What is the Canadian Venture Capital Industry?
Although much smaller than their U.S. counterparts, Canadian venture capital firms have been prominent investors in the VC space. Canada has produced a number of prominent startups including Blackberry, Shopify, Xander Kardianand Taleo. Canadian VC’s tend to be IT and life sciences focused, but are increasingly moving into other areas such as technology and blockchain focused startups such as BitBuy. 2022 is expected to be a record year, as funding for startups continues to rise.
What is the size of the Canadian VC industry?
Average deal size hit a record level of $20 billion in 2021, and the Canadian Venture Capital industry also hit a record $14 billion in 2021er with over 429 deals completed. This compared to the U.S. VC industry, which currently stands at $329 billion. The Canadian VC industry is expected to grow by around 10% a year until 2030.
How we Rank these Canadian Investment Firms
- Assets Under Management: The most prominent and active investors in the Canadian space.
- Units Under Management: How large are the investments, although this may vary by stage of investment.
- ROI/Success: How successful have these firms been when investing in Canada?
- Peer ranking:How well do the peers of these companies recognize their impact on the Canadian VC industry?
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Venture Capital Investors
These Venture Capital Investors share their expert insights on many of the most frequently asked questions in the industry.
What is the Canadian Venture industry?
Who are the top Canadian Venture investors?
What is the size of the Canadian VC industry?
What is the future of the Canadian VC industry?
What is trending in the Canadian VC industry?
What should startups consider when reaching out to Canadian VC’s?
List of Top Venture Capital Investors
- Founded: 2006
- Headquarters: Vancouver, BC
- AUM: $1 billion
Prominent Investments: Lasso, LeadGenius, Energywatch, Myagi, Agentis, RocketRez, Surefire local. Timia Capital is a prominent Canadian venture capital firm that focuses on early-stage investments. Timia Capital primarily focuses on B2B technology companies, and invests around $500k to $5 million USD per round. Timia has invested in some of the most prominent Canadian startups, including Lasso, which deals with recycling, LeadGenius, an automation startup that helps B2B, and other prominent startups such as RocketRez, and Surefire. Timia usually invests the most number of deals in a year and is a very prominent investor.
- Founded: 2006
- Headquarters: Vancouver, BC
- AUM: $1 billion
Prominent Investments: Milestone Pharmaceutical, Neo Financial, Clearpath, Darwin AI and Future Family Inovia Capital is one of the most prominent early-stage and seed-stage venture capital firms on the Canadian venture capital scene. They typically look to invest at the earliest stage of the investing process and invest in companies that are primarily technology focused. They typically invest anywhere from $500k-$5million investments. Prominent investments include AI software firm Darwin AI, that makes applications more efficient, Milestone Pharmaceutical, a cardiovascular drug development company, and Clearpath, a robotics company. They are known for their deal frequency rather than size.
- Founded: 1985
- Headquarters: Toronto, Ontaroio
- AUM: $10 billion
- ProminentInvestments: Blackberry, Overstock
Based out of Toronto, and originally an Fairfax Holdings is a financial services company that is engaged in a range of investments across the investing space. The company was founded by prominent investor Prem Watsa. They invest in public, private and venture capital investments. Through Fairfax Ventures the company has invested in numerous prominent names, and is sector agnostic. They famously invested in numerous Canadian tech firms, including the likes of Blackberry, Overstock, among other investments. In recent times they have invested in the likes of Dozr, Digit Insurance, Kennedy Wilson, Foran Mining. They have no typical investment size, and invest across all stages of the investment process.
- Founded: 2012
- Headquarters: Vancouver, BC
- AUM: $1 billion+
- Prominent Investments: Pickle Robot, Lolli
Founded in 2012, Version One Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm based in Vancouver, Canada. The firm seeks to invest in the consumer internet, software as a service, and mobile sector companies in North America. They have made a number of key investments that include names such as AngelList, a site which helps startups find the right talent, and the also Outreach and Roost. Their typical investment size is from $1million to $10million.
- Founded: 1975
- Headquarters: Montreal, Canada
- AUM: $3 billion+
- Prominent Investments: Fodee, Novadaq, Dozr, T
Based out of Montreal, BDC Ventures is one of the top investors in the Canadian venture capital scene. They invest in seed to early-stage startups and have invested across industries, including technology, cleantech, life-sciences, fintech etc. BDC ventures was one of the most active funds in 2021, and made some prominent investments in names such as Terrameraa, Dozr, Tulip. They typically invest anywhere from as low as $100k, to $5million per round, but may invest higher if needed. Their preferred round of investment is Series-A and B.
