Amanda Kattan

Worth knowing

She writes direct equity cheques into search-fund style acquisitions of Canadian companies with $1M to $5M of EBITDA, and she has sat on the other side as the finance chief who had to make an acquired business work. Few people in Canada can talk deal structure and the first ninety days after close with equal authority.

Story

Amanda started in investment banking at RBC Capital Markets, then spent three years as an associate at Birch Hill Equity Partners before the firm put her in as CFO of its telecom holding, Groupe Maskatel. That move, from analyzing companies to running one, set the pattern for everything after. She went on to behavioural economics work at Google with Dan Ariely's Irrational Labs, a year at McKinsey, and then finance leadership in startups: Zoomer, the food-delivery company GrubHub later bought, and Rippling. From 2019 she worked independently across a range of young companies, advising Rill Data's CEO along the way. In 2025 she came to the Montreal-based Thrive ETA Fund, putting $40M of direct equity and $10M of fund commitments behind women acquiring mid-sized Canadian businesses.

Highlights

• Partner, Thrive ETA Fund ($50M CAD), BDC Capital, since 2025
• Former CFO, Rippling
• Advisor, Trulla Group (Constellation Software)
• MBA, Harvard Business School; B.Com., McGill University
• CFA charterholder, 2009