Q4 2021 CVCA Preliminary Venture Capital Data: Largest Year on Record at CAD $15B Invested

2021 Was Another Record Year

*Please note that the figures presented here are PRELIMINARY and subject to change ahead of our final report scheduled to be released in early March.

Preliminary Q4-2021 venture capital (VC) data from CVCA Intelligence has revealed what has been widely anticipated: 2021 was the largest year on record by a significant margin. In the last quarter of 2021, CAD $3.2B was invested over 84 deals, bringing the total year total to CAD $15B over 753 deals; almost 2.5 times 2019’s CAD $6.2B.

There was a smaller volume of deals which signals larger cheque sizes into Canadian businesses throughout the year. CVCA will be able to report on average deal sizes when our full year-end report is published in early March. 

ICT Dominates in 2021

The information, communication and technology (ICT) sector continued to outperform other sectors in 2021, with CAD $9.8B invested across 437 deals; 4 times the invested amount in 2020 (CAD $2.4B). Canadian life science companies received the second-highest amount of VC investment in 2021, at CAD $1.8B across 96 deals (an 8% increase in deals since 2020). Cleantech saw a 7% bump in invested dollars in 2021, with CAD $746M invested across 48 deals. 

Seed Stage Sees Substantial Increase In # Of Deals

Preliminary figures are pointing to increased cheque sizes across the ecosystem but only seed-stage investment saw a significant increase in deal volume. Seed stage companies received just over CAD $1B in investment across 313 deals, two times the number of deals in 2020 (156) and 1.7% more than 2019 (177). This trend is signaling the pipeline for new innovative companies in Canada is robust.