UNCERTAINTY CONTINUES TO WEIGH ON PRIVATE EQUITY ACTIVITY ON CAPITAL ACTIVITY IN QUÉBEC

Réseau Capital and its Centre of Expertise presents the quarterly report on private equity industry activities in Québec. Produced in collaboration with the Canadian Venture Capital Association (CVCA), this report provides a detailed view of venture capital (VC) and private equity (PE) investments in Quebec for the first quarter of 2023 and overviews private investment in Québec based companies by investment type, activity sector, funding stage, and investment size.

In Q1-2023, Québec saw nearly $1.37 billion invested across 117 deals in venture capital and private equity investments. Despite an active 2022 from a historical perspective, the first quarter of 2023 concludes with a slowdown in deals counts and amounts invested. Inflation, rising interest rates, and geopolitical tensions are all factors that create a climate of uncertainty that impacts the business environment.

After 2022, which was a rather active year historically for VC, the first quarter of 2023 ended with a slowdown in deal count and amounts invested, with 32 deals and $373M invested. Q1-2023 was marked by an upturn in amounts invested in early-stage, Life Sciences and, to a lesser extent, CleanTech. Seed-stage and later-stage funding as well as the ICT sector saw a significant slowdown compared to the last quarter.

For PE, the deal count as well as the amounts invested decreased by about 30% compared to the fourth quarter of 2022, with 85 deals and $996M invested. As was the case for previous quarters, Q1-2023 was characterized by small investments, with 65% of deals receiving investments of $5M or less.

The economic climate continues to have a major impact on our activities in Québec, with the same situation also affecting the rest of Canada and the United States. As in previous quarters, these risks could continue to curtail investment activity in the coming months.

Venture Capital Highlights:

• With 32 deals totalling $373M in the first quarter, the decline in the number of rounds continued, although the quarter was in the average for amounts invested.
• Québec represented 21% of VC deals and 32% of VC investments nationally in Q1-2023. Québec came out ahead of Ontario and British Columbia in terms of amounts invested.
• Unlike 2022, when mega-deals marked the year in VC in Québec, Q1-2023 was characterized by large early-stage rounds.
• The average size of venture capital investments declined slightly in Québec to $11.65M, while the average size of investments in other Canadian provinces clearly decreased, with $5.59M in Ontario and $7.49M in British Columbia. The Canadian average was $7.67M.

Private Equity Highlights:

• In the first three months of the year, Québec recorded $996M in investments over 85 deals. After record deal volumes in 2021 and 2022, the deal count returned to pre-pandemic levels (Q3-2020).
• Québec represented 55% of Canadian PE deals, ahead of Ontario (19%) and British Columbia (17%), and accounted for 50% of amounts invested.
• The largest PE deal in Q1-2023 that can be disclosed is that of Equisoft Inc., representing an investment of $125M.
• The average amount invested per deal in Québec for Q1-2023 ($12M/deal) remained stable compared to previous quarters and ranked sixth for all Canadian provinces.