- Founded: 2011
- Headquarters: Toronto, Ontario
- AUM: $1 billion
- Prominent Investments: DuckDuckGo, Shopify, Wave
Omers Ventures is the venture capital arm of the Ontario Municipal Pension Fund. They have invested in some of the most prominent companies in the Canadian venture capital space and are known for their successful investments. They have no typical size of investments and look to invest in the Series-A through D rounds of investments. Omers has invested in prominent names such as search engine creator, DuckDuckGo and ecommerce giant such as Shopify. They have made numerous prominent investments that have ended up going public and become global companies.
Venture Capital Investors
What is trending in the Canadian VC industry?
A number of key areas are increasingly becoming more of a focus above the traditional sectors. These follow sectors are witnessing massive growth in investments:
- Financial Services and fintech firms saw the biggest gains with a 1400% increase in investments during the year. Business products and services such as B2B SaaS companies were the second most prominent increase in investment amounting to 300%. Cleantech companies were the third biggest gainers with an increase of 120% in investment.
- Canadian VC firms are increasingly becoming more and more comfortable stepping into frontier and deep-technology industries. Going forward areas such as AI, and IoT, and more industrial forms of technology will also see increased investment.
- US VC firms that focus on Canadian startups continue to be a key part of the equation with $13 billion in funding in 2021, that number is likely to rise in 2022.
- Series-A rounds and Seed Rounds which were down in 2021, are expected to pick-up going forward.
Are you looking for Canadian venture investment firms for your startup?
These are the Canadian investment firms out there. They are the most-well known investors in the Canadian VC space and have invested across a range of startups.
- Founded: 2013
- Headquarters: Waterloo
- AUM: NA
- Prominent Investments: Substack, People.AI.
A TMT focused venture capital group Garage Capital is based out of Waterloo, Canada. The fund looks to invest in primarily in early-stage venture capital and has made a number of prominent investments. They are known for their technological background and provide end-to-end support for the startups they invest in. Prominent investments include companies such as Substack, and Spatial, but also Applyboard, Vendr etc. The company has no typical investment size but primarily invests in Series-A rounds. Their focus remains on TMT, which is their domain expertise.
- Founded: 2006
- Headquarters: Toronto, Ontario
- AUM: $3 billion+
- Prominent Investments: Armis, Beam, Contentstack
Georgian is a venture capital fund based out of Toronto, that primarily invests in the growth stage of the venture capital process. They look to primarily invest in the technology sector, and look for companies that are minimizing the negative social impact of technology. They have invested in software, artificial intelligence and information technology. They usually invest anywhere from $25 million to $50 million when they do invest. And have invested in numerous prominent companies such as Contentstack.
- Founded: 2006
- Headquarters: Toronto, Ontario
- Prominent Investments: Acto, Bliinx, AltTex, Beatdapp
Panache Ventures is a venture capital fund based out of Toronto, among other citites. They are known for their seed-stage investments and have invested in most prominent seed-stage startups. The firm typically invests around $250k-500k. They have invested in prominent companies in the Canadian VC space such as Altrio, Bliinx, and Beatapp. They look to invest across AI, fintech, digital health, enterprise software, and blockchain companies. The firm will continue to be one of the most prominent investors on the VC scene in 2022.
- Founded: 2002
- Headquarters: Calgary
- AUM: $1 billion+ Prominent
- Investments: Blume , Calix, VMware
Based out of Calagary and San Francisco, Azure Capital is one of the most successful venture capital firms, with over 40 exits. They invest in both early-stage and growth opportunities. There is no typical size of investment and the company looks to invest primarily across the technology sector. They have made some very interesting investments including prominent firms such as VMware, which went onto became a successful IPO and the likes of Cyan Optics.
- Founded: 1995
- Headquarters: Halifax, Nova Scotia
- AUM: $1 billion+
Innova Corp is an early-stage capital firm based out of Halifax. They invest across the world, in global companies, and look to invest normally during the Series-A stage of investments. They are looking for technology firms that can be commercialized and help startups with both mentoring and investing. They have made investments in numerous industries including biotech, cleantech, B2B companies.
- Founded: 2006
- Headquarters: New York City, New York
- AUM: $1 billion+
Rho Canada Ventures is a New York based Venture Capital firm that invests in Canadian ealy-stage startups. Rho Capital is one of the oldest Canadian focused VC’s and have made investments in numerous prominent names.such as Compaq, Rho Canada is a VC arm under Rho Ventures that was started in 2006. They mostly invest in the new media, mobile, wireless infrastructure and applications, semiconductors and materials and software sectors. Recent investments include. Meta AI and Smart Skin.
What is the future of the Canadian VC industry?
According to CVCA (Canadian Venture Capital Association:
1. Canadian venture capital will continue to focus on ICT going into the future. Along with TMT. These are the biggest areas of focus.
