US investors bet on Toronto’s talent as Canadian venture fundraising hits multi‑year lows
Toronto’s AI brainpower is drawing fresh US venture money north of the border, even as Canadian venture fundraising sinks to its lowest level in years.
A US venture firm, Forum Ventures, is doubling down on Toronto’s AI ecosystem, betting that the city’s talent pool can still produce global SaaS and AI leaders despite a harsh funding climate.
Managing partner Jonah Midnaik said the firm has raised about US$25m for its latest effort and aims to launch 18 companies over the next two years out of its Toronto studio, after having already launched 17 to date, according to BNN Bloomberg.
Midnaik pointed to the fact that OpenAI’s chief technology officer hails from Toronto and that Geoffrey Hinton “famously invented neural nets” there, arguing that this “massive pool of artificial intelligence talent” remains a key advantage.
At the same time, he warned that the funding gap is pushing founders away.
Only $2.1bn was raised for venture funds in Canada last year — the lowest in years — and there are now 25 times more venture‑backed businesses in the US, up from 11 times in 2015, Midnaik told BNN Bloomberg.
That dynamics risks turning Canada into a training ground for talent that scales its biggest ideas elsewhere.
Forum Ventures’ pitch to entrepreneurs is that they do not have to move to build at scale.
Midnaik said the goal is to “build more international champions right here out of Toronto” by surrounding founders with best‑in‑class talent and support so they can replicate the success of firms like Shopify without leaving Canada.
The firm’s Toronto studio, launched in 2023, is designed to incubate and back early‑stage AI companies from day one.
Midnaik said the response from founders and later‑stage capital has been positive, noting that some of the world’s largest venture capital firms have already backed Canadian businesses and “builds” emerging from Forum’s programs, according to BNN Bloomberg.
