with different fund economics and return profiles. Sometimes the smartest move is recognizing you don't have an edge and staying disciplined.
Meanwhile, a more insidious problem is complicating fundraising for our portfolio companies. As I've been making investor introductions over the past few weeks, I keep encountering what I'm calling zombie funds — 2020-2022 vintage vehicles that are fully deployed but couldn't raise a second fund. They're still taking meetings and consuming founder bandwidth, but they can't actually write checks. It's frustrating for everyone involved. My recommendation to founders: start every conversation by asking when the fund made its last investment. That simple question can save weeks of wasted time.
These dynamics—inflated valuations at the top and constrained capital in the middle—actually sharpen my conviction at Allied. The best investments are obvious only to a small group while appearing unattractive to the consensus. Our five-year track record confirms this pattern—our top-performing companies often struggled to raise capital early on. In frothy markets and uncertain ones alike, contrarian clarity beats crowded enthusiasm. That hasn't changed, and it's exactly where we thrive.
As a reminder, our Core Investment Values since Day 1:
Read our investment thesis one-pager, available here.
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Disclaimer: The information provided herein is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. Individuals should consult their own professional advisors before making any investment decisions. Past performance is not indicative of future results.