Boris Wertz has backed founders from Vancouver since 2012 through Version One Ventures, whose early cheques include a US$2 million position in Coinbase held through its 2021 IPO.
Worth knowing
He writes some of the first cheques into marketplaces, SaaS and crypto companies, and has done it long enough that four of his portfolio companies turned into unicorns in a single year. Having run a marketplace himself before selling it, he knows the operating problems behind the pitch, and he is connected across the US, India and Africa as well as Canada.
Story
Boris co-founded JustBooks, a German online marketplace for used and textbook books, in 1999 while finishing a doctorate. AbeBooks bought it in 2002, and he moved to British Columbia to help run the acquirer, serving as chief operating officer until 2007 and leading about 60 people across marketing, business development, product and international operations. Amazon acquired AbeBooks in 2008. He stayed in Vancouver, ran an angel fund and the youth social network Nexopia, then co-founded the GrowLab accelerator in 2011 before raising Version One's first fund of $18.7 million the following year. The firm now runs six funds and roughly $250 million, co-led with general partner Angela Tran in the Bay Area, and closed $108 million USD across two more funds in June 2026.
Highlights
- Founding partner, Version One Ventures (2012); six funds, ~$250M AUM
- Portfolio includes Dapper Labs, Clio, Jobber, Ada, Wattpad, Neo Financial, Indiegogo
- Board partner, Andreessen Horowitz, 2014-2021
- Pacific Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Of The Year, 2005; BC Innovators Hall of Fame, 2024
- Mentor, Creative Destruction Lab since 2014; Lead Independent Director, Ether Capital
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