White Star Capital closed its fourth global VC fund at $350 million CAD, backed by Canadian and European LPs. The firm has already deployed capital into eight companies.
Alpha Score of 60 reflects moderate overall profile with strong momentum, weak value, moderate quality, moderate sentiment.
White Star Capital has closed its fourth global venture fund at $350 million CAD, drawing backing from Canadian and European institutional investors in a fundraising environment that has squeezed many of its Canadian peers.
The global venture firm with Canadian roots announced Wednesday that Fund IV had closed with commitments from returning Canadian backers Fonds de solidarité FTQ, Investissement Québec, Desjardins and Teralys Capital, as well as a "small subset" of the Canadian LP base. European investors include Italian sovereign wealth fund CDP Equity, France's Swen Capital Partners and Groupe ADP, and the pension fund of the States of Guernsey.
White Star plans to follow its previous fund strategy, leading Series A and Series B rounds with cheques of $5 million to $15 million USD and reserving about half the fund for follow-on investments. It has already deployed capital into eight companies, including Montreal's investment intelligence platform Tetrix.
General partner Christopher Bourque told BetaKit the team is adapting to the AI-driven market by focusing on areas where it has "deep expertise and a solid track record," including physical AI, AI-powered commerce infrastructure, healthcare and financial services. Bourque said White Star is looking at differentiated AI strategies, either with serious deep tech, commercial traction in legacy industries or a unique data moat.
White Star was founded in 2014 by Canadian managing partners Eric Martineau-Fortin and Jean-Francois Marcoux, along with former co-leader Christian Hernandez Gallardo. The firm is headquartered in the UK and New York, with a strong Canadian presence that includes a $50-million North American Seed Fund launched last year.
Canadian VC funds raised only $2.1 billion CAD from LPs in total in 2025, according to an RBCx report. Martineau-Fortin acknowledged that a lack of liquidity has made it harder for investors to commit. The fundraise took 18 months, slightly longer than past rounds. He said exits and distributions "talk a lot in this market."
Marcoux noted recent successes that have boosted the firm's profile. He said the acquisition of New York FinTech TheGuarantors by Warburg Pincus returned 23 times White Star's initial investment, and that the proceeds from that exit were equivalent to White Star's entire Fund I.
The managing partners also pointed to a diversified LP base across North America and Europe, where investment cycles are not fully synchronous. As White Star plans to fundraise again in 2027 for Fund V, Martineau-Fortin sees Middle Eastern countries as an important market for Canadian investors. White Star recently joined the Qatar Science & Technology Park as an inaugural co-investor in its $30-million tech venture fund.
"We're seeing an interesting new trade route that is being developed for Canadian companies and for North America," Martineau-Fortin said.
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