AXION FUND

The AXION FUND is a vehicle to assist in two primary areas:

First, its Canadian IP focus is to assist in the commercialization and growth of ideas and research-based companies, generated within universities and other innovation centres across Canada. The funding helps inventors with scalable intellectual property protect their work and navigate through the investment and funding landscape.

Second, its Northern Ontario focus, with a primary directive to attract, mentor, coach, fund and commercialize early-stage start-ups and later scale-ups that have a plan to be partly or entirely settled, or have a desire to locate in some form to Northern Ontario.

Our Mission

To unlock capital and accelerate the transition of Canada into an innovation economy through three strategic focuses:

  1. Make angel investment accessible to investors who otherwise are not able to participate.
  2. Promote the creation and commercialization of intellectual properties and hyper growth outcomes.
  3. Remove barriers for Canadian inventors to connect to smart and value add investors and industry partners.

Axion’s average cheque size varies from $100-300K to provide investors with the diversity of 30-50 deals over 5 years.

Our Focus

Axion focuses on seed-stage start-ups with strong, research and data-driven IP in:

AI/ML
Health Tech
IoT
AI Security
Industry 4.0
Clean Tech
Home Automation

Our 2025 Trends in an AI-first World, the new workload recognizes this moment as the next AI arms race to scale everywhere, while Consumer AI awaits their “uber” moment and aims to provide Archangel Axion with an ability to make the most strategic and necessary investment decisions to inspire and help Canada become an innovation economy! It is written from the perspective of the future of product and technology, consumer expectations, and venture opportunities for the upcoming year and beyond (3-5 yr outlook)…. to learn more, download the full report.

2024 Trends

Portfolio

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1Mentor
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1Mentor

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1Mentor partners with colleges and universities to prepare students for the future of work by equipping decision-makers with quality tools and labour market insight to catalyze students’ professional development.

2023-06-14T17:24:37+00:00
Mazlite
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Mazlite

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Mazlite offers an industrial IoT platform for spray monitoring and digitization in hazardous environments. The platform includes an IoT sensor for imaging, web-based software, real-time analytics/AI, and cloud-based data management.

The Axion Team

The Axion Fund was built by a team of seasoned entrepreneurs and investment professionals. Our team has worked in diverse industries and markets. We value our relationships and have created a hands-on model where person-to-person interaction is supported and central to what we do. We move fast because markets move fast, good deals move fast, and if you’re building a high-growth start up, you shouldn’t spend more time than necessary on fundraising.

Mellie Chow
Venture Partner

Mellie is an angel investor, competitive strategist, start up advisor and former Executive Director of Product Research at Comcast. She has extensive experience working with tech entrepreneurs ranging from Fortune 50 to early-stage start-ups. Mellie excels at managing complex business transformation projects, building digitally disruptive agile products, and providing growth advisory. She also serves on the advisory board for Electro Medical Instruments Co and Purple Arch Ventures.

Mellie holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and the Schulich School of Business, and a B.Sc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Waterloo.

Peter Dal Bianco
Venture Partner

Peter launched his first business in 1975 as a record and electronics retailer in Sudbury, Ontario. He grew the business and became President of the National Video Franchise chain for Canada. In 1986, Peter became the 2nd largest shareholder of the parent company, National Video International of Portland, Oregon, with ~700 locations, and helped take the company public on the NASDAQ. By 2007, having started and expanded multiple Northern ventures, Peter was recognized for his long-lasting success as Entrepreneur of the Year at both the Bell Business Excellence Awards, and Northern Ontario Business Awards. In 2014, Peter joined the mentorship board of NORCAT’s Innovation sector. He was a consultant for the Northern Ontario Angels from 2015-2020 and helped raise >$8M in Angel funding for new start-ups and scale-ups. Peter is presently NORCAT’s principal EIR, (Entrepreneur-in-Residence).

Justin Kim
Venture Partner

Justin has spent the majority of his career in various management consulting roles in the US and Canadian healthcare markets. He is currently a Director with TELUS Global Innovation in Health and oversees the delivery and operations of a digital health platform for international clients.

Justin holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and the Schulich School of Business, and a B.Sc from the University of Waterloo.

Peyvand Melati
General Partner

Peyvand is a highly accomplished entrepreneur and angel investor who has successfully launched multiple businesses. He is an expert in the commercialization and growth of companies in major industries, with a focus on AI, IOT, CleanTech and Med Tech. He is a seasoned veteran in the start up process from initial inception to launch. Peyvand has a particular knack for setting priorities, developing strategies and building teams to scale ventures.

Peyvand is the founder & CEO of QEA Tech, an AI driven sustainability company that uses drones to gather comprehensive thermography, quantification, and energy audit service for  building’s infrastructure.

Peyvand is an electrical engineer and holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and from the Schulich School of Business.

Ehsan Mirdamadi
General Partner

Ehsan has been an active entrepreneur since 1999. Throughout his 20 + years of experience, he has founded, led and exited multiple successful ventures in cloud computing, cloud software and biotechnology in Canada and the United States. Ehsan is the co-founder and CEO of Codalio. He acts as a technology and venture development advisor to dozens of ventures.

Ehsan holds a B.Sc in Computer Science from York University.

Chad Pallopson
Venture Partner

Chad Pallopson has over 20 years of capital markets experience at some of Wall Street’s largest firms including J.P. Morgan, Lazard, and SVB Leerink. Chad has also been a Managing Partner and Portfolio Manager at a Connecticut-based long/short equity hedge fund. After more than two decades in the New York City area, Chad recently moved back home to Canada. Born and raised in Orillia, ON, he now resides in the Parry Sound/Muskoka area. He is currently a consultant for the Northern Ontario Angels group, a member of the NORCAT mentor advisory board, and serves on the board of directors for Iregained Inc.

Chad is a graduate of the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania.

Aaron Rezaei
Former General Partner

Aaron is a serial entrepreneur, investor and advisor who has co-founded several companies in electronics design, electronics manufacturing, voltage power (protection control), and SCADA panel design in Canada and the United States. He is currently the CEO of STIM, Canada.

As an angel investor, Aaron is most interested in pre-seed and seed-stage start-ups in the tech, fintech, electronics design and manufacturing spaces.

By trade, Aaron is an electrical engineer and holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management.