Venture capital is flowing through Alberta and Calgary is the heart of investment.
Blue Sky City shined on the national stage this month as the region snagged second spot for most venture capital investment through the first half of 2024.
With $455 million across 37 deals, Calgary narrowly outpaced Montreal’s $440 million across 31 deals, a report on financings found.
Blue Sky was the only Alberta city on the list, which saw seven of the 10 regions hail from British Columbia (Vancouver in 4th, Burnaby in 6th, Richmond in 8th, and Surrey in 10th) and Ontario (Toronto in 1st, Ottawa in 7th, and Waterloo in 9th).
CPE’s report also revealed nationwide concerns.
While there are signals of strength regarding venture capital flow in Canada, one major worry is that a small percentage is private capital from within the country.
Foreign investment dominates the landscape, for example, with U.S. financing alone accounting for a majority of the total. From 2017 through 2021, however, that figure was always well below 50%.
In addition, public sector financing within Canada is outpacing the private investment badly, which is not economically sustainable, according to experts.
The current top Canadian VC? The government—by far.
“The private VC fund industry in Canada could be regarded as a quasi-government entity in all but name,” warns Richard Rémillard, who serves as President of Rémillard Consulting Group, which conducted the report alongside CPE Analytics.
Canada-wide, there were more than 350 deals in the first half of 2024, CPE found.
CPE Analytics was founded by Ted Liu in 1992.