Jordan Jacobs is launching the venture fund 16 months after Layer 6 was acquired by TD. The Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, the Weston family and PSP Investments are anchor investors of the fund. (Globe and Mail)

Talking point: Jacobs and his Layer 6 co-founder Tomi Poutanen have made several efforts to support the artificial intelligence (AI) sector in Canada. The two pitched the idea of Toronto’s Vector Institute—which secured $100 million in public sector money—to former TD chairman Ed Clark, who supported its creation as chairman of the board. Clark has signed on to the fund as a partner and former McKinsey head Dominic Barton will advise the firm. “We have a strong desire to build on the research lead in AI that exists in Canada and turn that into a globally dominant ecosystem,” Jacobs told BetaKit at the time TD acquired Layer 6. The announcement follows reporting from my colleague Zane that CPPIB planned to invest up to $1 billion in VC funds. Clark called CPPIB’s investment “a huge endorsement” that “adds credibility to other people coming in.”