Canadian companies raised $4.3 billion across 397 venture capital deals in the first nine months of 2026, with both investment and deal count at their lowest levels for the period since 2021, according to the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA). Third-quarter investment reached $1.35 billion, up one per cent from Q2 and down 34 per cent from the same quarter last year. A $689-million round of investment in AI company Cohere in Q3 2025 accounted for almost all the annual decline. Six deals accounted for 59 per cent of investment in the latest quarter. (The Logic)

Talking point: While more dollars are being concentrated in fewer deals, CVCA chief executive Benjamin Bergen noted that growth-stage VC in the first three quarters of 2026 was the furthest below the five-year average compared to other investment stages. He said that’s why there’s urgency to quickly deploy the $675 million Ottawa announced last month for later-stage deals. A handful of large transactions also dominated private equity, masking weaker activity elsewhere in the market. Private equity investment more than doubled from Q2 to $13.7 billion, but three deals—including Brookfield and La Caisse’s $9-billion Boralex takeover—accounted for 93 per cent of that total. In the first nine months of the year, 10 deals each worth at least $500 million made up 84 per cent of the $27.5 billion invested.

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