Chris Albinson runs True North Fund, a growth and secondary fund for Canada's best tech companies, after three and a half years leading Communitech.
Worth knowing
He has invested across five funds and more than 70 companies, with a 3.6x lifetime return on $410M deployed, and he knows the secondary market that lets founders and early employees take money off the table without selling the company. Having built a network for Canadian tech talent in the Bay Area, he moves easily between the two.
Story
Chris grew up in Kingston, Ontario, and studied computer science and business at Western. He spent 21 years in the San Francisco Bay Area as a founder and investor, running a $217 million corporate venture fund at Newbridge Networks with bets that included BelAir Networks, later bought by Ericsson, and backing 37 Canadian founders as an angel along the way. He came home to lead Communitech in Kitchener-Waterloo, where he set out a plan to back Canadian tech winners nationally through a fund of more than $200 million. At the end of 2024 he stepped out of that job and into True North Fund full time, which closed its second tranche that October.
Highlights
- Co-Founder & Managing Partner, True North Fund
- CEO, Communitech, 2021-2024
- Co-founder, Founders Circle Capital (2012), $412M AUM
- Co-founder, Panorama Capital (2007), $240M fund
- Co-founder, The C100; Ivey Advisory Board, Western University
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