Chamath Palihapitiya is once again investing in the Canadian tech scene that nurtured his Silicon Valley roots.
The prominent Valley venture capitalist and ex-Facebook executive isreportedly paying up to $20 million over the next three years topersonally buy amajority stake in Toronto-based mobile development shop Xtreme LabsInc., according to AllThingsD.
Palihapitiya’s VC firm Social+Capital also took part in a series Bfinancing deal worth $12 million for Toronto-based Wave Accounting inMay.
Xtreme Labs co-founder Amar Varma.(Photo: XtremeLabs.com)
Xtreme Labs has developed apps for Bell, 3M and CBS Sports among otherclients. It has offices in Toronto, New York and Palo Alto. The firm’sco-founder Amar Varma is also a co-founder of Extreme Venture Partners,aVC firm with offices in Toronto and Palo Alto.
Old school ties may have played a role in the Xtreme Labs deal, sincePalihapitiya and Varma are both University of Waterloo gradsin electrical engineering. Although Palihapitiya is now one of thehottest financiers under 40 in the Valley, he was born in Sri Lanka butgrew up in Canada.
Palihapitiya told AllThingsDthat he has put $6 million intoXtreme Labs up front and committed $20 million over the next threeyears.
Palihapitiya joined Facebook in 2007 and was responsible for launchingFacebook Platform (which allows third-party developers to create andintegrate applications with Facebook) and Facebook’s online advertisingchannel. He launched the Social+Capital VC firm when he left hisposition as v.p. of user growth, mobile and international expansion atFacebook in June 2011.
The tech investor is also a pretty ace poker player. He placed eleventhatthe 2012 World Series of Poker in June, good enough to leave the tablewith winnings of $53,000 and change.