The Ottawa-based early-stage venture capital firm closed its fifth fund late last year, Mistral partner Raif Barbaros told The Logic. Limited partners include Business Development Bank of Canada, HarbourVest, Venture Ontario, Scotiabank and Alberta Enterprise Corporation, which invested $7.5 million. The firm has made about a dozen investments through the fund so far. (The Logic)

Talking point: Barbaros said the general thesis is similar to its predecessors: to back seed-stage enterprise software companies, primarily based in Canada. Since launching more than a decade ago, the firm has had a number of AI investments, with portfolio companies including Cohere, Blue J Legal and Noze. But its latest fund will be particularly focused on companies building AI, which Barbaros described as “the main disruptive tech wave impacting enterprise.” The firm is also broadening its presence in the prairies, with a new hire soon-to-be announced in Calgary, Barbaros said. “Mistral knows the potential of Alberta’s technology businesses,” said Alberta Enterprise Corporation CEO Kristina Williams, adding that her organization’s investment in Mistral will help the province’s AI startups benefit from the fund’s “deep personal experience scaling companies.”