Tactico, A Story of Exceptional Returns

At Tactico Inc. (“Tactico”), we have a simple mission — to maximize returns through hands-on management and strategic thinking.

Our approach to private equity, or PE, investments is predicated on taking an active role in supporting all our portfolio companies. Our investment philosophy is focused on the following set of fundamental principles:

• Delivering execution support for management business plans;
• Offering expertise to support corporate strategy and governance;
• Supporting with financing requirements and potential exit strategies.

Tactico invests exclusively in management teams that embrace our investment approach. We carefully screen all new opportunities using proven methods to select compelling opportunities. This has allowed Tactico to deliver value and enjoy profitable returns on every company it has invested in.

Our Story

Tactico was founded in 2007 by Dr. Liam Cheung and Rick Ness as a partnership between two long-time friends and professional colleagues. Rick and Liam met very early on in their careers while working for one of Canada’s largest independent brokerage firms. Each then went on to found a number of successful startups in the mid to late 90s. By 2002, each had sold his respective business to a large U.S. player. At that time, Liam decided to join Rick at the fast-growing Penson Financial Services where they worked together to build the company into one of the largest independent global clearing firms. Philippe Leroux was a part of the Penson executive team and became integral to Rick and Liam’s deal-making capabilities. The team left Penson after it went public in 2006 in order to found Tactico.

Originally, Tactico exclusively invested its founders’ capital. It subsequently broadened its horizons to accept investments from a select group of high-net-worth investors. In 2013, after six years of successful value creation, Tactico created the F1 Private Equity Fund LP as its primary investment vehicle. This fund was focused on investing in fintech and other early stage ventures. The fund has been highly successful, having delivered an Internal Rate of Return or IRR of 21.29 per cent as of Q3 2019 and has now exited all but two of its original investments as of September 2019. Tactico remains steadfastly focused on investing in innovative technologies, fintech startups and other promising early stage opportunities.

Based on demand from its network of investors, Tactico has recently refined its model to offer flexible deal-by-deal private equity and venture capital opportunities to a wider group of investors. This new approach allows qualifying investors to invest alongside Tactico in venture capital opportunities through targeted special purpose vehicles, also known as SPVs. This allows for a customized and highly flexible approach to diversifying an investor’s private equity portfolio.

We are pleased to provide qualifying investors with a highly-flexible private equity investment platform where all portfolio companies are managed not only by dedicated professionals with significant experience in the entire investment-governance-exit life cycle, but also by a team that puts its founders’ capital at stake in every investment.