TORONTO, May 18, 2022 /Private Capital Newswire (pcNewswire)/ – Canadian venture capital (VC) disbursements[1] reached $9,425 million from 708 financings in 2022. Though a substantial decrease (33%) in disbursements from 2021, the best Canadian VC year in history, 2022 still ranked as the second-best VC year in terms of disbursements.
All dollar ($) figures in Canadian dollars unless otherwise noted.
VC funding sources (who funds Canadian companies)
US and International investors invested $4.24 billion and $1.70 billion, representing 45% and 18% of the total disbursements respectively. Canadian investors invested $3.49 billion for 37% of the total.
VC investors, Canadian and non-Canadian, invested a combined $3.30 billion or 35% of the total disbursements. Specifically, Canadian, US and international VCs invested $2,062 million (22%), $972 million (10%) and $268 million (3%) respectively.
Corporate investors led by US corporate investors invested a combined $2.44 billion (26%), consisting of $1,154 million, $831 million, and $454 million by US, International and Canadian corporation investors respectively.
Family Office investors investing $893 million (9%), comprised of $367 million (Canadian), $289 million (International) and $$237 million (US).
Following VC, Corporate and Family Office investors, Government investors invested $780 million, $774 million (8%) of which by Canadian government investors.
2022 VC disbursements
Provinces
Ontario, Quebec, and BC companies were the leading recipients of VC disbursements, securing $3.50 billion, $2.45 billion $2.23 billion respectively.
| Province | # Fins | $ Millions |
| Alberta | 90 | 837 |
| British Columbia | 155 | 2,227 |
| Manitoba | 4 | 44 |
| New Brunswick | 14 | 100 |
| Newfoundland and Labrador | 1 | 26 |
| Nova Scotia | 29 | 108 |
| Ontario | 276 | 3,497 |
| Prince Edward Island | 2 | 4 |
| Quebec | 116 | 2,452 |
| Saskatchewan | 21 | 131 |
Municipal Cities
Companies from 66 municipal cities secured venture capital funding in 2022 with Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver leading with $2.49 billion, $2.10 billion and $1.73 billion respectively.
| City | Province |
|
$ Millions | |
| Toronto | Ontario | 164 | 2,485 | |
| Montreal | Quebec | 86 | 2,100 | |
| Vancouver | British Columbia | 113 | 1,731 | |
| Calgary | Alberta | 77 | 746 | |
| Waterloo | Ontario | 12 | 292 | |
| Ottawa | Ontario | 37 | 252 | |
| Quebec City | Quebec | 15 | 245 | |
| Mississauga | Ontario | 17 | 208 | |
| Victoria | British Columbia | 10 | 201 | |
| Kitchener | Ontario | 14 | 138 | |
| Saskatoon | Saskatchewan | 19 | 126 |
Sectors
ICT companies raised $5.13 billion or 54% of the total disbursements. Cleantech2 companies secured $1.97 billion, ahead of $1.14 billion raised by biotech companies.
Stages
Early stage and growth/late-stage financings raised $5.66 billion and $2.21 billion respectively.
Seed/pre-seed stage financings raised $598 million from 169 financings. Bridge financing raised $442 million from 107 financings.
Company size
Companies with 0-49, 50-99, 100-499 and 500+ employees raised $6.17 billion, $707 million, $2.54 billion, and $10 million respectively.
2022 VC fund fundraising
48 Canadian venture capital funds raised $4.74 billion in 2022. 2 BDC funds (allocated capital) accounted for 19% of the total fundraising by Canadian VC firms.
| Type | # Funds | $ Millions |
| Government Fund | 2 | 900 |
| Corporate VC | 1 | 150 |
| Private VC | 41 | 3,568 |
| Social Impact | 2 | 105 |
| Accelerator Fund | 2 | 21 |
| Total | 48 | 4,744 |
2022 Leading VC law firms
Dentons Canada LLP led all VC firms in 2022 involving in 114 VC financings.
| Law Firm | # Fins | $ Millions |
| Dentons Canada LLP | 114 | 612 |
| Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP | 65 | 2,137 |
| Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP | 29 | 229 |
| Borden Ladner Gervais LLP | 19 | 119 |
| Bennett Jones LLP | 14 | 56 |
| McInnes Cooper | 10 | 9 |
| Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP | 9 | 261 |
| LaBarge Weinstein LLP | 9 | 43 |
| Burnet, Duckworth & Palmer LLP | 9 | 25 |
| DLA Piper (Canada) LLP | 8 | 45 |
“2022 reveals the continuing over concentration of venture capital investment in three provinces, namely Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia which together accounted for 86.7% of all venture capital investment dollars. This situation poses a challenge for government policy makers and their regional development efforts – namely how, or even whether, to promote venture capital investment outside of those three provinces. Another feature revealed by the data is the 20.9% contribution of clean tech which bears watching in light of the federal government 2023 Budget which committed significant policy support to clean tech. Finally, it is notable that 65.4% of all venture capital investment dollars went to the smallest companies (0 – 49 employees), which suggests that scale ups received comparably less support, thus continuing a pattern of underfunding for medium-sized firms,” commented Richard Rémillard, President of Rémillard Consulting Group (RCG).
Summary report
Summary report can be downloaded from financings.ca website: https://www.financings.ca/reports/
Methodology
Included
- Equity and quasi-equity investments in companies directly.
Excluded
- Secondary transactions (investor/shareholder exit events) in which companies received no money
- PE transactions
- Financing by foreign headquartered/domiciled companies with Canadian subsidiaries.
Rémillard Consulting Group (RCG)
Rémillard Consulting Group (RCG) is a unique, Ottawa-based, bilingual consulting firm specializing in providing private sector, government & trade association clients with creative, research-grounded solutions to business issues and public policies involving the Canadian financial services industry. For more information: rremillard@bellnet.ca
CPE Analytics
With over 78,700 financing transactions in its Canadian Financings database, CPE Analytics is Canada’s leading all financing intelligence provider. We provide comprehensive, verified, and unbiased information and unmatched insights and intelligence on private and public financings, initial public offerings (IPOs), M&As, professional investment firm fundraising activities.
We cover all aspects of VC information, not limited to but including Canada’s only information on VC firm fundraising, VC funding sources (where all the VC came from).
CPE Analytics is the data analytics division of CPE Media & Data Company. More Info: https://cpeanalytics.ca, https://financings.ca
CPE Media & Data Company
Founded by Canada’s the most experienced private capital and financing research experts, CPE Media & Data Company is Canada’s leading all financing news and intelligence provider. More information: https://cpecompany.ca/
Contact
Ted Liu, President & CEO
CPE Media & Data Company
647-782-8818, tzliu at cpecompany.ca
Source: CPE Media & Data Company
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[1] CPE Analytics tracks disbursements, money went to the companies (primary funding); we specifically exclude secondary transactions as part of overall funding rounds. For example, we only included US $321 million of 1Password’s US $620 million funding round and excluded $299 million secondary transaction with the founders and management. Also noted that 1Password deal was a 2021 deal, not a 2022 financing.
2 CPE Analytics has re-classified and included advanced agri-tech in cleantech.
