It’s been a rocky couple of years for Canadian venture capital. Josh Scott has an excellent temperature check from GPs and LPs at different fund stages. Spoiler alert: it’s not exactly pretty. This year, Canadian VCs are on track to raise the lowest amount of capital in a decade, with a paltry $500 million in the bank so far. That’s a far cry from the $7 billion raised during the zero-interest-rate policy environment of 2021 and the $7.4 billion raised in 2022 as carryover fundraising from the year prior.
But markets, including venture capital, are cyclical. Another interest rate cut is expected soon, continuing the trendline towards greater liquidity. The general malaise throughout the ecosystem is understandable, but temporary.
And according to John Rikhtegar, director of capital at RBCx, current struggles will yield future success. “When you have less capital being allocated to an asset class, I fundamentally believe that that means the very best founders and the very best investors will get that capital, and as a result, be able to produce some of the best-performing [VC] vintages on record,” he told BetaKit at Startupfest.
Vines that struggle produce better grapes.
The funds that can convince LPs to not store their money in less risk-averse assets will be the ones that can successfully argue they’re picking the high-performing startups that will get better with age.
Thanks for reading on and ’til next week,
Bianca Bharti
Newsletter editor
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TOP STORIES OF THE WEEK
BDC among those to experience interruptions as part of CrowdStrike outage
Flights were grounded and hospitals, emergency services, and countless businesses dealt with blue screens of death. Troy Hunt, the cybersecurity expert known for creating the password-breach monitoring service HaveIBeenPwned, described the current disruption as “the largest IT outage in history.”
The Business Development Bank of Canada, the Crown corporation that provides funding and consulting to Canadian entrepreneurs, announced on X (formerly known as Twitter) at 8:36 AM EDT on Friday that it was experiencing “some technology interruptions” owing to the CrowdStrike global outage.
Fifteen years after spinning out Hootsuite, Invoke gets with the Incrowd
The name Ryan Holmes might be synonymous with Hootsuite, but those versed in Vancouver tech lore will know that the social media management mainstay was not his first gig.
Invoke, which Holmes founded back in the early aughts and out of which he would eventually spin Hootsuite, is hard to pin down in just a word. Over the past two decades, it has evolved through multiple incarnations: product studio, digital media agency, and incubator.
Those various identities have shifted with changing leadership, but under current managing director Dominic Wong, Invoke has recently sought a return to its roots. Still avoiding any specific label, Wong describes Invoke today as “a company that builds digital products and starts new companies.”
Accelerator Centre appoints alum Ruth Casselman as permanent CEO
After an extensive search, the Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont.-based Accelerator Centre (AC) has decided the best candidate for its CEO is the one already in place.
Ruth Casselman, who has served as interim CEO at the AC since March of this year, has been named CEO of the organization.
Founded in Waterloo in 2006, AC has been a key player in the local tech ecosystem, having supported more than 750 startups and attracted $1.8 billion in investments for its companies, according to its 2023 report.
Scanning new horizons for healthtech expansion
Transplanting a startup from Brazil to Canada isn’t just a change in latitude. For Rubens Fernando Mendrone, founder and CEO of Linda Lifetech, it meant navigating unfamiliar terrain in a quest to revolutionize breast cancer screening.
Linda, founded in São Paulo, Brazil, uses artificial intelligence and infrared imaging to provide a crucial early detection service for breast cancer.
This tech, which runs on an Android phone paired with an infrared sensor, is especially vital in providing a fast, safe, non-invasive screening alternative for younger women, who typically don’t qualify for regular mammograms.
Are you an AI company or a company that uses AI?
For the past 18 months, artificial intelligence has been the drumbeat of the tech world, and it’s triggered an identity crisis for many SaaS startups.
As investors have redirected their coffers toward AI opportunities, many startups have decided they need to become AI companies.
But Scott Loong, partner at Panache Ventures, said this pivot is often unnecessary and unsuccessful. He spends much of his time figuring out if companies are AI-native or AI-enabled, and said it’s a distinction more founders need to consider.
De-risking Innovation Adoption in B.C
From supporting the testing and integration of zero- and low-emission trucks at the Port of Prince Rupert to helping farmers procure new technology for their operations, B.C.’s Integrated Marketplace is catalyzing innovation across the province. Delivered through Innovate BC, this program works to de-risk innovation adoption for B.C. industries while giving local solution providers an avenue to connect with significant customers to aid in their growth.
Learn more at innovatebc.ca.
Funding, Acquisitions, and Layoffs
VAN – Acel Power – $13.6M CAD
VAN – Unbounce merges with Insightly
KEL – RainStick Shower – $2.6M CAD
CGY – Digital Commerce Payments acquires Jasper Commerce’s operating business
EDM – Artificial Agency – $17M CAD
EDM – Emissions Reduction Alberta invests $44.4M CAD across 21 projects
KWL – Ceragen – $2.7M CAD
TOR – Uberflip acquired by PathFactory
TOR – Shoppers Drug Mart signs deal with Truvian Health
OTT – Ocean Supercluster gets $8M backing
OTT/MTL – ReliON – $3M CAD
MTL – Planned – $35M CAD
The BetaKit Podcast
Can video games teach kids math?
“I deeply want to solve the challenges in education. I think what we have is a current educational system is really not working.”
Mobius Math Club co-founder Steven Woods (ex-Eloqua, Oracle, and Benevity) explains how video games are actually a great educational tool, and why taking venture capital won’t help him scale.
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