Why only a bold government move can boost the country's
short supply of VC financing
Canada is among the most generous countries in the world in its
financial support of research and development for its emerging
technology companies. Its support for business R&D as a
percentage of GDP is the second highest of any OECD country and
ahead of that of the US. It is not surprising that Canada's
emerging technology companies are a fertile source of some of the
world's richest R&D.
In stark contrast, the VC financing that is essential for
commercializing that R&D remains in severely short supply.
While fundraising by Canadian VC firms picked up ever so slightly
in 2011, it was still near 17-year lows and companies invested
significantly more than they raised. This continuing gap is
unsustainable and highly predictive of inadequate future VC
investing. As a result, much of that R&D (not to mention the
billions in government money that fund it) is going to waste and
will
