Venture Financing Report 2026

Executive summary

The 2025 Canadian venture capital market was defined by a contraction in both deal volume and total capital deployed. In a difficult exit environment, secondary transactions emerged as an increasingly vital source of liquidity for investors. Despite tightened fundraising conditions across the ecosystem, AI‑focused startups remained a notable bright spot in a maturing Canadian market— drawing significant investor interest in their respective rounds

Canadian startups experienced a challenging fundraising environment in 2025, driven by macroeconomic uncertainty and geopolitical disruption. The distribution of financings reflected the prevalence of early‑stage financings (pre‑seed and seed financings) vs mid‑stage (Series A and Series B) and later‑stage (Series C and later) financings. This distribution is consistent with years prior and in‑line with a well‑functioning startup ecosystem where many early‑stage companies can obtain financing, but few are able to scale