This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the seed and pre-seed venture capital funding landscape in Canada, examining key trends across provinces, deal sizes, foreign investor participation, and top-performing verticals such as AI, Web3, and SaaS. It offers year-over-year and quarter-over-quarter insights, comparing Canada’s seed investment activity with global trends and giving detailed context on the evolving focus and funding environment in 2025.
Building on the benchmark established by the first edition released in 2024, this second edition expands the analysis with updated comparisons and deeper insights, making it a valuable resource for understanding venture investment dynamics at the earliest stages of Canada’s startup ecosystem.
Dollar amounts are represented in CAD unless otherwise specified.
Click here to jump to see only pre-seed activity or here to see only seed activity.
Overall Seed Investment in Canada from 2013 – H1-2025 (Including Pre-Seed & Seed Rounds)
The dynamics at the seed stage, including both pre-seed and seed, have shifted significantly since 2021, shaped by major global and national political and economic events.
The post-pandemic years (2021-2023) were the highlight for seed stage investment levels, with record levels of dollars invested and number of deals closed. However, recent trends confirm these as a high point, as investment activity declined in 2024, with further reductions in 2025.
From 2016-2020, the average number of deals was 184 and the average dollars invested was $287M. These increased to 387 and $1B respectively throughout 2021-2023. While the number of deals remained high in 2024 (349 deals), dollars invested reduced to $766M. H1-2025 demonstrates a declining trend with $297M invested across 133 deals in the first half of the year. Although the annual levels for 2025 are projected to be higher than the pre-pandemic average, the trend still shows a decline from the post-pandemic peak.
Year-Over-Year Overall Seed Investments (Including Pre-Seed & Seed Rounds)
Investment activity in H1-2025 was nearly identical to the same period in 2024, with $297M invested across 133 deals compared to $292M across 148 deals in H1-2024. This is noteworthy as full-year 2024 activity came close to setting a record for seed deals, closing 349 transactions—less than 10% below the average set during the peak years of 2021–2023.
The average deal size in H1-2025 rebounded upwards from the decline in 2024. The decline in 2024 was mostly due to dollars invested lagging behind the number of deals, resulting in the average deal size of $2.19M. H1-2025 is pacing slightly above at $2.23M per deal – despite overall decline in activity.
Overall Seed Investment Across Sectors
ICT continued to attract the largest share of seed investment activity in H1-2025, accounting for nearly 50% of both deal count and dollars invested. Although there has been a gradual decline in deal count and dollars invested since 2021, activity remains above pre-pandemic levels, with 2025 on pace to exceed the pre-pandemic average number of seed deals.
Life Sciences and Cleantech reached their peak investment levels in 2023, with both sectors maintaining stronger activity in 2024 than in 2021, suggesting a delayed deployment of dry powder accumulated in earlier years.
Agribusiness saw a rebound in the second half of 2024, with seed-stage deal count climbing to 26 by year end, mirroring levels from the previous two years, even though dollars invested remained below peak levels. As of H1-2025, the sector is tracking close to H1-2024 with $10M invested across six deals, indicating potential for another rebound in the latter half of the year.
Overall Seed Investments by Vertical
Artificial Intelligence (AI) accounted for the most seed activity by vertical with $28M in investments, representing almost 10% of all seed-stage dollars invested in 2025. Construction Technology followed with $15M in investments. SaaS companies, which were the top vertical in H1-2024, came in third with $12M in investments, roughly a third of their H1-2024 levels.
Comparing Canadian Seed Activity Globally
In 2024, Canadian seed investment activity saw a significant decline in dollars invested compared with 2023. In the United States, seed-stage investment levels remained relatively stable, although the decline from the 2023 peak had already occurred earlier. In contrast, Europe experienced a rise in seed-stage activity in 2024, with more deals closed and higher dollars invested.
Current State of Pre-Seed Investing in Canada
Ontario remains the center of pre-seed activity in H1-2025, leading activity with $16.4M invested across 18 deals, yielding an average deal size of $0.91M, which is higher than the province’s end-of-year 2024 average. Quebec secured second place in pre-seed activity with 11 deals totaling $12.6M, while Alberta ranked third with 7 deals raising $4.6M.
Outside the top three provinces, activity is more evenly distributed, with higher participation in places such as Manitoba and Nova Scotia this year. This indicates a more balanced pre-seed environment across Canada, which will help develop new secondary markets.
Pre-Seed Activity by Deal Size
In H1-2025, 75.5% of all pre-seed deals were valued between $100K and $3M, while 4.44% were outlier deals valued above $5M. This marks a notable shift from 2024, when there was a stronger focus on smaller deal sizes, with 10.61% of deals falling below $50K, showing that pre-seed deal sizes are trending larger in 2025.
