In the first half of 2024, venture capital investments totalled nearly $3.6 billion across almost 300 deals, as blood slowly returns to a pale Canada.
Despite the lowest deal volume since 2020, average deal size continues to grow, reflecting investors’ focus on companies with proven track records and strong fundamentals, according to the CVCA’s H1 2024 report, which points to an 85% increase in dollars invested quarter-over-quarter.
“The second quarter of 2024 continued the momentum we saw earlier in the year, with steady venture capital investment,” stated Kim Furlong, chief executive of CVCA. “This performance is driven by investors doubling down on companies with proven track records and strong fundamentals, as they continue to navigate the environment cautiously.”
The CEO did have some concerns, however.
“While this performance demonstrates resilience, the persistent decline in seed deals raises concerns about the long-term pipeline of investment-ready companies,” continued Furlong. “We will continue to monitor this trend closely as it could impact the sustained growth of the ecosystem.”
B.C.’s share of the total Canadian VC investment was modest this time around.
The province has been plagued by a “continuous decline in investment activity over the last two years,” the CVCA report notes.
This downward trend persisted through the first half of 2024, the report shows, with the region seeing less than $300M in venture capital investment, a 61% drop year-over-year.
The biggest round in the region so far this year goes to UniUni, which ranked fourth in the Globe and Mail’s 2023 list of top growing Canadian companies, with a three-year growth rate of more than 12,000 per cent.
The Richmond-based delivery technology upstart raised a grand total of US$70M from Celtic House Venture Partners, Freshwave Capital, and others to power a logistics platform that leverages the gig economy to optimize what the industry refers to as “last-mile delivery.”
“These funds will be used to further develop our proprietary tech stack that powers our logistics platform and to grow our network of sorting centres as we continue to expand delivery coverage across the United States,” stated founder and chief executive officer Peter Lu, who carries an ambitious goal for his company: Achieve the famed $1 billion “unicorn” status by 2025.
Founded in 2019, UniUni delivers tens of millions of parcels annually from Coast to Coast in Canada, and boasts more than 50 distribution centres throughout North America, with over 6,000 drivers in Canada alone.
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