By Industry Canada News Room | Link to Article
By Industry Canada News Room | Link to Article
Industry Minister James Moore today hosted a round-table discussion with business leaders in Vancouver on key elements of a new Immigrant Investor Venture Capital (IIVC) pilot program. They discussed angel investors, seed-stage venture funds and business accelerators to determine where the real need is in the small business and entrepreneurial ecosystem and to ensure that the pilot program will truly drive entrepreneur success in Canada.
The Government of Canada is working with the IIVC pilot program expert panel to help build an entrepreneurial culture in Canada, complement public funds that support the development of early-stage companies and showcase Canada as an attractive destination for risk capital investment.
The expert panel members include Dr. Ajay Agrawal, Mr. Barry Gekiere, Mr. Grant J. Kook, Ms. Senia Rapisarda and Mr. John Stokes, who serves as chair.
This meeting concludes a series of consultations that were led by the expert panel and took place in cities across the country. The IIVC pilot program is led by the Minister of Industry in collaboration with the Minister of Citizenship and Immigration.
Quick facts
- In Economic Action Plan 2014, the government announced that it will replace the ineffective Immigrant Investor Program and Federal Entrepreneur Program and eliminate their long-standing application backlogs in order to ensure that immigrant investors have opportunities to contribute to job creation and economic growth in Canada.
- The new IIVC pilot program will test the feasibility of attracting immigrants who will contribute to Canada’s growth and long-term prosperity by placing an at-risk investment in a new Canadian venture capital fund.
- Canada has great benefits to offer investors: ambitious entrepreneurs, a skilled labour force, a strong economy and a sound banking system.
- A key objective of the government is to ensure that capital is available to help finance the creation and growth of Canada’s most promising enterprises.
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