TMX Group, which owns the Toronto Stock Exchange, TSX Venture Exchange, and Montreal Exchange, announced that it is funding an independent working group examining ways to increase access to growth capital for Canadian companies.
The Roundtable will be chaired by Salil Munjal, general partner at Yaletown Partners.
The Advancing Innovation Roundtable, which will launch in September, will focus on the scalability issues facing Canada’s tech companies caused by a lack of growth funding beyond the early stage. The Roundtable will be chaired by Salil Munjal, general partner at Yaletown Partners, and former president of the Leitech Technology Corporation.
“Where Canada lags behind our global peers is in the development of market-leading technology companies with significant scale,” said Munjal. “The Roundtable will explore new strategies to increase the supply of growth capital to develop large, next-generation companies in Canada. I look forward to collaborating with TMX and leading experts in the Canadian investment community to realize the full potential of Canada’s innovation economy companies.”
The Roundtable will release its recommendations in early 2017, looking at how to scale globally competitive companies in sectors like cleantech, life sciences, and advanced manufacturing.
“TMX is focused on powering the development of an innovation economy in Canada,” said Lou Eccleston, CEO of TMX Group. “Canadian capital markets are vital to helping entrepreneurs through the crucial start-up phase, but also later in the financing chain as their companies scale up to become market leaders. The Roundtable recommendations will help accelerate the growth of Canadian businesses and better position Canada’s economy for high-quality economic development and job creation. Salil’s experiencein both the private and public markets as a leading investor and successful business leader positions him well to help guide the Roundtable.”