I looked at 24 funds and angel groups that back companies here, and at the 25 Region companies they funded since 2024. Here is who writes the first cheque, who leads the big rounds, and what they are backing.
Chloé Archambault of Quantacet and Michael Litt of Garage Capital on the quantum panel at Techtoberfest 2026, with moderator Tobi Day-Hamilton
This idea came out of Techtoberfest. I spent two days at the Tannery in October, sat in on the quantum, physical AI and digital AI panels, and met some of the investors there. Partners from Garage Capital, Two Small Fish, Quantacet and Inovia were on those panels, and Albert Chen of Two Small Fish talked about a Kitchener orchard robot company his fund had backed. I realized I couldn't say which funds were investing in which companies in the region, or what kind of companies they look for.
So I went and found out. Builderloo lists 22 funds that have backed a company in Waterloo Region, and I added N49P and the Laurier Startup Fund, which also show up in local rounds. For each one I went through the fund's own site and every Region round I could find a public source for, then looked up who founded each company and where they came from.
Region companies each fund backed, 2024 to October 2026
Archangel9
Velocity Fund9
Graphite Ventures7
Garage Capital5
Inovia Capital3
MaRS IAF2
Ripple Ventures2
Two Small Fish2
BDC Capital1
GTAN1
Mistral1
Whitecap1
The first cheque is usually local
Velocity Fund is the University of Waterloo's pre-seed fund. Its office is at the front door of the Velocity incubator in Kitchener. Fund II announced a US$10M first close in May 2025. Its Region cheques since 2024 went to Page, Scribenote, runQL, Clockwork, Voltra, Swish Solar, Liquid Energy, Feel Good Interactive and Double Dusk. It backs UW founders wherever they build, so some of its newest cheques went to companies in San Francisco and Toronto. It promises a term sheet or a clear no two weeks after the first meeting.
Archangel Network of Funds is four pooled angel funds run out of Kitchener, one of them (Phoenix Fire) for women-led companies. Together they have made 162 investments in 79 companies. Its recent Region names include TimeSmart.AI, myStoria, Mirsee Robotics in Cambridge, Applied Brain Research and Clockwork. Archangel says 2026 is the last year its current funds make new investments.
Garage Capital is the Waterloo seed fund of Michael Litt and Devon Galloway (Vidyard) and Mike McCauley (BufferBox). Since 2025 it has put money into Upside Robotics, ENVGO, Transformer Lab, Page, Astrus and Finite Robotics. It usually joins a round rather than leading it, and it led ENVGO's pre-seed.
GTAN, the Golden Triangle Angel Network, is the oldest angel group here. Its members backed Clearpath Robotics, Motion Gestures and Nicoya, and most of its deals are never announced.
“
We are venture capitalists, not venture socialists. Show us who your first customer is and how you're going to make money.
Michael Litt, Garage Capital, on stage at Techtoberfest 2026
Seed funds from Toronto and Montreal
Graphite Ventures started as the MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund. It leads seed rounds in vertical B2B software and health. In March 2026 it led the $1.625M seed of myStoria, Jessica Chalk's reproductive health company in Kitchener. Its portfolio also lists Sidian, Intellijoint Surgical, Vena Medical and Shinydocs. Seven of its eleven Region companies came through Velocity.
Two Small Fish Ventures is the deep tech fund of Wattpad founders Allen and Eva Lau. Partner Albert Chen did his PhD at UW. It led ENVGO's US$2M seed in June 2025, from the team that built Aeryon Labs, and Applied Brain Research's seed in January 2026. At Techtoberfest, Chen named Finite Robotics, the Kitchener orchard robot company, as one it backed with Garage.
“
At an early stage, we write that first million dollar, two, three million dollar check. I care about that you have a strong technical moat. I don't necessarily care if you're making revenues yet.
Albert Chen, Two Small Fish Ventures, on stage at Techtoberfest 2026
Inovia Capital led a $5M seed extension for Cavelo, a Kitchener security company, in July 2025. It was also in Scribenote's seed and runQL's pre-seed, and it invests in Garage Capital.
Ripple Ventures led Page's $1.4M pre-seed in 2024 and joined Transformer Lab's in 2025. MaRS IAF has an office in the Accelerator Centre and was in runQL and Nfinite Nanotechnology in 2024. BDC Capital's Seed Venture Fund backed Feel Good Interactive in 2026.
The biggest rounds were led from further away
Local funds took part in more of these rounds than outside funds did. The three largest were led from San Francisco, Menlo Park and London, with local funds already on the cap table.
The biggest Region rounds since 2024, in CAD
Astrusled by Caffeinated, San Francisco$16M
Scribenoteled by a16z, Menlo Park$11M
Upside Roboticsled by Plural, London$10.4M
Nfiniteled by Collateral Good$8.9M
Caveloled by Inovia, Montreal$5M
Pageled by Twelve Below$4.1M
ENVGOled by Two Small Fish, Toronto$2.7M
Voltraled by Contrary$2.5M
Swish Solarled by Friday Ventures$2.1M
myStorialed by Graphite, Toronto$1.6M
runQLled by Mistral, Ottawa$1.6M
US dollar rounds are converted at about 1.38.
Page went the whole way in two and a half years.
2024
Ben Cox and Elliot Dohm, both from Shopify, start Page at Velocity
April 2024
$1.4M pre-seed led by Ripple, with Garage and Velocity Fund
March 2025
$4.1M seed led by Twelve Below
October 2026
Clio buys Page
What gets funded
What the 25 companies build
Health and medtech6
Hardware, robots and chips6
AI software and data5
Climate and energy4
Games2
Security1
Materials1
Health and hardware lead. The hardware is mostly robots and chips: Upside's corn robots, Mirsee's humanoids, ABR's voice chips, ENVGO's hydrofoil boats and Astrus's chip design software. Velocity Fund is in all four climate companies.
Three of the companies from the Techtoberfest founder showcase, all backed by funds in this story.
Who the founders are
At least ten of the 25 have a founder with a UW degree or a UW lab behind them, from ENVGO's Mike Peasgood to Sidian's James Hinsperger and Mankirat Singh Sains, who graduated in 2025. Twelve came through Velocity. Upside's founders met at Entrepreneurs First, and Builderloo lists Astrus and ENVGO under the Accelerator Centre. Most of the rest are second-time founders: Page from Shopify, Transformer Lab from Well.ca founder Ali Asaria, runQL from former Communitech CTO Rob Darling, and Cavelo from James Mignacca, who sold RootSecure. I found no recent round for a company founded at Laurier or Conestoga, even though Laurier runs a student fund. I'd love to change that!
Rounds are built from many cheques
Nicoya, a 2012 UW spinout in Kitchener, has taken money from ten of the funds here, from a student fund to Series A leads. Its 2025 round to buy a UK company was led by Graphite, with GTAN, Archangel and Whitecap in it.
“
You need to talk to 100 VCs to get five to invest in your company.
Chloé Archambault, Quantacet, on stage at Techtoberfest 2026
All 24, with their Region companies
Angel groups rarely announce their deals, so an older year in the last column often means only that nothing was made public.
Each fund's page on Builderloo says what it invests in and which Region companies it backed. If I got a round wrong or missed one, reply to The Weekly or use the contact page.
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