\u201cWe\u2019ve been very much inspired by the tone that Prime Minister Carney and Minister Solomon have set,\u201d Pisano said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Part of the new fund\u2019s goal, Solomon said at Mila on Wednesday, is to ensure that the economic value of Canadian research discoveries remain in Canada.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cCanadian talent, Qu\u00e9bec talent, gets harvested by other countries,\u201d Solomon said. \u201cWe plant the seed, we water, we grow, and someone else harvests? It\u2019s not going to happen anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
Solomon called the new fund a \u201cconcierge service\u201d that hopes to arm researchers considering a commercial venture with capital and support to turn ideas into a startup. The fund will also run venture lab-style programs to harness promising research talent across three of Canada\u2019s national AI institutes\u2014Mila, the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) in Edmonton, and the Vector Institute in Toronto\u2014and associated universities.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAmii is proud to continue this work, leveraging our expertise in reinforcement learning and [machine learning] to help startups accelerate their AI adoption,\u201d Amor Provins, product owner of startups at Amii, said in a statement to BetaKit.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is where we have diamonds,\u201d Pisano said. \u201cAmii, Vector, and Mila have created ecosystems [toward which] some of the world\u2019s greatest AI talent gravitates.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
The new fund began formally fundraising on Wednesday, but Pisano told BetaKit that she expects to reach its target amount \u201cfairly quickly,\u201d given the \u201chigh degree of interest\u201d within the Canadian ecosystem.\u00a0<\/p>\n Inovia will be a limited partner (LP) in the fund through its Discovery Program<\/a> for first-time fund managers, according to Chris Arsenault, co-founder and partner at Inovia. He expects the rest of the capital to come from institutional investors, family offices, and potentially, corporate Canada, which has traditionally been less active in VC.\u00a0<\/p>\n RELATED: Mila exploring venture fund to commercialize AI research<\/a><\/p>\n Arsenault said the fund will back Canadian talent\u2014or talent from researchers studying in Canada\u2014that will grow into global companies. \u201cWe want to create that pipeline, and nobody\u2019s done it yet,\u201d he told BetaKit. Arsenault added that the deal flow will provide investment and follow-on opportunities for the rest of Inovia\u2019s funds, which are active all the way to the growth stage.\u00a0<\/p>\n St\u00e9phane Marceau, Mila\u2019s managing director of AI ventures, will manage the fund with assistance and advising from entrepreneur-in-residence Alex Shee, former Pender Ventures partner Isaac Souweine, and former Circle K Ventures managing partner Jonathan Shaanan. More details on specific roles and team members will be announced, Pisano said. Marc Ghobriel, executive director of capital and strategic partnerships at Inovia, is the lead from Inovia\u2019s side who will help structure the Venture Scientist initiative.<\/p>\n \u201cAmii, Vector, and Mila have created ecosystems [toward which] some of the world\u2019s greatest AI talent gravitates.\u201d<\/p>\n This marks Mila\u2019s first official foray into venture capital, as it seeks to better commercialize the cutting-edge AI research the institute is known for. On Monday, Mila and consulting firm Bain & Company released a report titled The Rise of the Canadian Venture Scientist<\/a>, arguing that Canada can secure the AI advantage it has squandered so far by tapping into its vast network of promising researchers and helping them create companies.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cVenture scientists are researchers equipped to translate frontier ideas into companies,\u201d the report reads, \u201cIn short, they bridge the lab, the startup, and the corporation.\u201d<\/p>\n Funding these \u201cventure scientists\u201d is how Mila hopes this initiative sets itself apart from typical VC funds. The initiative also comes as Mila\u2019s new scientific director, researcher Hugo Larochelle<\/a>, has put an emphasis on supporting both high-quality research and the creation of new startups.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The federal government won\u2019t directly invest into the new fund, Solomon said, though it does provide funding to Mila, Amii, and Vector.\u00a0<\/p>\n The government has solicited feedback from both academics and industry experts<\/a> on AI to inform its forthcoming AI strategy<\/a>, which was initially expected by the end of 2025. Solomon told BetaKit his office aims to release the strategy this quarter, but that it would come at the \u201cright moment\u201d and depend on the Prime Minister\u2019s office.<\/p>\n With files from Jesse Cole.<\/p>\n Feature image courtesy Madison McLauchlan for BetaKit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Qu\u00e9bec AI institute Mila and Montr\u00e9al venture firm Inovia Capital have partnered to launch an early-stage venture…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433910,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[62,276,277,49,48,83282,1465,103338,2659,90771,180362,2338,906,180361,61,90775,18650,180360],"class_list":["post-433909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-artificial-intelligence","tag-ai","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-artificialintelligence","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-evan-solomon","tag-hub","tag-inovia-capital","tag-mark-carney","tag-mila","tag-minister-evan-solomon","tag-montreal","tag-quebec","tag-stephane-marceau","tag-technology","tag-valerie-pisano","tag-vc","tag-venture-scientist-fund"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=433909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/433909\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=433909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=433909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=433909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/image-2-1024x683.png\" "\\"Mila")
<\/a>McGill University vice-chancellor Deep Saini, Inovia co-founder and partner Chris Arsenault, AI minister Evan Solomon, Mila CEO Val\u00e9rie Pisano, and Universit\u00e9 de Montr\u00e9al rector Daniel Jutras.
Image courtesy Mila.<\/p>\n