Growth Venture Fund leader is out nine months after BDC allocates $1 billion and expands mandate.<\/p>\n
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The Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC<\/a>) is preparing to roll out more new direct investment vehicles as it continues to reshape its leadership team.<\/p>\n A BDC spokesperson has confirmed to BetaKit that BDC\u2019s investment arm, BDC Capital, is hiring a managing partner to lead a new Life Sciences Fund, six years after spinning out its previous healthcare venture capital (VC) fund and creating Amplitude Ventures<\/a>.<\/p>\n Nine months after BDC allocated $1 billion and an expanded mandate to growth-stage VC, managing partner Dominique B\u00e9langer is out.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n This is far from the only new project BDC has in the works. The Government of Canada-owned Crown corporation recently launched a $50-million <\/a>search fund for women entrepreneurs, unveiled a $200-million<\/a> second Industrial Innovation Venture Fund, and committed $100 million<\/a> worth of loans to rural entrepreneurs. BDC is also working to spin up its $100-million<\/a> Black Entrepreneurs Fund (led by Jason Baibokas<\/a>) as well as a $100-million<\/a> Indigenous Entrepreneurship Fund. A job posting<\/a> indicates BDC is still looking to find a managing director for the Indigenous fund.<\/p>\n These moves come as another senior leader has left an existing BDC Capital fund. Dominique B\u00e9langer, managing partner of BDC Capital\u2019s Growth Venture Fund, left in early November, nine months after the project received a nearly $1-billion injection and an expanded mandate<\/a>.<\/p>\n B\u00e9langer told BetaKit that he left BDC Capital on November 7. He said it was BDC\u2019s decision and that the organization \u201cdesired a change of leadership\u201d for the fund. An active job posting<\/a> indicates that hiring is underway for B\u00e9langer\u2019s replacement.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are grateful for what [B\u00e9langer] has accomplished during his time at BDC, and steps are currently underway to ensure a smooth transition,\u201d a BDC spokesperson told BetaKit, describing the move as \u201ca normal part of increasing operational efficiency and productivity.\u201d<\/p>\n RELATED: <\/strong>Isabelle Hudon says BDC is getting ready to support Canada\u2019s defence tech sector in \u201ca more aggressive way\u201d<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n The spokesperson said BDC is launching its new Life Sciences Fund in 2026. They noted that BDC is recruiting a managing partner to set the investment thesis and hire a team, and promised to share more details \u201cin the coming months.\u201d<\/p>\n B\u00e9langer had been with BDC Capital for more than 15 years and led its Growth Venture Fund since 2017. During his time at the helm, B\u00e9langer said he took it from an $80-million coinvestment pilot to a nearly $1-billion coinvestment and direct growth fund. \u201cIt is time for someone else to take this to the next level,\u201d B\u00e9langer said. \u201cBDC and I came to an agreement.\u201d<\/p>\n B\u00e9langer said he plans to spend the next few months focusing on his family before evaluating his next move, but he intends to remain involved in the Canadian technology ecosystem.<\/p>\n Major shakeup in the C-suite\u00a0<\/p>\n B\u00e9langer is the latest in a string of senior executives who have left BDC Capital over the past 18 months. Longtime BDC Capital head and executive vice-president J\u00e9r\u00f4me Nycz abruptly announced his retirement<\/a> in July 2024, and Genevi\u00e8ve Bouthillier<\/a> has replaced him.<\/p>\n As first reported by The Logic<\/a> and confirmed by BetaKit, BDC also closed its Intellectual Property-Backed Financing program\u2014merging it<\/a> with Growth and Transition Capital\u2014and laid off staff from its Deep Tech Venture Fund<\/a> earlier this year. Departures from the Deep Tech fund included partners Thomas Park and Charles Lesp\u00e9rance, who have since taken respective new roles at InBC<\/a> and Celesta Capital<\/a>. BDC president and CEO Isabelle Hudon has told BetaKit<\/a> that this fund will be replaced by a defence tech-focused successor.<\/p>\n RELATED: <\/strong>Amplitude Ventures closes $263-million for second precision medicine VC fund<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n This June, Michelle Scarborough<\/a> left after eight years overseeing BDC Capital\u2019s women-focused investment funds, and Mona Minhas<\/a> has been handed the reins in her stead. Last month, Climate Tech Fund partners Cheri Corbett (who has joined Pender Ventures<\/a>) and Vivian Kan also left after nearly 19 combined years working at BDC Capital.<\/p>\n A LinkedIn post<\/a> from BDC\u2019s senior advisor of talent acquisition, Nathalie Paill\u00e9, states that the Life Sciences Fund will make early-stage investments in biotherapeutics, medical tech, and related innovations. In a LinkedIn post<\/a>, BDC Capital senior managing partner of VC Joseph Regan described the managing partner role as \u201ca rare opportunity \u2026 to lead the charge and drive innovation in a sector where Canada can compete globally!