Patient capital: The missing piece in Canada’s innovation puzzle

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By Emile Savov

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The ecological system of entrepreneurship in Canada explodes with the capabilities and its creators develop pioneering ideas that can form the future. However, despite our reputation in promoting talents, research and innovation, one of them is still an embarrassment of the puzzle missing: a sufficient group of investors in capitalism capitalism of the patient.

The patient's investment capital (VC) – a type that allows emerging companies to expand sustainability and globally – is not just luxury; It is a necessity for economic growth in Canada. Without this, we risk losing our most promising companies for foreign buyers, going out in the critical industries and suffocating the spirit of entrepreneurship at the best of our minds.

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Investment capital, in nature, is risky and often requires a long investment horizon. However, driven by the needs of fundraising and other ecological system dynamics, many Canadian VC investors feel that they are forced to determine the priorities of short -term gains and tend to put their bets on technologies and business models that are likely to produce faster exits, usually in the sub -sector of the program.

For example, many climate technology founders said that investors had encouraged them to turn their business into companies directed towards products, according to a modern survey.

This has been understood in the past years, given the relatively small size and the incomplete maturity of the Canadian ecosystem VC. The 2008 global financial crisis did not help either. Canadian VCS has spent years since focusing on sick bets and fast exits.

At their discretion, federal governments and regional governments intervened and contributed to the rebuilding of this industry. As a result of these and other initiatives led by industry, many Canadian VC companies have already been rebuilt and flourished.

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Now that they are more mature and created, they can withstand long -term bets. It's time to invest the patient now.

Global competitiveness is increasingly formed through the valuable intellectual property rooted in difficult technology, also known as Tech Deep. It is not easy to achieve and can take a long time to develop. But the various benefits are enormous.

Taiwan is a great example. It has begun to pour the effort in research and development of semiconductors – the essence of computing power – decades ago and now reappears. Estimates are estimated by the country's global share of the market in a northern 6 percent.

This success brings to mind the lost opportunity for ATI Technologies Inc. , It is the semiconductor company, the local Canadian conductors. ATI was pioneer in the global market share in graphics chips with more than 30 percent of the market before obtaining it by Advanced Micro Devices Inc (AMD) in 2006, the time when Nvidia Corp was. Just appearance.

ATI now represents the AMD growth engine, which has since become the third most semiconductor company in the United States after NVIDIA and Broadcom Inc.

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A similar story is now unveiled with artificial intelligence. Although Canadian creators have been leading global research over the past few decades, technology marketing and its benefits is largely achieved elsewhere.

Talent transmission is an inevitable global phenomenon and is useful for countries that know how to properly manage it. Canada is doing a great job in educating the main scientists from all over the world, but the challenge we face is to keep them and create the conditions necessary to direct their innovative energies to develop global commercial products and sustainable Canadian companies.

In Mars Investment Accessator (IOF), an important part of our mandate is to invest in early companies that have the ability to become industry leaders in difficult technology. But the problem we face is a lack of investors participating in thinking and investors in the next stage. The solution requires a full effort for the ecological system.

The patient's investment in difficult technology requires experience and understanding basic techniques. One of the best ways to accomplish this is to create links and relationships with universities and centers in which leading research occurs.

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As as talk a report In solid technology discoveries, projects and financiers alike indicate the importance of involvement of deep scientific experience who can understand the proposed techniques, measure their ability to unify them and explain the potential impact if it is marketed and expanded.

IAF works closely with many partners, including the leading universities in Ontario and the National Research Council in Canada, to deepen our understanding of current solid trends and determine promising investment opportunities.

These communications led us to invest in companies such as Forceen Inc. It is based in Toronto, which develops the touch technology of robots; NFINITE NANOTECHNOLOGY Inc. It is the Ontors -based company, which works on advanced packaging materials using nanotechnology techniques; and enurgen inc. One of the courses at the University of Ottawa is developing pioneering solutions to the solar energy generation industry.

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We believe that companies like this create an IP value through difficult technology that will translate into difficult value. The Canadian ecological system VC needs to create conditions for more patient bets on this most difficult technique because it will finally provide IP that can be defended with sustainable growth and value.

Since individual companies and Canada in general are established in these areas, they will be able to keep them – and benefit from them – for a long time.

Emile Savov is the administrative director of Fastest Mars Investment Fund.

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