FirePower Capital spins out Spearhead Corporate Development, a human-first, tech-driven buy-side advisory service, and backs it with an initial US$3.2 million investment

TORONTO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--FirePower Capital (“FirePower”), an M&A advisor, lender and investor to mid-market companies, today announced the spin-out of its specialized buy-side advisory service under the Spearhead Corporate Development (“Spearhead”) name.

Spearhead provides the luxury of choice in deal sourcing for M&A to its clients (large corporate strategics and private equity investors) on a global basis.

Spearhead builds M&A deal funnels at scale, providing both research, outreach, and advisory. In effect, it helps its clients close more deals by becoming an extension of their corporate development function.

Under FirePower, Spearhead launched in early 2020. It has since arranged 652 highly vetted meetings between our clients and our targets, worth US$12.8 billion of enterprise value as of today. During the same period, our efforts have led to 12 closings, with many more to come.

For example, HostPapa, a large strategic in the web and cloud hosting sector, acquired Cloud 9 Hosting in early 2022. Jamie Opalchuk, Founder and CEO of HostPapa, said, “We could not have closed Cloud 9 without Spearhead, but they have meant a lot more to us than that: they are a strategic advisor helping us refine our M&A efforts, for over two years now.”

Spearhead is led by Managing Partners & Co-Heads Sebastien Douville and Cameron Vernest. Sebastien Douville is a 16+ year M&A advisory veteran and has been FirePower’s COO for 7 years. Cameron Vernest is a former Shopify, BlackBerry and TradeGecko ($100m+ exit in 2020) B2B revenue leader having scaled teams globally from infancy to 70+.

Spearhead’s traction has been “exciting”, says Sebastien Douville. “Spearhead lives at the fascinating but challenging intersection of the democratization of big data/ML/AI, the sheer amount of M&A activity (which remains a human-first exercise), and the rapid datafication of best practices in revenue generation.”

Cameron Vernest added, “Spearhead’s vision is to define a new segment of investment banking—Corporate Development as a Service, or CDaaS. We are set to change the way deals are originated and won.”

The US$3.2 million investment by FirePower will support Spearhead’s platform expansion globally from its three offices in Toronto, Johannesburg, and Bengaluru, as well as major technology, database and process/workflow investments, and other strategic initiatives. Over 30 FirePower staff will migrate under the Spearhead brand. The worldwide scope of Spearhead’s current and future mandates, its significant technology and language requirements, and the belief that talent can be found globally, called for a brand distinct from FirePower’s.

About Spearhead Corporate Development

Spearhead Corporate Development provides the luxury of choice in deal sourcing for M&A: our team of 30+ seasoned dealmakers and researchers enable active strategics and PE firms to see more off-market opportunities and close more deals, with more certainty.

Our approach is “human-first”: our interactions are personalized, thoughtful and memorable. AI/ML, big data, and tech helps drive scale in what we do. With offices in Toronto, Johannesburg and Bengaluru, Spearhead is backed by FirePower Capital, a mid-market private capital and advisory firm that has completed over 125 transactions since inception in 2012. www.spearheadcorpdev.com

About FirePower Capital

FirePower Capital is the M&A advisory and private capital firm built for Canada’s entrepreneurs. Our team of 60+ professionals help mid-market businesses complete mission-critical transactions, by advising them or investing in their companies directly. It is a member of Mergers Alliance, a global network of 18 M&A advisory firms with offices in 30 countries. www.firepowercapital.com