“Canada has a lot of trust,” says Benjamin Bergen, CEO of the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA).
“First there’s trust, then there’s capital, and then there’s trade.”
A new CVCA event is hoping to turn Canada’s reputation into new investment relationships.
On Sept. 14, CVCA will hold the Canadian Global Growth Forum in Toronto, bringing prominent Canadian private companies, funds, pension investors, and government-backed programs together with some of the world’s largest investors.
The event is taking place at the same time as the federal government’s Canada Investment Summit, running Sept. 14 and 15.
The Summit will focus on major projects and infrastructure.
Bergen wants Canada’s venture, growth-stage, and mid-market companies included in the investment conversation, particularly the ones that could supply the technology those projects will need.
“If we’re looking for speed and we’re looking for opportunity to grow our GDP,” he says. “It really is in the venture and mid market firms that will be able to move quickly to create that opportunity.”
Bergen points to new research from the CPP Investments Insights Institute, finding that Canada has the trust of global investors. Of the eight developed markets studied, 94% of investors expect to maintain or increase their Canadian exposure over the next three years, ahead of Japan at 82% and the U.S. at 77%.
Trust in Canada is great, of course. It’s also a massive leverage.
“The opportunity now is to turn that confidence into profitable investments,” said Naomi Powell, director of the CPP Investments Insights Institute. “Connecting Canada’s strengths in energy, critical minerals and infrastructure to AI and other emerging themes can position the country for the next wave of global capital.”
It also doesn’t hurt that Canada is one of only two AAA-rated economies in the G7.
Cohere is one of the companies CVCA is putting in front of investors, hoping to show why global capital should be invested in Canadian companies.
CEO Aidan Gomez will speak alongside Michael Katchen of Wealthsimple, Raquel Urtasun of Waabi, Mina Mitry of Kepler Communications, and Ramtin Attar of Promise Robotics.
“Cohere was founded in Canada, and Toronto has been our home since day one. From here, we’ve built a global AI company serving governments and leading enterprises around the world,” Gomez said in a statement. “Canada has the talent, ambition and ecosystem to build companies that compete and lead globally.”
The forum also includes CVCA members including HarbourVest Canada, Beringer Capital, Brookfield, and OMERS Ventures.
Investment teams are coming from the U.S., the Gulf states, China, Malaysia, France, and Australia, meeting Canadian fund managers throughout the day.
When asked where technology leaders fit into the conversation, Bergen explained that we need to understand the “technological advantages” we have in Canada.
Canadian companies in quantum, robotics, and AI (all featured at the forum) are world-leading, he says, and governments weighing political risk alongside capability can buy from Canada without the concerns attached to other jurisdictions.
“As we’re thinking about the future and how the technologies get used, I think this space that Canada can occupy,” he says. “We are viewed as a middle power that believes in democracy, believes in truth, love, and justice, and sort of good governance.”
Bergen calls the CVCA event a “Canada plus” strategy.
France went further in January, announcing that all government departments will drop Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and other non-European platforms for a state-built tool called Visio by 2027. Bergen keeps the U.S. in the picture.
“The U.S. will always be an integral partner with Canada,” he says. “They will always be our largest market, our largest trading partner. But it’s that concentration that has made the trade negotiations more challenging.”
Canada, he says, has been reliant on the U.S., “not only from a capital perspective, but also a trade perspective.”
It’s time to build relationships, opening up that trust-capital-trade opportunity, he adds.
And he says it’s his number one goal for the CVCA forum.
Venture, growth, and mid-market investments can move faster than major infrastructure projects on the federal government’s summit wishlist, and start contributing to GDP growth sooner.
“I’d like us to have visible investments that we can point to and say that those came from the seeds that were planted at our event,” he says.
Final shots
- Investor trust only becomes useful when Canada can offer opportunities with sufficient scale, profitable structures, and credible execution.
- Canadian AI, quantum, and robotics companies may have an advantage when buyers weigh where critical technology comes from.
- The forum’s value will be measured by whether its introductions lead to visible investments after Sept. 14.