Andre Charoo

Worth knowing

Andre has written cheques into around 40 companies, among them Clay and Neo Financial, and he opened Uber's Canadian market and scaled Hired into 16 markets across four continents before that. He knows which Canadian founders in the Bay Area are worth meeting and how a Canadian company lands in the US. Seed-stage founders with Canadian roots, and operators planning a US entry, should get in touch.

Story

Andre grew up in the suburbs of Toronto, studied economics at the University of Toronto and started out as an investment banking analyst. He went west, joining Uber in its first 25 hires to lead its entry into Canada, then Hired as one of its first 15 employees in 2013. While still working full-time at Hired, he raised a $1.2 million first fund on a single idea: Canadian founders are underserved no matter where they build. That became Maple VC in 2016. Fund II closed at $16.5 million in 2021 with Insight Partners among its backers, and he has since put more than $50 million to work.

Highlights

• Founder and General Partner, Maple VC (founded 2016)
• Closed Maple VC Fund II at $16.5M in 2021, backed by Insight Partners
• Early investor in Clay, which reached unicorn status, and Neo Financial
• Co-Chair, C100, for roughly three years
• Venture Partner and EIR, Inovia Capital, from 2019