Montreal’s Real Ventures has become Canada’s first major venture capital firm to be led by a woman after naming Janet Bannister Managing Partner. Bannister is widely known and respected. Before joining Real Ventures in 2014, she led Kijiji’s global business and has also served in a number of roles within the innovation economy.

MTLinTech has written extensively over the last year about mentorship for women in tech, encouraging investment in women entrepreneurs, and inclusivity initiatives. Yet this is the first time a large Canadian VC firm has invited a woman to take the reigns. There are some smaller funds with women at the helm, in most cases those firms were founded by the women who serve as Managing Partner. Real Ventures is Canada’s largest early stage VC backing companies like Sonder, Frank And Oak, PasswordBox and many more.

Venture capital has been notorious over the years for its homogeneous makeup and specifically, a lack of female representation at the partner level. The industry as a whole has acknowledged that this is a problem. And while steps in the right direction continue to be taken across the board, Bannister’s appointment as Managing partner is seen as a significant step in the industry.

Image source: Annabelle Agnew