We help entrepreneurs build a better world
We are successful entrepreneurs, corporate finance experts, deal makers and operators who want to partner with people that we like and trust to help them build great companies - and have some fun along the way.
Our Story
We have been business partners for years. We like and respect each other. We disagree, discuss and then come up with better answers. We care far more that we move forward with the best solution, and care far less where it came from.
We have different, but complementary backgrounds. Most recently, we built Spark Power into a company with more than $250M in annual revenue from nothing – through hard work, measured risk, well-honed deal skills and smart corporate finance.
We have been operators – and we do not want to be operators again. We understand what it takes to build real businesses, and would rather back entrepreneurs and proven operators, helping as much as we possibly can.
We want to build wealth – for others and for ourselves. We believe in making sure that our interests are aligned with our partners.
our team
jason sparaga
Jason is a co-founder and Managing Partner of Red Jar Capital with over 25 years of experience as an executive, owner, investor and advisor. Jason is a deal maker at heart, and focuses on opportunity sourcing, transaction structuring and using his network and deal skills to help our portfolio partners in growing their businesses.
Jason is also co-Founder and Executive Board Chair at Spark Power. He was co-CEO at Spark from its inception until January 2021, leading strategy and driving aggressive growth, coupling acquisitions with organic growth. After building a strong management team, Jason stepped back into a board position, where he continues to lead Spark’s corporate and acquisition strategy.
Prior to Spark, Jason co-founded and was CEO of Spara Capital Partners, a boutique private company investment and merchant bank, where he helped close more than 100 transactions.
Jason has also been honored as the recipient of several awards, including:
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2016 Canadian Business Excellence Award
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2017 Entrepreneur of the Year™ Finalist in the Ontario Region “Power & Utilities & Environment” Category
A strong advocate for community and charitable giving, Jason is passionate about supporting the Autism cause through direct-funding organizations such as Racing with Autism and Unity for Autism where he is the President of the Board. Jason is also proud to have founded the Annual Spark Power Play Challenge in support of Prostate Cancer Canada.
Jason is a graduate of Brock University’s Goodman School of Business and holds a CPA designation.
andrew clark
Andrew is co-Founder & Managing Partner of Red Jar Capital with over two decades of experience in the industrial manufacturing, merchant banking, and advanced energy sectors. Andrew has been an investor and entrepreneur his entire life, and focuses on identifying key investment trends, opportunity sourcing, building teams, and using his network to help our portfolio partners grow their businesses.
Andrew is also co-Founder & Vice Board Chair at Spark Power. He was co-CEO at Spark from its inception until January 2021, leading the company’s initial efforts in renewables development and spearheading the company’s strategic direction to develop sustainability offerings for its customers. After helping build a strong management team, Andrew stepped back into the Vice Chair board role, with a particular focus on the company’s Corporate Sustainability.
Prior to founding Spark, Andrew held several executive-level operations and finance roles across multiple industries. His previous career experience includes:
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Lending, Business Development Bank of Canada
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Operations & Finance, CPI Plastics Group Ltd.
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Founding Director, Federation of Community Power Cooperatives
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Chairman of the Board, Community Power Fund
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Member, YPO/WPO Canada (Young President’s Organization / World President’s Organization)
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2017 Entrepreneur of the Year™ Finalist in the Ontario Region, Power, Utilities and Environment category
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Director, The Haven Toronto
A voice for environmental stewardship and Corporate Social Responsibility, Andrew is a passionate leader and advocate for advanced energy solutions who is frequently sought out by various private and not-for-profit boards, power panels, and CSR specialists to lend his perspective on the distributed grid, the rapidly changing power sector, and to inspire corporations to think about, consume, and generate electricity differently.
Andrew holds an MBA degree from the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and a Bachelor of Commerce degree from Queen’s University.
Eric waxman
Eric Waxman, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, Red Jar Capital
Eric is a co-founder of Red Jar Capital with over 20 years of experience in operations, investing and advising owners of private businesses. He is a trusted leader with extensive experience in M&A, Corporate Finance, Investment Banking and private equity deal structures.
Eric is also a co-Founder and Chief Investment Officer of Spark Power Corp. He leads the M&A, Integration, People & Culture (HR), and Health & Safety teams at Spark, having spearheading the creation and development of these functions and building them into competitive advantages for Spark Power. His responsibilities include driving an ownership and safety-first culture within the company, managing capital partner relationships, and leading acquisition transactions and their integration to accelerate Spark Power’s North American-wide expansion. His experience also includes taking Spark Power Corp public on the Toronto Stock Exchange through a SPAC transaction.
Prior to Co-Founding Spark Power, Eric was the President of Spara Capital Partners and Spara Merchant Capital Corp, a boutique M&A Advisory firm and Investment firm that he helped found, first as an employee, then as a partner/owner. At Spara, Eric led and advised on hundreds of millions of dollars of M&A and Corporate Finance transactions.
Growing up, he also worked in numerous capacities within his family-owned and operated business.
Eric holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Western Ontario and MBA from the Schulich School of Business at York University. He lives in Dundas, Ontario with his wife and 3 daughters and has been actively involved in his community through coaching his daughters in hockey over the last 10 years.
