“You can create global businesses in Canada, get all the benefits that follow, and create jobs here… Canada is really maturing as far as the technology ecosystem goes,” Grantmyre says.
The report also highlights increased participation from women-led ventures. In 2024, 21.3 percent of the companies captured in the report were founded by women – up from 14.7 percent in 2023. However, women-founded businesses accounted for just 12 percent of the total capital raised, with most of these investments occurring at the Series Seed and Series A stages.
Tariff uncertainty
The lawyer says 2024 will be marked by a different kind of uncertainty – primarily political and economic developments in the United States. He points to the Q1 report by the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA), which shows that investors are not retreating from venture capital but are taking more time to evaluate potential investments.
With uncertainty surrounding potential policy changes under the Trump administration, he says investors are grappling with more than just economic variables like interest rates. Unlike rising borrowing costs, which he says can be factored into valuations, geopolitical and trade uncertainties, especially around tariffs, are more challenging to quantify, he adds.
Ryan Unruch, a partner in Osler’s same practice group, says many companies returning to the market in 2025 will face a very different landscape than in 2021–2022.
