Canada’s Top 20 Venture Capital Firms [2023]

2021 was a record year for Canada’s venture capital firms: they invested a whopping $14.2 billion across 751 deals vs. $4.5 billion the year prior..!

Whether you are raising seed, Series A or higher, in this article we have listed our top picks for Canada’s best venture capital firms, their industry focus and investment size. So, if you haven’t yet started to reach out, here is a good place to start learning about them.

Note: this article is part of a series where we present you the top Venture Capital firms across the world. For Canada, also have a look at Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal.

Top 20 Venture Capital Firms In Canada

Here’s a summary of our top 20 picks for Canada’s best venture capital firms for tech startups (in alphabetical order):

1. BDC Venture Capital

BDC Venture Capital is one of Canada’s most active capital investor helping technology innovators build excellent companies. The VC firm brings years of experience building Powerhouse Canadian technology companies. They are committed to backing the underserved sectors and connecting founders by opening doors and providing opportunities where others don’t. 

The BDC Venture Capital funds present entrepreneurs with diverse opportunities for innovating in new and existing markets. Their venture funds include:

• Deep tech venture fund
• Women in technology venture fund
• Industrial, clean, and energy technology venture fund
• Growth venture Co-investment fund

Besides financial investments, the Vc firm provides entrepreneurs advisory services to help them build successful ventures.  

2. BrightSpark

BrightSpark is an early-stage VC firm investing in exceptional technology companies. The VC firm brings together a team of VC veterans, successful ex-operators, and a new generation of future GPs who mentor and help their investee companies through the challenging journey of business growth.

BrightSpark invests in talented and experienced entrepreneurs at the early stage of their business and supports them as they grow into an industry-dominating technology company. The founder-centric VC firm looks for and backs founders who have the ambition for building a global company. They look for entrepreneurs with aligned interests and a positive culture. 

3. Chrysalix

Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital invests in companies focusing on building intelligent systems energy technology. The look for founders who provide productivity solutions to help in delivering outsized financial returns and environmental sustainability.

The VC supports startups to build and achieve more extensive and accelerated outcomes. Their input includes providing unique market insight and sophisticated go-to-market strategies. They introduce founders to customers, partners, and other investors and help them build top talent.

Chrysalix Energy Venture Capital looks for founders venturing into attractive markets and business models that compel customers and have a high-level value proposition. Ideally, they are after creating a sustainable competitive advantage and helping founders start a strong team. 

4. Cycle Capital

Cycle Capital is an investment company that partners with ambitious entrepreneurs in building innovative Cleantech companies. 

The VC firm focuses on enabling entrepreneurs, investors, and companies to find innovative solutions to humanity’s most ecological issues. 

The financial entrepreneurs aim high and implement all the necessary means to help the portfolio companies go from dream to reality. They inspire partners and collaborators to dream more, dare more, and surpass themselves.

5. Emerald Technology Ventures

Emerald Technology Ventures is a VC firm committed to building a sustainable future at the crossroads of industry and technology. The VC firm invests in technology startups that develop solutions for the agriculture sector energy sector and address climate change.  

The VC firm invests in seed and series A business growth phases and dedicates its resources to tackling the most significant challenges to stop climate change and create a sustainable future. They understand technologies and work towards helping entrepreneurs navigate the inevitable challenges when expanding their businesses.

Emerald Technology Ventures provides investee startups access to a unique network and talented team to add value in strategy, governance, and IP strategy. 

6. Extreme Venture Partners

Extreme Venture Partners support Toronto-based seed-stage startups. They prefer taking the lead investor position and are passionate about working with innovators who drive technological change while creating employment opportunities and impact.

Since its inception, Extreme Venture Partners has registered more than 100 ventures as a lead investor. They have created and managed three funds, made more than 5,000 exceptional careers and created billions in shareholder value creation. 

7. Georgian

Georgian invests in high-growth technology companies that can benefit from their platform. They prefer backing teams with outstanding leadership and strong work culture and those raising between $25 and &75 Million while generating $500K+ in monthly recurring revenue.

The VC firm provides entrepreneurs with an intelligent, data-driven platform, enabling accelerated company growth. In addition, they provide entrepreneurs access to invaluable data, helping them deliver insights and reach better and faster decisions.

Their management team leverages the insights from data and automated platforms to address the key challenges facing growth-stage entrepreneurs. 

8. Golden Ventures

Golden Ventures is a sector agnostic VC firm investing at the seed stage and targeting Canada and USA-based entrepreneurs. The VC firm makes initial checks of between $500K and $2M for 7% – 15% ownership.

Golden Ventures looks for product visionaries and strong technologists with a big ambition. The founders must show their domain expertise and strong learning abilities to get invested. Besides, their products or ideas must significantly improve the existing solutions.

The VC firm likes to lead or to co-lead. Besides, they create reserve capital for each investment and apply the reserves based on the company’s progress. 

9. iGan Partners

iGan Partners is a Toronto-based venture capital investor targeting exceptional founders. The VC firm supports the commercialization of technology solutions that work towards creating advancements in the healthcare sector. The Venture Capital firm seeks to be a change catalyst in healthcare by helping dynamic entrepreneurs grow and excel in business.

iGan aims at enabling entrepreneurs to address the significant challenges in the healthcare sector. Therefore, they provide funding and focus on building lasting partnerships with founders.

iGan Partners adopt the hands-on approach supporting investee companies and helping them secure critical customers. Besides, they provide a strong network of industry partners to mentor and support entrepreneurs. 

