Justin LaFayette

MANAGING PARTNER, GEORGIAN PARTNERS

lafayette’s firm had made big-time investments in success stories like the takeout app Ritual, accounting software FreshBooks, education platform Top Hat and retail behemoth Shopify. This past August, Georgian raised $714 million, the largest independent VC round in Canadian history—cash that banks and other investors have entrusted to Georgian to pour into auspicious start-ups and, in turn, further propel Toronto into tech superstardom. International VCs venerate Georgian’s approach to AI and data, which is good news for the city: they’ll take LaFayette’s word on which companies are worth investing in, driving more dollars into the country. side gigs: He sits on the board of Canada Learning Code, an educational organization that recently received $8 million as part of the federal government’s CanCode initiative.