Hockeystick and BDO have released new stats on venture capital activity during Q1 here in Montreal.

$204 million in funding was raised by Montreal startups in the first quarter, up 47% from Q4 2019. This money was spread over 37 deals (up 117%) which included 58 different investor groups. 55% of the capital invested was from Canadian sources.

The largest Q1 deals in Montreal were:

1. Ventus Therapeutics - $81 million
2. AlayaCare - $47 million
3. Unito - $10 million
4. Grade Slam - $10 million

As many deals have a significant lead time, these statistics do not indicate any adverse effects on funding in Montreal due to the Covid-19 pandemic, as the wheels were in motion on most of these before lockdown. That being said, the coming quarters should provide a better indication of the coronavirus’ impact on equity financing.

The massive Ventus deal skews the numbers somewhat, but just under 40% of the funding raised during Q1 in Montreal went to biotech, a further 27% went to health tech and 15% went to SaaS companies.

The 6 series A rounds raised during this period represented just over half of the amount raised. This while 14 seed raises represented merely 7% of the total and just 1 series C deal accounts for nearly a quarter of all financing raised during Q1 in Montreal. Later stage deals continue to represent a large majority of dollars raised.

Full results can be found here.