2. The second most prominent area of investment will continue to be life sciences
3. U.S. venture capital is increasingly looking to collaborate with the Canadian industry in order to get a better hold and understanding of the market.
4. The market is significantly smaller compared to the U.S. but a lot of opportunity is available as the startup scene in Canada continues to develop.
- Founded: 1989
- Headquarters: Vancouver, BC
- AUM: $ 2billion+
- Prominent Investments: Corvia, BioThereryx, Cardiac Dimensions
One of the most prominent and oldest venture capital firms in Canada, and invests in early-stage venture capital primarily. The VC firm targets companies that are primarily in the biotechnology, medical technologies, digital health, and consumer healthcare sectors. They have made a number of prominent investments, and typically invest anywhere from $10million-100million.
- Founded: 2016
- Headquarters: Montreal Quebec
- AUM: $500 million+
- Prominent Investments: Conduit, Novisto, Baselane
Based out of Montreal, Diagram Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm that looks to invest in fintech, software, healthcare, and the blockchain sectors. They normally look to invest in the Series-A round of investments and typically invest between the $3-5 million range. The VC has made some prominent investments across sectors including; Collage, Novisto, Retirable and Conduit. Most of these investments have gone onto become successful companies and some have even IPO’ed.
- Founded: 2007
- Headquarters: Montreal, Quebec
- AUM: NA
- Prominent Investments: Accredible, Algolux, Cala
Based out of Montreal, Real Ventures is an early-stage Venture Capital firm, that invests across industries. Real Ventures provides capital to startups in sectors such as, AI & Robotics, Blockchain, Construction, Consumer, Education, Enterprise, Financial, Health & Wellness, Marketplace, Security & Infrastructure, and Transportation sectors. They have made prominent investments in companies such as Accredible and AmpMe, and typically invest anywhere between $5-$20 million, in Series-A through D.
- Founded: 2009
- Headquarters: Vancouver, BC
- AUM: $ 1billion+
- Prominent Investments: Pioneering Technology, Renoworks, Gatekeeper.
Brisio Innovations is an early-stage venture capital firm that looks to invest in primarily in Series A-and Series-B rounds. Brisio Innovations, provides capital that have shown potential for high growth and expansion. Targeting private and public companies, the VC firm invests in a wide range of industries including Healthcare, industrial, services, and technology.
- Founded: 2019
- Headquarters: Toronto, Ontario
- AUM: $500 million
- Prominent Investments: Nurx, Gatik
Wittington Ventures is an e-commerce firm that invests in early-stage companies. It invests in e-commerce, healthcare, and food sectors. Although the firm is new the VC scene, it has become one of the most active investors since coming on. It has invested in numerous prominent names such as Nurx a specialized healthcare provider and Gatik a B2B software company. The fund has no typical investment size but has invested anywhere from $10-20 million in investments.
- Founded: 2017
- Headquarters: Toronto Ontario
- AUM: $400 million+
- Prominent Investments: Pockethealth, Covariant
Based out of Toronto, Ontario, Radical Ventures is another prominent venture capital firm on the market. The firm makes pre-seed and seed investments across a number of sectors. They have been one of the most influential deep-tech investors, and tend to be quite focused with their investments. They recently launched a $350 million dollar fund to invest in deep tech and transformative AI technologies. Their typical deal size is around $5-10 million, and have invested in prominent names such as, Covariant, Pixxel, Synex, Pockethealth and Twelve Labds.
- Founded: 1998
- Headquarters: Toronto, Ontario
- AUM: $2 billion+
- Prominent Investments: Freedom Mobile, Yak communication
Global Live capital is a venture capital firm that is based out of Toronto Ontario. The fund seeks to invest in early-stage, seed stage and later stage investments. It has a focus on TMT, healthcare, real estate and AI based startups. Prominent investments include Freedom Mobile, Gridcure, EnergyX, and Skywatch. The firm has no typical deal size, and invests across various stages.
- Founded: 2012
- Headquarters: Toronto, Ontarto
- AUM: $1 billion+
- Prominent Investments: Smart Energy Instruments, Parity, MMB Networks
Founded in 2012, ArcTern Ventures is a venture capital firm based in Toronto, Canada. The firm prefers to invest in energy equipment, information technology, and artificial intelligence sectors. They have no typical deal size and have invested in a number of prominent startups, names such as, Palmetto, Clir, Terramerra, Morgan Solar.
Venture Capital Investors
Are you looking for Canadian venture investment firms for your startup?
These are the Canadian investment firms out there. They are the most-well known investors in the Canadian VC space and have invested across a range of startups.
Venture Capital Investors
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