Toronto, CANADA, September 9, 2021 — BenchSci, a Toronto-based startup focused on increasing the speed and quality of life-saving research, announced that Inovia Capital partner and former Research In Motion (now BlackBerry) CFO and COO Dennis Kavelman is joining its board of directors. 

Kavelman has been a partner at Inovia Capital since 2018, where he launched the Growth Fund I and leads the firm’s value creation strategy. Thanks to his extensive operational background, he is well-recognized within the tech ecosystem for providing unique perspectives on managing operational hurdles and growing pains.

"I have deep respect for Dennis’ distinguished career and the part he played in bringing an unknown tech company to global status," says Liran Belenzon, CEO, BenchSci. "We were once a small startup too, and our current hypergrowth trajectory makes Dennis’ experiences and wisdom invaluable. As we exponentially increase the speed and quality of life-saving R&D, Dennis will be at our side guiding us."

Kavelman is an experienced technology executive and investor. After beginning his career at KPMG, he joined RIM in 1995 and, in his roles as CFO and COO, helped the company create the global smartphone industry. During his tenure there, he managed the scaling of a worldwide software, hardware, and services business while overseeing all financing activities, including RIM's IPO and over $1.8B in equity raises. 

"BenchSci’s suite of AI-powered applications help scientists accelerate preclinical research and gets us closer to novel drug development,” says Kavelman. “They are an emerging biotech global leader and I am excited to be on the team to apply my experience and help in whatever way I can.” 

Kavelman joins existing board members Bonita Stewart, Board Partner, Gradient Ventures; Luba Greenwood, Executive Managing Partner at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute; and Shervin Ghaemmaghami, Operating Partner, F-Prime Capital.

For more BenchSci updates, visit our News page.

About BenchSci

BenchSci’s vision is to bring novel medicine to patients 50% faster by 2025. We’re achieving it by empowering scientists with the world’s most advanced biomedical artificial intelligence to run more successful experiments. Backed by F-Prime, Gradient Ventures (Google’s AI fund), and Inovia Capital, our platform accelerates science at 15 top-20 pharmaceutical companies and over 4,300 leading research centers worldwide. We’re a remote-first, CIX Top 10 Growth company, certified Great Place to Work®, and top-ranked company on Glassdoor. Learn more at www.benchsci.com.

For more information, please contact Marie Cook at mcook@benchsci.com.