This week, the Globe & Mail reported that venture-capital investment surged to its strongest first half on record, injecting $2.15-billion into Canadian startups and scale-ups, according to the Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (CVCA).
Helped along by a record second quarter, which saw $1.28-billion invested over 143 deals, venture-capital (VC) investment in Canada beat the previous record of $1.7-billion set in the first half of 2018, according to the CVCA’s market overview report, released on Tuesday.
Eleven “megadeals” – investments worth $50-million or more – accounted for 42 per cent of VC investment, the CVCA said. Four of those deals reached more than $100-million. Overall, the average deal size was $9-million, a 22-per-cent increase from the second quarter last year and up 26 per cent compared with the average deal size over the past five years of $5.9-million.
“You’re seeing more dollars, bigger deals, a variety of financing options, and that is a direct correlation to the quality of businesses that are being started by Canadian entrepreneurs,” CVCA chief executive Kim Furlong said.
Information- and communications-technology companies made up more than half of Canadian venture investment at 54 per cent, with $1.2-billion over 144 deals. Life sciences surpassed the five-year average of 21 per cent, accounting for 27 per cent of VC investments with $586-million over 55 deals.