Calgary is the hottest place in Alberta to make a deal, according to year-end findings from the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA).
New numbers released from the association showed that of the 84 deals representing $698 million, 63 of those and $630 million were for Calgary firms.
That figure put the city fourth overall across the nation, behind Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver.
“It’s huge, right? We saw 100 million more than last year, which is fantastic. I think you’re going to see even more of that,” said Brad Parry, CEO of Calgary Economic Development.
“What’s really interesting for me is that Calgary had one less deal in Vancouver last year. We did 63 deals, Vancouver only did 64. Obviously Clio kind of put their numbers in the stratosphere, but I think it’s just showcasing that people are seeing what’s happening in Calgary, and you’re starting to see more and more capital start to circle around our city.”
Legal software firm Clio was the majority of Vancouver’s $2.28 billion in investment during the year, at $1.24 billion. Calgary’s largest deal by comparison was a $100 million investment by China’s Tencent into NEO Financial.
Parry said the scale difference reflected where Calgary is on the growth curve, and those smaller cheque sizes on average are a sign of more Calgary businesses beginning to scale up.
“If you go back 10 years ago, going to Vancouver, you would have seen the same kind of data points where the check sizes weren’t as big yet. That’s why I’m very bullish still in these numbers. I think for us, it’s showcasing that there’s some really cool technologies that are being developed and money flowing into them,” Parry said.
That trend of seeing more funding flow to Calgary startups was in contrast to the national trend, as noted by CVCA in their report. Nationally pre-seed and seed investments were down in 2024, versus highs seen in 2022 and 2023.
“We are seeing ongoing constraints at the pre-seed and seed stages. This decrease is significant for future rounds of financing, ensuring a healthy pipeline of early-stage companies is critical to long-term ecosystem strength,” said Kim Furlong, CEO of CVCA.
Calgary seeing growth in venture capital funding level against national trend
Parry said the types of technologies in Calgary led to investors’ desire to put capital into some of the city’s smaller startups.
He said those investment dollars flowed into sectors like fintech, agriculture, and life sciences—the latter of which was the second largest sector for investment nationwide, representing 22 per cent of all VC deals done in 2024.
“The fintech sector, for us, is still one of our best-kept secrets. We’ve had lots of that. You’re seeing stuff in ag, you’re seeing stuff in life sciences. So, you’re seeing things in these sectors that we know we have a chance and a right to win at,” Parry said.
Parry said foreign investment has a direct connection to trade missions, like a recent one to South Korea. That nation’s Bore Da Biotech recently announced a $5 million to grow their research operations into Calgary, something that came about said Parry, as a result of multiple trade missions.
“There is that sort of Venn diagram, where you’re seeing the cross-pollination of technologies from one sector going into other ones. Whether it’s animal health from life sciences, whether it’s from the energy sector into ag, or vice versa,” he said.
Given the current political and economic environment and the specter of tariffs, Parry said those missions lead to trade diversification will be important going forward to keep the momentum going for venture capital investment.
“Our trade accelerator program, those kinds of tools, are going to be even more critical for us to look for other types of markets to ship our products and services.”
As for what the economic environment will look like going forward, he said that still remains a guessing game, but that there are opportunities for investors as a result.
“We’re getting phone calls from people in the US saying, ‘Hey, you know what? Maybe it’s time for me to rethink where I’m going to establish my operations or where I’m going to grow.’ So we’ve seen that, but we’ve seen the converse of that. People are now taking a step back and holding on investments just because of the uncertainty,” Parry said.
“The tariffs have spooked people, and so we’re seeing both sides of that coin.”
Parry said that the overall message is was that Calgary has been and remains a good place to invest and that there are lots of opportunities for venture capital to park their money.
“Now what we’re hoping to see in the future is even more cheques that are coming in to really scale those companies up to the next level,” he said.
