Venture capital investing—which consisted of 42 per cent “megadeals” (those worth more than $50 million) totalling $895 million—beat last year’s H1 record of $1.7 billion, according to a report from the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association. Average deal size was $9 million, up 22 per cent from the second quarter of 2018. Private equity investment fell to $4.9 billion, the lowest number since the first half of 2013, which is when the CVCA started collecting data. (The Logic)

Talking point: The increase in deal size, including the growing number of megadeals, could indicate a new stage of maturity for VC investing in Canada: deal size is up 26 per cent compared with the average over the last five years, and investments are shifting toward later-stage companies. Megadeals have made up a growing portion of total VC investment in Canada since 2016—H1 2018 saw seven megadeals totalling $493 million. The increasing size of transactions is in line with trends in larger, more established markets like the U.S., where deals worth more than US$50 million made up more than half of VC investment in H1 2019.