There are so many providers reporting where the Canadian venture capital (VC) money went, but little is known where the money came from.
It has been known, for years, that US investors have been major backers in promising Canadian startup companies. But there has never been a quantifiable study to measure just how dominant and how important the US and foreign investors to Canadian venture capital ecosystem.
CPE Media Inc. today released Canada’s first study on the funding sources of Canadian venture capital investments, and on foreign VC influence in Canadian venture capital investments.
In 2016, Canadian startup companies raised $3.02 billion in 317 venture capital funding rounds.
US investors participated in 40% of the funding rounds and invested 35% of the total amount. To put this into perspective, every three dollars ($3.00) raised by Canadian startup companies, one dollar and four cents ($1.04) came from US investors, while Ontario and Quebec investors combined contributed one dollar and thirteen cents ($1.13).
In 2016, the following foreign countries or jurisdictions participated in Canadian venture capital funding rounds, in alphabetic order:
Australia, Belgium, Cayman Islands, China, France, Germany, Guernsey, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Monaco, The Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russian Federation, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, Uruguay, United States of America, Virgin Islands British.
Next in our series of analyses: ranking of 44 cities received VC funding in 2016.
Methodology
Data is complied from Private Capital Dealbase, CPE Media’s all new private capital deal database. Information is collected and cross-verified from numerous public sources.
Venture Capital deals include equity and quasi-equity investments led by professionally managed funds, family offices, private investment firms/merchant banks, corporate strategic investment units, and mutual and hedge fund mangers.
Excluded
- angel deals or angel deals in between venture rounds;
- subordinate debt investments by federal/provincial governments or retail funds as ways of economic and business support with no equity components;
- grants by federal/provincial economic development agencies or quasi-government agencies such as Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC);
- pure pharmaceutical development deals;
- growth equity with significant minority equity positions.