\u201d<\/p>\n Another Life Sciences Fund?<\/p>\n Speaking with BetaKit on condition of anonymity, a source familiar with BDC\u2019s operations said that the organization has allocated $100 million towards its Life Sciences Fund\u2014something that Peter van der Velden, founder and managing partner of life sciences VC Lumira Ventures, appeared to back up in a LinkedIn post<\/a> yesterday. BDC told BetaKit that the exact size and strategy of this new Life Sciences Fund remains \u201cto be determined.\u201d<\/p>\n BDC Capital created its initial Healthcare Venture Fund<\/a> in 2013. Across two funds, it allocated $270 million to more than 25 startups developing innovations in precision medicine, biotech, and medical imaging ahead of its spinout into Amplitude<\/a>. Its portfolio companies included Calgary-based Circle Cardiovascular Imaging<\/a> and Vancouver\u2019s Zymeworks<\/a>.<\/p>\n RELATED: <\/strong>Fewer, larger financings give Canadian VC a boost in Q3 as domestic PE stays hot<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n Today, BDC Capital also serves as a limited partner (LP) in Amplitude and other life sciences-focused Canadian VC funds, including CTI Life Sciences, Genesys Capital, and Lumira.<\/p>\n Multiple Canadian VC sources expressed surprise to BetaKit when they learned that BDC is launching another life sciences fund, given how recently it spun out Amplitude, and questioned the rationale behind doing this rather than putting more LP dollars behind existing Canadian funds at a time when some have been calling for more capital.\u00a0<\/p>\n When asked about this, the BDC spokesperson told BetaKit that its new Life Sciences Fund \u201cwill target a different stage of development\u201d compared to its predecessor. They said the fund\u2019s launch was informed by a third-party analysis of market gaps, and it will use \u201ca two-pronged, complementary approach\u201d that focuses on \u201cthe needs that are not currently met by other funds.\u201d BDC said this fund \u201cwill not change\u201d its commitment to indirect investment.<\/p>\n \u201cA step in the right direction\u201d<\/p>\n The Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (CVCA) singled out domestic life sciences VC investment as an area \u201cof strength\u201d in its Q3 report<\/a>, with nearly $1.07 billion deployed across 82 transactions this year thus far, putting 2025 on pace to narrowly miss 2024 in terms of total dollars invested but surpass 2022 and 2023 by wider margins. However, that amount has been invested across fewer, larger financings<\/a>. Perhaps most notably, it includes a $500-million<\/a> secondary transaction by Vancouver-based Jane Software, which sells practice management software to health and wellness clinics.<\/p>\n In a LinkedIn post<\/a>, Van der Velden, a former CVCA chair and past critic<\/a>, claimed that excluding Jane\u2019s financing from these results, \u201c2025 is trending to be the worst year for new life sciences investment activity in a decade.\u201d<\/p>\n Lumira Ventures\u2019 Peter Van der Velden called BDC Capital\u2019s new Life Sciences Fund \u201ca step in the right direction\u201d but argued more needs to be done.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n In an interview with BetaKit, Van der Velden said Lumira currently tracks about 125 Canadian life sciences companies, and estimates that the top 25 to 30 of them will need to raise $1 billion over the next two years. \u201cThat capital doesn\u2019t exist in this country,\u201d he said. If those businesses are not able to raise enough capital from experienced domestic investors, Van der Velden argued that many of those businesses will \u201cend up being orphans\u201d that either fail or move to the United States.<\/p>\n While investing in early-stage life sciences companies is risky, given that few therapies make it from lab to market, Canadian life sciences VCs have delivered stronger overall returns than peers in other sectors. Van der Velden, who is currently raising $200 million USD for Lumira\u2019s fifth general fund alongside<\/a> a new, $30-million CAD Cancer Breakthrough Fund, called now \u201can incredible time for domestic capital formation in life sciences.\u201d He pointed to the sector\u2019s outperformance in exit value generated relative to dollars invested over the past decade, as reported by RBCx<\/a> last year.<\/p>\n Van der Velden described both the Life Sciences Fund and the feds\u2019 recent allocation to Canada\u2019s life sciences sector in Budget 2025<\/a> (as part of the $1-billion re-up of the Venture and Growth Capital Catalyst Initiative) as \u201ca step in the right direction.\u201d However, he contended that more needs to be done to scale the entire funding ecosystem. This echoes his comments on LinkedIn<\/a> yesterday, where he claimed every dollar deployed into Canadian life sciences startups at the early stage will require $20 of follow-on capital to succeed.<\/p>\n Feature image courtesy BDC.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Growth Venture Fund leader is out nine months after BDC allocates $1 billion and expands mandate.
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