Eric waxman
Ron dizy
Managing Director, Red Jar Capital
Ron is co-Founder and Managing Director at Red Jar Capital with over 25 years of experience as both an operator and investor in the technology and advanced energy sectors. Ron’s role is to manage the day to day operations and the investment process at Red Jar, lead investments and find ways to consistently add value to Red Jar’s portfolio and partner companies.
Prior to joining Red Jar, Ron was the Chief Commercial Officer at Spark Power, where he led sales, product management & marketing, business development, and corporate strategy, with a focus on bringing new customer-centric solutions to the industrial, commercial, and utility markets. Before that, he was the SVP of Partnerships at MaRS where he was responsible for helping utilities around the world find ways to adopt innovation at scale, to help them survive in a world being rapidly changed by technology, customer preferences, and regulation. His previous career experience also includes:
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Founding Managing Director of the Advanced Energy Centre at MaRS Discovery District
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President and CEO of ENBALA Power Networks
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Partner at Celtic House Venture Partners ($500M venture fund)
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Founding member of Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan venture capital team where he was responsible for sourcing and managing investments across the technology sector in Canada and in the United States.
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Founder & Managing Partner of Altera System Corp.
An active participant in the advanced energy sector, he is frequently sought out by government, agency, and utility organizations to offer his pragmatic perspective and lend his deep and varied experience. He is also a frequent speaker at industry conferences and events.
Ron holds a BASc, Industrial Engineering from the University of Toronto.
Phil Lefko
Partner & General Counsel
Phil is Partner & General Counsel at Red Jar Capital with over two decades of experience in corporate and commercial law, across both public and private companies. Phil focuses on creating transaction structures that align the interests of our partners and also lends his expertise to our portfolio partners as required, providing time and cost-efficient advice to accelerate growth.
Phil has over two decades of experience in complex corporate and commercial transactions, including mergers and acquisitions, securities law, debt and equity financings, general commercial matters and corporate governance. He has served both public and private companies (including private equity firms), both as external counsel and in-house.
Phil experience extends across many business sectors, including commercial and industrial services, renewable energy, technology, health care, real estate and film & media. Phil is also a partner in Aeon Studios Group, focused on the redevelopment of 20 acres of land near downtown Hamilton to bring a live, work and play residential and commercial film and media hub to Hamilton, Ontario.
Phil was called to the Ontario Bar in 2002, and holds Bachelor of Laws Degree from Queen’s University and an Honors Bachelor of Science degree from York University.
what we look for
We know that people matter the most when building any business. And life is short. So, we prefer to invest and partner with people that we know, like and trust. Most often this means that we partner with people whom we have known awhile, but we are happy to have recommendations from friends that we know, like and trust. We have a bias for action and calculated risk – and want to back like-minded partners. We are generally not interested in being a passive investor – so we prefer to invest where our skills, networks, background and experiences can be helpful in driving enterprise value. We want to invest with partners who have a passion to leave the world a better place. We understand that deep domain knowledge matters. We have a range of experiences, but we expect our partners to bring the knowledge and background required for real success.
We typically invest between $500k and $5M into our partner companies (and up to $10M over the life of the investment). Where we are partnering with established companies, we expect to receive substantial minority positions, ensuring that our interests are aligned. In certain cases, where we are part of the founding team, we would expect to begin with a majority position.
We are opportunistic and flexible, but we are currently focusing on four pillars:
Real Estate
We believe that Canada (and Ontario in particular, and the GTHA specifically) still have lots of growth driven by significant tailwinds. We are partnered with experienced operators and will bring our background in deal-making, sustainability and technology to build a significant long term development company.
Technology
We understand technology, and its potential for impact. We have partnered with Round13 to invest in technology and benefit from their domain knowledge and scale. We will also make direct investments in technology companies, particularly where we see synergy across the portfolio.
Health, Wellness & Better Planet
We have a deep understanding of the importance of bringing commercially viable sustainability solutions to the market, and keenly aware of the challenges of adoption. We want to partner with ambitious entrepreneurs with pragmatic ideas to leave the world a better place.
Platform Consolidation
We believe that great companies can be built more quickly with effective acquisition strategies to complement strong operations and organic growth. We are keen to back experienced operators who would like a partner to strategically consolidate a highly fragmented sector – that might also benefit from economies of scale.
Portfolio
Our current portfolio reflects the investments we made together while executives at Spark Power. As we launch Red Jar Capital, our focus will shift to more active investments – strategically focused on our target pillars.
VIQ is a global leader in secure, AI-driven digital voice and video capture technology and services.
One of Canada’s leading early stage and growth venture capital firms.
Ledn is a leading Canadian financial services firm, focused on supporting customers in the crypto-economy.
Limited Partner in RCP KES7 Real Estate I LP
Trust Science is a leader in using AI and big data to establish the trustworthiness scores, to help lenders make better underwriting decisions.
GRT is a leading water and soil remediation operating company focused on providing innovative environmental solutions.
Olli Brands aim is to become a trusted leader in carefully curated, premier cannabis infused goods, offering specialty teas and edibles.
Ikanik Farms is creating a portfolio of award-winning cannabis lifestyle brands and products.
The ownership of this solar farm reverts to Red Jar Capital in 2035.
Algae-C is a global leader in algae biosynthetics, delivering high-value active pharmaceutical ingredients faster, at a much lower cost, and with high purity.
Key’s patent-pending co-ownership model means people can starting owning and building home equity years sooner.