UCeed Haskayne student fund invests in Hyperlume

University of Calgary students involved with the UCeed Haskayne Student Fund —  which is open to students across faculties — are not just learning about venture capital in theory, they are investing for real.  

The only student-managed private equity fund within the UCeed suite, which operates thanks to partner Innovate Calgary, recently invested in Hyperlume Inc., an Ottawa-based startup focused on computing technology in data centers. 

The team that put the deal together included Haskayne School of Business fifth-year students Kabir Parmar and Ali Radwan; dual-degree science and commerce bachelor’s student Ksenia Kabanova; biochemistry and molecular biology master’s student Shahoon Khan, BHSc’22; finance co-op undergraduate Edina Thai and master’s business student Adam Stosky, BSc’15. 

For them, the real-world experience was invaluable. 

“Seeing the investment from start to finish and being able to partake in that opportunity entirely hands-on was incredible,” says Parmar, a fund manager in the two-year program that empowers UCalgary students to support the Canadian innovation economy. 

Students develop investment skills in year one and then engage in startup sourcing and investment decisions in year two, interacting with industry professionals.  

While recruitment for the next cohort is now closed, future participants can take inspiration from the entrepreneurship that went into the Hyperlume deal.  

The process 

The students were referred to Hyperlume by the Energy Fund — another donor-backed initiative within the UCeed suite — they undertook full a due diligence review of Hyperlume's situation before presenting to the Investment Advisory Group. 

By leveraging their connections at SOSV, an American venture capital firm, the Business Development Bank of Canada and some group members’ previous experience in the energy and utility sectors, the students assessed the startup’s market potential. 

“Learning was a huge process for me in this deal,” says Radwan. “I was able to understand a completely new industry and network with people from some of Canada’s largest venture capital funds and gain insights that I wouldn’t have gotten just from looking through a slide deck.” 

The fund invested $50,000 in the deep-tech venture in November last year. 

Students hope to support solution-based tech 

The student deal team were attracted to Hyperlume by the founders’ resumes and micro-LED technology that has been created with the aim of solving a critical issue: heat loss in copper data interconnects, causing slower processing. 

“What stood out to us for Hyperlume was definitely the founding team’s academic background, as well as the technology and the structure of the company,” says Parmar.  

The company was founded by Dr. Mohsen Asad, who received his PhD from the University of Waterloo, and Dr. Hossein Fariborzi, who received his from Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

The startup's commitment to dedicating time and resources to the design and competitiveness of their technology also caught the team’s attention, says Parmar. 

Entrepreneurial thinking lessons learned 

For the students, the experience was more than just an investment; it was an opportunity to develop resilience, critical thinking and decision-making skills in high-stakes environments. 

For Kanwal Bokhari, the faculty advisor for the course, the most inspiring part of the program is witnessing the transformation in students over the two-year journey. 

They begin as fund associates, she says, learning the fundamentals of investments in the classroom to progressing into real-world application of their knowledge, having developed a structured approach to analyzing startups, crafting investment theses and effectively communicating to the advisory board. 

“It is truly remarkable to see their growth, confidence and ability to make informed investment decisions,” says Bokhari.