10. Inovia Capital

Inovia Capital is a venture capital firm that supports founders focusing on technology. The VC firm partners with founders and backs them to build enduring global technology companies. Their support includes long-term mentorship, a robust talent network, and strategic support to help them scale. Inovia Capital invests in startups from the seed stage through IPO and beyond.

The VC firm is committed to founders’ success and brings together more than 40 team members to support early and growth-stage businesses. The team includes investment professionals, operators, entrepreneurs, and talented staff dedicated to working with the founders.

The VC firm operates globally and has offices in Canada, the Bay Area, and London. 

11. Lumira Ventures

Lumira Ventures is a venture capital firm that partners with exceptional entrepreneurs in building life science companies that will transform the lives of patients globally. The VC firm has years of experience founding, managing, and investing in healthcare and life science companies. They look for founders ready to collaborate and deploy their creativity and conventional wisdom in improving the industry.

Lumira Ventures is strategically situated in North America, identifies innovative startups within and outside the traditional startup hubs, and helps them access capital, talent, and strategic partners.  

12. Panache Ventures

Panache Ventures invests in forward-thinking high-growth Canadian startups building technology-focused solutions. The VC firm supports founders who have identified a problem and working towards creating a practical solution. They are keen on founders who have proven the market potential is super scalable, and have developed a commercial product or service addressing the problem. 

The VC firm invests at pre-seed and seed stages and provides check sizes of between $250K and $500K.

By partnering with Panache Ventures, portfolio companies gain access to peers and partners with relevant experience. The investee companies receive mentorship from investors, experts and consumers.

13. Pangaea

Pangaea Ventures invests in entrepreneurs who figure out solutions to solve the world’s most fundamental problems using advanced materials. The VC firm backs entrepreneurs by providing venture capital and strategic advisory to help them build successful businesses. Besides, Pangaea Ventures works closely with world-leading strategic limited partners who bring diverse market and industry knowledge.

The VC firm invests in companies that combine chemistry, biology, and physics with engineering and hardware to make entirely new materials and solve fundamental challenges that impact the globe. They invest at the early stages and support entrepreneurs throughout their business lifecycle.  

14. Real Ventures

Real Ventures is an early-stage venture builder supporting game-changing technology leaders building the future. 

Based in Canada, the VC firm dedicates its resources to serving entrepreneurs and nurturing the communities in which they thrive. The venture capital firm seeks collaboration and connection opportunities and works towards creating a more vibrant technology community. 

They help founders lay enduring foundations by supporting them from the pre-seed stage and supporting them as they scale. 

Typically, the Real Ventures team leverages their talents and experiences in supporting their founders in the best way they can. 

15. Relay Ventures

Relay Ventures is a vertically focused venture capitalist investing early and throughout the startup lifecycle. The VC firm targets startups with growth potential and fuelled by the rapid adoption of technology. The VC firm has an active presence in Toronto and Calgary.

Relay Ventures invests in four verticals that they believe technology has an outsized impact. The four verticals include proptech, mobility, fintech, and sportstech. The VC firm takes a hands-on approach to propel its founders to success. 

The VC firm’s approach enables them to provide industry and ecosystem access to portfolio companies and accelerated customer relationships.

16. Renewal Funds

Renewal Funds is a mission-focused venture capital firm investing in early growth stage companies to accelerate the transition to a sustainable future.

The VC firm backs innovations that work towards advancing the sustainability of food, water, and climate sustainability and contributing to a safer and cleaner planet. Therefore, their portfolio comprises two sectors, namely environmental innovation and sustainable consumer products. Their investments focus on energy, water, mobility, food, and sustainable agricultural projects.

17. ScaleUp

ScaleUp ventures is another of Canada’s top venture capital firms.

The Venture Capital firm supports creative entrepreneurs by investing time and expertise to help them get to the market and to scale up faster. The investment firm helps the early-stage technology companies to scale up to the global market. They help the entrepreneurs drive tremendous success in the Canadian technology sector.

To attain its objective, the VC firm works hands-on, helping the entrepreneurs solve problems and in making essential connections that offer valuable perspective and mentorships. 

18. Vanedge Capital

Vanedge Capital is a venture capital firm focusing on hard tech, analytics, and computational biology.

The Vc firm brings capital, deep domain expertise, and operational experience to help founders scale their startups and position them for growth. 

The early-stage VC firm aspires to work with companies that work on changing the world through foundational technologies. They partner with their founders at the earliest stages and enable them to become their trusted source of capital and advice.

The Vanedge Capital helps entrepreneurs identify technology trends early. They focus on enabling the founders to mitigate execution risk and help them create momentum, grow fast, and dominate new markets. 

19. Versant Ventures

Versant Ventures is a VC firm focused on harnessing the power of science to improve the healthcare sector. Therefore, the capital investor provides founders access to a team of experts with over 60 years of experience in the pharmacy sector and biotech industry.

Their discovery engines comprise in-house teams from multi-disciplinary sectors and working in state-of-the-art laboratory facilities to launch biotechnology companies.

The VC firm has a presence in Vancouver, Toronto, San Diego, New York, San Francisco, and Basel.  

20. Yaletown

Yaletown Partners invests in software, data, and device technologies disrupting and modernizing the traditional industries. The VC firm works on creating a proper foundation for growth while delivering real value. They seek to become strategic partners, so they back the founder’s vision helping in building an enduring business and bringing value beyond the financial investments.

The VC firm brings a team of successful entrepreneurs and industry executives who help the founders through the challenging journey of building a successful venture. Their typical investments fall in the range of $500K-$2.5M.