B.C.’s VC market still hot

Credit: iStock

West Coast companies accounted for a quarter of Canadian venture capital investment

Once again B.C. is punching above its weight in nationwide venture capital activity, according to the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association’s survey for the first half of 2017. West Coast companies accounted for a quarter of Canadian VC investment by dollar value at $410 million. The largest of 42 deals in the province was the $76 million in secondary financing injected into Vision Critical Communications Inc. by Georgian Partners and W Capital Partners. Also notable was the initial public offering of Vancouver-based biotech firm Zymeworks Inc. on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges. The growing presence of multinational tech firms including Amazon and Microsoft may in fact be helping the startup ecosystem flourish, instead of poaching local talent, as many local startups once feared.