Today's News |
CVCA Report Shows Record Breaking Venture Capital Investment in Canada, $6.2 Billion Invested Over 539 Deals in 2019
Wednesday, March 11, 2020
Toronto, ON, March 11, 2020--(T-Net)--The Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA) announced today that following years of consistent investment growth across all stages in the ecosystem, Canadian venture capital investment reached impressive new heights in 2019 with a record CAD $6.2 billion invested over 539 deals.
This is 69% more than the CAD $3.7B invested in 2018 and three times more than when the CVCA began market analysis in 2013. Q4 2019 significantly contributed to the year's total, with CAD $1.6B invested over 144 deals.
The exit environment was healthy in 2019, with 40 VC-backed exits (the same amount in 2018) valued at CAD $3B, triple the value from 2018. There were three notable exits on the public markets:
"The performance of venture capital investment in 2019 is beyond positive and an indication of sustained confidence in the Canadian ecosystem," said Kim Furlong, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association. "Canadian entrepreneurs have continued to aggressively grow their companies and Canadian VCs are helping push Canadian innovation forward."
Excluding mega-deals (CAD $50M+), the average deal size in 2019 was $5.6M, an 11% increase from $5M the previous year. Signalling the strength of the Canadian VC market: ten of the 28 mega-deals were over $100M and included five which exceeded $200M:
Canadian information and communication technology (ICT) companies continued to take in the majority of investment, receiving 66% (CAD $4.1B over 308 deals) of total VC dollars in 2019. Life sciences received a 17% share (CAD $1.1B over 177 deals) while cleantech companies took a 7% share (CAD $407M over 29 deals).
Read the full Venture Capital Canadian Market Overview here.
Canadian Private Equity
The closing of Garda World Security and Westjet Airlines in the last quarter raised PE investment in 2019 to a total disclosed value of CAD $19B over 526 deals, 16% less than the CAD $22.7B in 2018, and 38% higher than the previous low of CAD $13.8B in 2016.
For the second year in a row, the sum of mega-deals exceeded the sum of all other deals combined: CAD $11.6B out of CAD $19B in 2019 and CAD $14.4B out of CAD $22.7B in 2018. There were three $1B+ mega-deals this year which included:
"Private Equity continues to pick up momentum as an attractive source of value-add financing for growing companies in the Canadian market," said Kim Furlong, Chief Executive Officer, Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association. "Canadian PE offers attractive returns and the opportunity to truly make a positive impact across the country as investors and investees grow Canadian companies together."
There were 111 PE growth deals in 2019 which accounted for a fifth of all deal flow totalling $1.5B (8% share of total dollars). These included the following disclosed deals:
24% of all PE investment in 2019 went into companies in the industrial and manufacturing sector, 2% higher than its share in 2018 and 4% higher than its 2017 share. The ICT sector maintained its deal flow in 2019 with a 17% share of PE Investment.
Read the full 2019 Private Equity Canadian Market Overview here.
About Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA)
CVCA is Canada's professional association for the venture capital and private equity industry. Our services and support establish a favourable and competitive ecosystem and lay the foundation for greater collaboration, innovation, growth and market intelligence.
Other Recent Company News |
|||||||||||||||||||
|