Top Canadian Cities for Pre-Seed Investment
Toronto has remained the top destination for pre-seed investment since 2021, raising $160.5M across 143 rounds. Montreal ranked second with $107.2M raised across 75 pre-seed rounds. Calgary and Edmonton placed third and fifth respectively, while Vancouver ranked fourth. Notably, cities such as Halifax and Fredericton also appeared in the top 10 for seed investments, highlighting countrywide efforts to support venture activity.
Top Sectors Attracting Pre-Seed Investments
The ICT sector remains in first place in H1-2025 with $16M invested across 26 deals, averaging $0.62M per deal. Although the number of deals has held steady, the total capital committed at this stage has declined, resulting in smaller average deal sizes.
In second place, Life Sciences recorded a surge of investment at this stage with $15M across 8 deals, producing an average deal size of $1.88M, nearly triple the ICT average in H1-2025.
Top Verticals Attracting Pre-Seed Investments
Pre-seed investors mainly targeted artificial intelligence (AI) companies in H1-2025, securing $3.9M in capital. Digital Health ranked second with $2.5M, with EdTech following in third place.
Percentage of Foreign Activity in Pre-Seed
US participation in Canadian pre-seed rounds rose steadily leading up to 2024 but dropped sharply in H1-2025, falling from 23.31% of all pre-seed rounds to just 8.51%.
On the other hand, participation from other global investors has continued to increase from 17.29% at the end of 2024 to 19.15% as of H1-2025.
Current State of Seed Investing in Canada (Seed Rounds only)
Q2-2025 saw an increase in activity quarter over quarter, however, the number of seed rounds continues to decline year over year. Despite lower investment levels in H1-2025, the average round size for seed deals in H1-2025 matches 2024 ($3.00M vs $3.04M), but remains lower than the record deal size of $4.09M in 2023.
Ontario secured first place in seed activity with $115.1M raised across 36 deals in H1-2025, accounting for 44.5% of all seed rounds and 41.8% of all seed deals in Canada. Quebec came in second place with $66.1M invested across 18 deals, marking a notably high average deal size of $3.67M.
Alberta secured the third spot with $32.4M, followed by BC with $28.5M. Prince Edward Island had a single seed deal worth $6.3M.
Seed Activity by Deal Size
The distribution of seed rounds sees a return to larger round sizes in H1-2025 as 68.6% of deals were valued above $1M, compared to 60% in H1-2024. Deals above $5M are also up from 13% last year to 18.6% in 2025.
Top Sectors Attracting Seed Investment
The ICT sector remains the sector attracting the most number of seed investments, however, dollars invested are dropping year over year with $131M across 41 deals. While this represents 50.7% of all dollars received by all seed round investments in H1-2025, it is only 32.3% of the year-end total in 2024 for the sector.
Life Sciences investments have rebounded in H1-2025, as the sector recorded $68M in investments across 21 deals. While this is lower than the record set in 2023 ($251M from 75 deals), it is a recovery from the low levels recorded in 2024.
The Cleantech sector, similar to ICT, recorded lower investments in H1-2025 with $18M invested across 7 deals. Meanwhile, the Agribusiness sector is experiencing a rebound with $10M invested across 5 deals, sitting at exactly half the end of year 2024 levels.
Top Verticals Attracting Seed Investments
Seed companies building in AI secured $24M in investments across 7 deals. Construction Technology followed with $15M in investments despite only two seed rounds. Based on deal count, SaaS companies were the next most active vertical after AI, with four deals totaling $12M and averaging $3M per deal.
Top 10 Canadian Cities for Seed Investment
Toronto has maintained its position as the leading city for seed investments in Canada since 2021 with $1.2B invested across 288 deals since 2021, followed by Montreal with $623.8M across 172 deals and Vancouver with $444.6M across 117 deals. Calgary and Edmonton came in fourth and fifth respectively, collectively making up for $391.1M in seed round investments across 161 deals.
Percentage of Foreign Activity in Seed
US investor participation also declined in seed rounds in H1-2025, continuing the trend that began last year. Unlike pre-seed rounds, the decrease has been more gradual, moving from 35.90% in 2023 to 27.91% in H1-2025. Participation from other global investors has risen only slightly from 9.72% in 2024 to 10.47% in H1-2025. Seed rounds remain primarily funded by domestic investors, with foreign participation tending to increase at later stages.
Overall, the data from H1-2025 highlights a Canadian seed and pre-seed investment environment that remains active but is transitioning from the record highs of the post-pandemic years. While deal activity in several provinces and sectors continues to exceed pre-pandemic averages, the gradual decline in dollars invested and shifts in foreign participation signal a more cautious and selective funding climate. At the same time, emerging hubs and secondary markets are beginning to play a greater role, and sector-specific rebounds such as Life Sciences and Agribusiness suggest that capital is still available for strong opportunities. As Canada’s ecosystem matures at the earliest stages, the market appears to be recalibrating after years of accelerated growth while continuing to demonstrate resilience and strong potential for innovation-driven recovery.
