Draft:Justus Parmar

• Comment: Please, while toning down the weasel words and proper formatting, also add secondary sources. Best, Reading Beans 10:29, 9 October 2024 (UTC)

---

Justus Parmar

Justus Parmar is a Canadian entrepreneur, businessman, investor and the current managing director of Fortuna Investments, a Vancouver-based venture capital firm that invests in high-growth sectors, including space, robotics, lithium mining, clean tech and agricultural tech. He holds offices in Vancouver, BC, Los Angeles and Miami with over 30 employees.

Born in Duncan, British Columbia, Parmar earned a Bachelor of Commerce from the University of Victoria and completed advanced studies at Harvard University​. He began working as an investment advisor for companies Global Securities, Macquarie Group and Jordan Capital Markets before founding Fortuna Investments in 2015. Since its inception, Fortuna has advised and invested in more than $500 million on venture capital projects.

Parmar established the Justus Parmar Group Scholarship Foundation to award scholarship funds to students at the University of British Columbia and also supports various mental health and youth organizations. He currently resides in Vancouver and Los Angeles​.

Early Life and Education

Justus Parmar was born in Duncan, British Columbia, a town on Vancouver Island​, to Indian parents who immigrated to Canada at a young age. Parmar's mother was a nurse, and his father ran a small import-export business after working in the lumber industry​. Parmar’s father passed away when Parmar was 13, significantly impacting his sense of responsibility towards his family. Parmar pursued his higher education at the University of Victoria, where he earned a Bachelor of Commerce​. Furthering his education, he completed private equity and venture capital studies at Harvard University.​

Personal Life

Parmar married Elisia Friedman after proposing to her on top of the London Eye. They began dating in 2015 and eventually moved to Los Angeles together in 2019.

Professional Career

Parmar began his career in a junior position at CIBC before moving to Global Securities (now Ventum Financial Corp) as an investment advisor​. He became the youngest advisor at Macquarie Group, quickly rising to one of the top 10 producers​. Later, he served as an investment adviser and vice president at Jordan Capital Markets, helping the independent boutique investment firm expand to 65 advisors within 18 months.

In 2015, Parmar founded Fortuna Investments and began investing in companies with a collective market capitalization value of more than $2 billion, including Millennial Lithium. In its first three years the firm helped 125 companies raise over $300 million and assisted two dozen companies into going public.

Space Investment

In 2020, Parmar began investing in emerging industries such as robotics, life sciences and lithium mining. His first exploration into space investing began with $10 million from Fortuna Investments towards Starfighters Space, a company based in Florida operating a fleet of seven F-104 supersonic aircraft and able to launch small payloads into space.

In 2023, Parmar appointed former NFL player Frostee Rucker as Vice President of the West Coast office and a board member of Florida’s Starfighters. The move was made to help bring in investors that had historically been underrepresented in the space ecosystem and to encourage more equity in South Florida’s technology sector.

Achievements

In 2018, Parmar received Business in Vancouver’s Forty Under 40 Award for his achievements in business, leadership, and community contributions​.

Philanthropy

Parmar believes in the importance of mentoring the next generation of young talent to pursue excellence and giving people space to shape their ideas. He founded the Justus Parmar Group Scholarship Foundation in order to support ten students with $25,000 each in scholarship funding, totalling $250,000 in scholarships.