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Canadian Venture Capital Market Overview Q1 2025 (CVCA)

ReportCVCAJanuary 202532 pages48 min readOriginal source
Key number
$1.26B CAD
Total VC Investment p.8
Largest segment
$ICT 807M
Top Sector by Dollars p.15
What changed
+22%
Average Deal Size YoY p.7

Summary

  • Total venture capital investment reached $1.26B across 116 deals in Q1 2025.p.8
  • Five mega-deals ($50M+) closed in Q1 2025, representing $576M or 46% of total dollars invested.p.7
  • Ontario led provincial investment with $694M across 46 deals, followed by Quebec with $301M across 30 deals.p.8
  • The ICT sector attracted $807M across 58 deals, representing 64% of total VC dollars invested.p.15
  • Later-stage funding accounted for 11% of deals and 28% of total venture capital invested in Q1 2025.p.13
  • Venture debt activity reached $283M deployed across 14 transactions in Q1 2025.p.20
  • Exit activity slowed to 7 M&A exits raising $149M, with 0 VC-backed IPOs recorded in Q1 2025.p.22

Key insights

  1. Average deal size in Q1 2025 increased by 22% year-over-year, rising from $8.94M in Q1 2024 to $10.89M.p.7
  2. Pre-seed and seed-stage investments declined quarter-over-quarter by 24% and 27%, respectively.p.13
  3. Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta collectively accounted for 90% of all dollars invested and 76% of all deals closed in Q1 2025.p.6
  4. Alberta ranked third among provinces with $140M invested, surpassing British Columbia which saw $80M invested.p.6
  5. Montréal-based dcbel completed the quarter's largest disclosed deal, raising $79M in a later-stage round.p.6
  6. Venture debt dollars deployed in Q1 2025 represented a 229% increase compared to the average Q1 investment level since 2020.p.20
  7. M&A exit proceeds declined significantly from $3.3B across 14 deals in Q1 2024 to $149M across 7 deals in Q1 2025.p.22

Topics and entities

IPOs and listingsM&A and exitsPrivate debt and venture debtPrivate marketsStartup fundingVenture capitalBDC Capital Inc.BMO Capital PartnersBuild VenturesCIBC Innovation BankingdcbelDeloitte VenturesDesjardins CapitalExport Development Canada (EDC)Fonds de solidarité FTQGolden Triangle Angel Network (GTAN)Inovia Capital Inc.Lumira VenturesNanoprecise Sci CorpYaletown Partners IncY Combinator

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