Canadian Corporate VC: More Firms, Less Funding in 2025

The number of Canadian companies running dedicated corporate venture capital arms hit 34 in 2025, according to Deloitte Ventures' latest market report. That was up from the prior year as Clio Ventures, Metalab Ventures, Providence Health Care Ventures and Seaspan International all came online.

Total CVC deal volume, however, fell 20 percent to just 60 financings. Investment in domestic startups by Canadian corporate VCs hit a five-year low, extending a three-year slide. US-based corporate VCs filled much of that gap, while Canadian shops directed more of their activity abroad. Of the deals struck, 90 percent went to seed- and early-stage startups, a modest uptick from 2024.

The report notes that only 26 percent of large Canadian public companies have made a VC investment over the last five years. In the US that share is 72 percent among S&P 500 firms. Canada's CVC market is dominated by two names – Shopify and Telus Global Ventures. Thomson Reuters Ventures also features prominently. The pullback from those three players drove nearly all of the 2025 decline, a sign of how concentrated the market is.

"When three players drive nearly 90 percent of the pullback, it exposes the true fragility of Canada's CVC ecosystem," Talia Abramowitz, managing partner at Deloitte Ventures, told BetaKit via email.