GUEST:
Time and time again, SaaS startups contemplate who they should approach for investment. There’s a general sense in our community that it’s difficult to raise money in Canada. Software startups have this misconception before they do their own digging that they need to go south of the border to raise a round.
Yes, there is more money in the U.S. Yes, companies in the U.S. are raising at higher valuations. But let’s not sell ourselves short on the ecosystem that exists in our own backyard.
SaaS founders, before you pack your bags for a trip to San Francisco – have a look at this:
Above: Sourced from 2016 CVCA Infobase Data
And here is a comprehensive list of the VCs that are actively investing in Canadian SaaS companies TODAY:
- 500 Startups Canada: KEATEXT, Element.ai
- BDC: Axonify, Klipfolio
- Brightspark: Nudge Rewards, Hubba
- Build Ventures: Affinio, AirVM
- Celtic House Venture Partners: FileFacets, Auvik, KodaCloud, Nuvyoo
- East Valley Ventures: Leadsift, Alongside
- Georgian Partners: Freshbooks, Vision Critical
- Gibraltar Ventures: Pressly, CrowdRiff
- Golden Venture Partners: Yesware, Roadmunk
- Hello Ventures: careerJSM, Mydoma Studio
- Highline.vc: Picatic, Hockeystick
- Information Venture Partners: PostBeyond
- Innovacorp: Kivuto, LeadSift
- Inovia: Lightspeed POS, Smooch.io, TrackTik, Top Hat
- Kensington Capital: Real Matters, Vision Critical
- KLASS Capital: TrackTik, 360insights
- Leaders Fund: 360insights, Influitive
- MaRS IAF: PageCloud, Top Hat
- Mistral Venture Partners: Klipfolio, The Better Software Company
- OMERS: Shopify, Fusebill, League, Hootsuite
- Pelorus Venture Capital: HeyOrca!
- Real Ventures: Mindbridge.ai, Vanilla
- Relay Ventures: Touchbistro, Influitive
- Round13 Capital: Hubdoc, Bridgit, Statflo, TouchBistro
- ScaleUP Ventures: Startapp
- Trellis Capital: Funnelcake, TrendMD
- Vancouver Founder Fund: ThinkCX, Thinkific
- Vanedge: Bridgit
- Version One Ventures: Clio, Jobber, Frontdesk, unbounce
- Wesley Clover: Martello, Referral SaaSquatch, Solink
- Whitecap Venture Partners: Real Matters, Affinio, Clearwater Clinical
- Whitestar Capital: Gymtrack, Mnubo, IMMUNIO, Salesfloor
- Yaletown: Showbie
So there you have it. The money is here, and Canadian investors are ready to meet you.
[This post originally appeared on L-Spark’s web site. The infographic part of a series the company is producing for its newly launched blog Voice of the North.]
Lucy Screnci is Digital Content Manager at L-Spark.