The Canoe Way
Our mission is to unlock efficiencies in alternative investment processes by introducing purpose-built automation into the workflows of institutional investors, asset servicers, capital allocators and wealth managers.
We Keep Paddling
In 2013, Canoe was incubated within a private investment firm, Portage Partners, and evolved into the firm’s operating backbone. To this day, Portage does not employ any middle or back office professionals, and instead relies solely on Canoe. In 2017, Canoe spun out and began offering its scalable solution to managing complex alternative investment documents and data in 2018. Since the beginning, we’ve maintained a focused, client-first approach to building and enhancing our technology and will continue to do so.
With more than 20 years of senior management experience, Jason is an accomplished technology leader and entrepreneur with a proven track record of accelerating business growth. Most recently, he served as Managing Director and Head of Private Investments at Nima Capital, a large single-family office focusing on alternatives. As a hands-on leader at TheMarkets.com, Jason managed sales, business development and operations for the company from inception through its ultimate acquisition by Capital IQ. He also incubated, developed and led MeritMark through its sale to WallStreetOnDemand. Jason began his career at Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers in capital markets and institutional fixed income. He is passionate about mentoring and building companies, and advises multiple early stage and middle-market businesses. Jason graduated from Lafayette College with a Dual Degree in Economics and English Literature.
Seth started his career focused on alternative investments research and analysis working for multi-billion dollar allocators and family offices. His responsibilities included creating investment criteria, developing a robust pipeline of prospective investments, and constructing portfolios of alternative investments for institutional clients. In addition to his investing experience, Seth had a senior role at Novus Partners, a venture capital funded buy-side financial technology analytics company that grew from 15 to over 100 employees during his tenure. At Novus, Seth focused on building the client-facing investment team, product, and business development. Seth grew up in South Florida and attended University of Florida where he earned both an M.S. in Decision Information Science and a B.S. in Finance with a Minor in Economics.
Chief Technology Officer
Vishal Saxena brings 20 years of software development and product design experience within the financial services industry. Prior to joining Canoe Intelligence, Vishal was a Managing Director in the Blackstone Technology and Innovations group. During his tenure at Blackstone, Vishal oversaw application development for several business systems and enterprise platforms and supported various business and corporate functions including but not limited to investor reporting, HR, public affairs, legal and compliance, fund accounting, and corporate finance. Prior to joining Blackstone in 2013, he led various software development teams at Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor’s, for five years where he was most recently Director of Data Technology. Before Capital IQ, Vishal held various software development roles at Morgan Stanley, Citigroup and Sapient. Vishal received a B.Tech. in Civil Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, a Master of Engineering degree with a major in Information Technology from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, and a Master of Science degree in Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta. Vishal recently joined the board of Reach the World, a non-profit organization making the benefits of world travel accessible to classrooms.
Mike has over ten years experience at institutional consulting and financial technology companies. Mike started his career at Cambridge Associates, advising endowments, foundations, pensions, and family offices on asset allocation and manager selection. After Cambridge Associates, Mike spent four years at Novus Partners running the Analytics desk and focusing on analytical consulting for institutional investors, family offices, and hedge funds. Most recently, Mike led the Global Commercial efforts for Dealogic’s Connect offering until it was acquired by ION Investment Group. Mike graduated Magna Cum Laude from Duke University with a B.A. in History and Markets & Management.
Patrick has over 12 years experience developing and implementing successful growth strategies for fintech companies. At Canoe, Patrick is responsible for driving continued profitability and overseeing the company’s global go-to-market strategy. Previously, Patrick led cross-departmental innovation initiatives at Addepar and Advent, rolling out new products and expanding into new markets. Patrick graduated from Princeton University with an B.A. in History and received his MBA from NYU Stern School of Business.
Toby has over 12 years of experience in sales and sales leadership roles at private markets software and data businesses. He spent 5 years at The Mergermarket Group where he helped to launch and grow their M&A platform, MergerID which was ultimately acquired by Intralinks. He was then the third hire for iLEVEL in Europe, where he contributed to establishing iLEVEL as the dominant portfolio monitoring software for private capital GPs and LPs. He was with the business through the acquisitions by both Ipreo and IHS Markit. Most recently, he opened the UK office for CEPRES where he successfully established a team and grew the client base of European institutional investors. He graduated from Swansea University with a B.A. in French and Spanish.
