Atlantic Canada suffered a weak first quarter for venture capital investment, says the country’s main private capital association, highlighting weak investment across Canada and around the globe.

The Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association, or CVCA, released its first quarter data today, revealing that only four Atlantic Canadian companies closed VC rounds from January to March, with a total value of $22.4 million. It was a steep drop from the first quarter of 2025, when the region’s startups raised $36 million in seven deals.

The weak showing on the East Coast was part of a disappointing quarter for VC investment across Canada. The CVCA said the country reported 104 transactions worth a total of $936.3 million in the first quarter, compared with 116 deals worth $1.26 billion in the same period in 2025. In particular, the association noticed weak investment in early- and growth-stage investment.

David Kornacki, the CVCA’s Director of Data and Product, noted in a statement that activity was “near zero” in the earlier stages and growth stages.  "One quarter does not confirm a structural shift, but the data is consistent enough that the absence of domestic growth capital warrants attention,” he said. “That is the stage where foreign participation increases, domestic ownership dilutes, and acquisition becomes more likely than IPO."

The CVCA also said that the number of transactions in Canada in the first quarter was the lowest of any quarter since 2017.

There were a few bright spots in the Atlantic Canadian numbers. There was one major deal in Newfoundland and Labrador worth $15.5 million, and New Brunswick startups reported three deals worth $6.9 million. The New Brunswick numbers were especially heartening given that the province only raised a total of $15 million in VC in all of 2025.

There were no venture capital deals reported in Nova Scotia or Prince Edward Island. We believe it was the first time since we’ve been monitoring the CVCA data 15 years ago that Nova Scotia reported no VC funding at all.

At a global level, venture capital investment this year is characterized by massive deals in AI infrastructure and a poor performance in the rest of the market, said the CVCA. Four AI infrastructure deals in the U.S. accounted for 57 percent of the total global venture capital deployed in the quarter, it said. In Europe, the value of VC deals dropped 40 percent from the first quarter of 2025, with seed-stage investment down 44 percent.