Canada's Venture Capital Landscape (BDC Capital)

Summary

• The top 10 disclosed deals accounted for 49% of VC investments and only 1.8% of deal count.p.7
• AI accounted for 48% of all capital deployed, an expansion of 5 percentage points over the previous year.p.7
• Mega deals above $50 million represented just 5% of all deal activity but contributed 66% of deployed capital.p.8
• Toronto, Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver accounted for 82% of total investments in Canada in 2025.p.10
• The ICT sector attracted 63% of total invested capital and accounted for 47% of deal share.p.11
• Venture debt volume reached a record high of $1.4 billion across 69 deals in 2025.p.23

Key insights

1. Canadian-only syndicates accounted for roughly 55% to 70% of transactions between 2019 and 2025, but syndicates with foreign participation contributed between 75% and 85% of total VC dollars.p.9
2. Canadian-only investor syndicates led 76% of seed deals, while U.S.-participating syndicates become prominent at later stages.p.14
3. Global VC posted a 10-year IRR of 12.4%.p.18
4. Canada's 10-year VC IRR slipped to 8.6%, down from 10.0% in 2024.p.19
5. The proportion of down rounds in BDC's direct investments decreased from 24% to 13%, while flat rounds rose from 14% to 22%.p.23
6. Canadian VC-backed M&A reached its lowest level in over a decade in 2025, and no VC-backed company reached the public markets in the past two years.p.26
7. The share of U.S. entrepreneurship visas issued to Canadians rose from 41% in FY15 to 67% in FY24.p.17
8. Federal budget announcements include a $1 billion Venture and Growth Capital Catalyst Initiative and a proposed additional $750 million envelope.p.4