HEAD OF CLIENT SUCCESS
Tim leads our Client Success Organization, responsible for the successful implementation and adoption of Canoe Intelligence across our client base. Previously, Tim was head of relationship management at the financial technology platform Addepar, after beginning his career in wealth management at BNY Mellon & Jefferies. Tim graduated from The University of Colorado with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance.
Aryn leads business operations, finance, and legal functions at Canoe. Prior to Canoe, he held customer success and operations roles at Novus, a portfolio analytics solution for hedge funds and institutional investors. At Novus, Aryn managed the company’s expansion from New York to London. Aryn began his career at Cambridge Associates, researching private equity and venture capital managers for institutional investors. Aryn graduated from Miami University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and Statistics.
VP OF ENGINEERING
Matt has 20+ years of experience developing software and building/leading product development teams in the financial services and media industries. Prior to joining Canoe, he was a Director of Software Engineering at Comscore where he led teams responsible for platforms and services enabling the delivery of television audience measurement data to customers. Before Comscore, Matt grew and led multiple product development teams for 12 years at Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor’s, where he joined as a software engineer. Matt graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a Bachelor of Science in Engineering degree for Computer Science.
VP OF PRODUCT
Michelle Wilson is the Vice President of Product at Canoe Intelligence. In this role, she is responsible for shaping product strategy and driving the execution of key initiatives to achieve the product vision. In addition to leading the product team in the design and development of new features, she also collaborates with other teams across the organization on various topics such as project scoping, client onboarding and product feedback.
Prior to joining Canoe, Michelle was a Vice President at BlackRock, where she focused on general partner (GP) product strategy for eFront, the firm's technology product suite for alternative investment management and reporting. She also played a key role in developing a robust mobile application strategy for the firm.
Before BlackRock, Michelle was a Vice President at Blackstone. During her almost 8-year tenure there, she led product management and design for the firm's proprietary fund accounting, valuations and investor portal applications. She spearheaded several important technology initiatives including the development and delivery of a proprietary document management and business workflow tool for the firm's fund-of-funds business.
She began her product management career at S&P Capital IQ, where she designed and helped build several key components of the company's financial intelligence and data analytics platform.
Michelle received a B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and a Master of Engineering (M.Eng) in Engineering Management from Cornell University.
VP OF COMMERCIAL STRATEGY AND OPERATIONS
Josh Whitcraft joins Canoe as Vice President, Commercial Strategy and Operations. Josh is responsible for ensuring Canoe teams are supporting clients through their learning, buying, and value realization of the Canoe platform. Josh collaborates closely with R&D teams on market and client requirements and with client success teams on accelerating client outcomes. As a result, Canoe is well-positioned to target, partner, and enable clients who are most likely to succeed with the solution.
Josh brings more than a decade of experience in wealth management, enterprise software, and financial technology. Prior to Canoe, Josh was a Director of Go-to-Market for Vista Consulting Group, the dedicated value creation team of Vista Equity Partners, where he partnered with executives from a dozen enterprise software portfolio companies on defining market strategy, optimizing the client lifecycle, and growing net retention. Prior to Vista, Josh was a FinTech entrepreneur with Addepar, where he built and led sales and services teams, scaling revenue 10x, clients 6x, and employees 5x. He started his career at Goldman Sachs as a financial analyst.
Josh loves being a husband and a father. He’s an endurance athlete, Irish citizen, long-time Manhattanite, recent Texan, and supports two local Austin initiatives: Waterloo Greenway and Laguna Gloria.
Northwestern University - BA
Columbia Business School - MBA
Columbia University School of International & Public Affairs - MA
Canoe Leadership
Contact
Have a question? We’d love to help!
info@canoeintelligence.com
+1 646.992.4375
Interested in joining Canoe? Visit our Careers page.
Canoe Intelligence
307 Canal Street
New York, NY 10013






