Mark Skapinker is Managing Partner and co-founder at Brightspark Ventures, a Canadian Venture Capital firm.
Brightspark has been VC investing in Canadian early stage companies for almost 20 years and has invested in some of Canada’s leading tech companies such as Radian6 and Hopper.
Mark’s career has spanned the growth of the tech industry.
In 1987, Mark founded his first software company when he co-founded Schematix computer Systems, a software development company.
In 1988, Mark co-founded Delrina Corporation, well known for one of the most popular Windows programs of all time, WinFax. Mark was president of Delrina until it was acquired by Symantec in November 1995. At Delrina, Mark conceived of and designed PerForm, the first business forms processing software. Delrina grew to over 600 people, with offices in 6 countries, and a public listing on the TSE and NASDAQ.
In 1997, Mark founded Balisoft Technologies Inc based in Toronto, Canada. In 1999, Balisoft/Servicesoft was acquired by Broadbase Software, which in turn was acquired by Kana software Inc (Nasdaq: KANA).
Mark has been active in Brightspark through many cycles. Brightspark has been a traditional VC, and more recently launched a number of innovative VC models opening VC investing to a broad audience.
In 2011, Skapinker co-founded the Upside Foundation of Canada where he remains a founding board member. The Upside Foundation of Canada is a charity that offers an exciting platform for Canadian tech companies to “give back”.