The leader of the Growth Venture Fund is leaving nine months after the BDC committed $1 billion and expanded its mandate.
Business Development Bank of CanadaBDK) is preparing to launch new private equity vehicles as it continues to reform its leadership team.
A BDC spokesperson confirmed to BetaKit that BDC's investment arm, BDC Capital, is hiring a managing partner to lead the new Life Sciences Fund, six years after spinning off its previous venture capital (VC) fund in healthcare and creation Amplitude Ventures.
Nine months after BDC committed $1 billion and expanded its growth-stage venture capital mandate, managing partner Dominique Belanger has left the company.
This is far from the only new BDC project in development. Crown Corporation, owned by the Government of Canada, recently launched 50 million dollars fund to search for women entrepreneurs opened $200 million the second Industrial Innovation Venture Fund and committed to 100 million dollars loans to rural entrepreneurs. BDC is also working to expand its 100 million dollars Black Entrepreneurs Foundation (led by Jason Baybokas), and also 100 million dollars Indigenous Enterprise Fund. A job advertisement indicates that BDC is still seeking a managing director for the Indigenous fund.
The moves come after another senior executive left existing fund BDC Capital. Dominique Bélanger, managing partner of growth venture capital fund BDC Capital, left in early November, nine months after the project received nearly $1 billion infusion and expanded mandate.
Bélanger told BetaKit that he left BDC Capital on November 7th. He said it was the BDC's decision and that the organization was “willing to change the leadership” of the fund. Active job advertisement indicates that recruitment is underway to replace Belanger.
“We are grateful that [Bélanger] has made progress during his tenure at BDC and steps are being taken to ensure a smooth transition,” a BDC spokesperson told BetaKit, calling the move “a normal part of improving operational efficiency and productivity.”
The spokesperson said BDC will launch its new Life Sciences Fund in 2026. They noted that BDC is hiring a managing partner to develop the investment thesis and hire the team, and promised to share more details “in the coming months.”
Bélanger has been with BDC Capital for over 15 years and has led its growth venture fund since 2017. During his time at the helm, Bélanger said he went from an $80 million co-investment pilot to a nearly $1 billion co-investment and direct growth fund. “It’s time for someone else to take it to the next level,” Belanger said. “The BDC and I have come to an agreement.”
Bélanger 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 tech ecosystem.
Major changes in top management
Bélanger is the latest in a string of executives to leave BDC Capital over the past 18 months. Long-time head and executive vice president of BDC Capital Jerome Nitsch suddenly announced his retirement in July 2024 and Genevieve Bouthillier replaced it.
As first reported Logics and confirmed by BetaKit, BDC has also closed its IP-backed financing program –merging this with Growth and Transition Capital – and fired staff from Deep Tech Venture Fund earlier this year. Partners Thomas Park and Charles Lesperance left the Deep Tech fund and have since taken up their respective new positions at InBK And Celeste Capital. BDC President and CEO Isabelle Hudon told BetaKit that this fund will be replaced by a successor focused on defense technology.
CONNECTED: Amplitude Ventures Closes Second Precision Medicine Venture Fund at $263 Million
This June, Michelle Scarborough left after eight years leading BDC Capital's women-focused investment funds and Mona Minhas the reins of power were handed over to her instead. Last month, Climate Technology Fund partners Cherie Corbett (who joined Pender Ventures) and Vivian Kahn also left after almost 19 years together at BDC Capital.
A Post on LinkedIn BDC senior talent acquisition consultant Nathalie Payet says the Life Sciences Fund will invest early in biotherapeutics, medical technologies and related innovations. IN Post on LinkedInBDC Capital VC Senior Managing Partner Joseph Regan described the Managing Partner role as “a rare opportunity…to lead and drive innovation in a sector where Canada can compete globally!”
Another life sciences fund?
Speaking to BetaKit on condition of anonymity, a source familiar with BDC's activities said the organization has committed $100 million to its Life Sciences Fund – something that Peter van der Velden, founder and managing partner of life sciences VC Lumira Ventures, appears to have backed. Post on LinkedIn yesterday. BDC told BetaKit that the exact size and strategy of this new Life Sciences Fund is “yet to be determined.”
BDC Capital created its first Healthcare Venture Fund in 2013. Through two funds, he committed $270 million to more than 25 startups developing innovations in precision medicine, biotech and medical imaging before moving on to develop them. Amplitude. His portfolio companies included Calgary-based 360-degree cardiovascular imaging and Vancouver Zimworks.
Today, BDC Capital also serves as a limited partner (LP) in Amplitude and other Canadian life sciences venture capital funds, including CTI Life Sciences, Genesys Capital and Lumira.
Several Canadian venture capital sources expressed surprise to BetaKit when they learned that BDC was launching another life sciences fund, given how recently it spun off Amplitude, and questioned the rationale for doing so rather than putting more LP dollars into existing Canadian funds at a time when some are calling for more capital.
When asked about this, a BDC spokesperson told BetaKit that its new Life Sciences Foundation “will be aimed at a different stage of development” compared to its predecessor. They said the fund's launch was based on third-party market gap analysis and it will take a “two-pronged, complementary approach” that focuses on “needs not currently served by other funds.” BDC said the fund “will not change” its commitment to indirect investing.
“A step in the right direction”
The Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association (CVCA) has highlighted domestic life sciences venture capital investing as a “strength” area of its focus. Report for the 3rd quarterSo far, nearly $1.07 billion has been involved in 82 transactions this year, putting 2025 just behind 2024 in terms of total investment, but surpassing 2022 and 2023 by a wide margin. However, this amount was invested in less, more funding. Perhaps most notably, it includes $500 million secondary deal for Vancouver-based Jane Software, which sells practice management software to medical and wellness clinics.
IN Post on LinkedInVan der Velden, former chairman of the CVCA and former criticstated that if Jane's funding is excluded from these results, “2025 would be the worst year for new life sciences investment activity in a decade.”
Lumira Ventures' Peter Van der Velden called BDC Capital's new Life Sciences Fund “a step in the right direction” but said more needs to be done.
In an interview with BetaKit, Van der Velden said Lumira is currently tracking about 125 Canadian life sciences companies and estimates that 25-30 of them will need to raise $1 billion over the next two years. “That kind of capital doesn’t exist in this country,” he said. If these businesses fail to attract sufficient capital from sophisticated domestic investors, Van der Velden argues that many of these businesses will “end up as orphans” that will either fail or move to the United States.
While investing in life sciences companies is risky given that few treatments make it to market, Canadian life sciences venture capitalists have achieved higher overall returns than their peers in other sectors. Van der Velden, who is currently raising US$200 million for Lumira's fifth general fund. near a new C$30 million cancer fund in what is now being called “an incredible time to build domestic capital in the life sciences.” He pointed to the sector's outperformance in terms of exit value achieved relative to dollars invested over the past decade as RBC reports this last year.
Van der Velden spoke about both the Life Sciences Foundation and recent allocations of federal funds to Canada's life sciences sector in Budget 2025 (as part of the $1 billion reintroduction of the Venture Capital and Growth Capital Initiative) as a “step in the right direction.” However, he said more needs to be done to scale the entire funding ecosystem. This echoes his comments is LinkedIn yesterday, where he said that every $1 invested in early-stage Canadian life sciences startups will require $20 in follow-on capital to succeed.
Image courtesy of BDC.
