By Mark Evans
It must have been quite the party last week at the Canadian Venture Capital Association’s annual meeting in Montreal.
In stark contrast to previous years, it seems attendees were downright giddy about the venture capital landscape and where it’s heading. It may be that after several years of bad news, a glimmer of encouragement was enough to spark a wave of optimism and high-fives.
What seemed to send everyone over the top was a comment by Jit Sinha, a senior partner of JMI Equity in Baltimore, who declared Canada to be “sexy” on a panel aptly title “Is Canada Sexy Now?” You know nothing gets people more excited than be called “sexy.”
But is Canada really “sexy,”or just starting to look good after everyone has got caught up in the excitement after a few drinks? Compared with a few years ago, we’re definitely more alluring, but I’m not so sure about the “sexy.”
Sure, the Canadian VC landscape is looking more promising. A couple of new funds were launched last week by Rho Ventures and Celtic House, and more may be coming from U.S. investors. At the same time, however, there are holes in the ecosystem that can’t be papered over by bubbly enthusiasm.
Despite more support for early-stage startups (thank you, FounderFuel, GrowLab, Extreme Venture Partners, et al.), there’s still a dearth of growth capital. After those dozens of startups graduate from the accelerators and incubators, will the capital be there domestically to help them thrive and realize their potential? Without growth capital, the growth market will be similar to what the seed landscape was like a few years ago.
For more thoughts on the Canadian VC landscape, check out Jevon MacDonald’s post on StartupNorth about how Canadian VCs better get their acts together to stay competitive with U.S. counterparts. Mark MacLeod kicked things off with a great post about the state of the VC landscape, and how it’s time to take things to the next level.
First published on markevanstech.com.
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