2017 Year‑in‑Review VC & PE Activity: CVCA Data Sneak Peek
Trailblazer Mega-Deals Define 2017 VC Landscape; Phenomenal Year for Canadian PE.
The CVCA will be publishing its final 2017 Year-in-Review VC & PE Canadian Market Overviews on March 1. According to preliminary Q42017 CVCA data (as of February 2, 2018), Canadian venture capital activity and invested dollars have topped last year’s (2016) activity, as our industry had predicted. Despite a relative slow-down in the fourth quarter for PE investment activity, the overall investment in 2017 has almost doubled from 2016.
On the VC side, a total of $3.5B was invested over 592 deals in 2017, an 11% increase over the $3.2B invested last year. There was a spike in the share of VC dollars invested in the ICT sector with $2.5B or 71% of total dollars compared to its average 60% share since 2013. This was fueled by mega-deals ($50M+) with captured 27% ($948M) of the total invested. The graph above illustrates the record number of mega-deals in 2017 compared to previous years.
On the PE side, Canada saw an overall investment of $25.6B — almost double the amount of PE dollars dispersed in 2016 ($13.8B). The average deal size spiked 66% from $26M to $43M. There were also 11% more deals this year, 602 compared to 542 last year. There were four $1B+ mega-deals, the largest of which was the $4.8B privatization of Toronto-based DH Corporation. There was also a year-over-year spike in deals between $500M-$1B: 9 deals totaling $5.9B, up 91% from $3.1B.
Download The CVCA’s Q42017 Preliminary Mini Report Here
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