Radical Ventures this week announced the first close of the ambitious Radical Breakouts Fund, and it is being described as the largest venture capital fund in the history of Canada.
With over US$1 billion in commitments, the Radical Breakouts Fund is targeting artificial intelligence scale-ups nationwide with trillion-dollar trajectories.
“We compete to invest and partner with the best AI founders and companies in the world, and we win,” believes Jordan Jacobs, cofounder of Radical Ventures, which has invested in Discovery Loop, Cohere, Waabi, World Labs, Veeda, Xanadu, Etched, Crusoe, Generalist, Prime Intellect, Decart, Latent Labs, Muon Space, Aspect Biosystems, and more.
Unveiled at the inaugural Canada Investment Summit in Toronto, the new fund is backed by several prominent firms, including two of Canada’s biggest banks—TD Bank and the Bank of Montreal—who aim to invest in the next-generation of AI technologies with an eye toward possible finance field applications.
Canada “has the talent and ambition to lead in AI,” according to Raymond Chun, who serves as Chief Executive Officer of TD since last year.
“What we need is capital to scale Canadian companies into global champions,” he says.
The Radical Breakouts Fund is spearheaded by “AI experts, skilled investors, and visionary entrepreneurs” and will “back leading AI companies at home and abroad, creating value for Canadians.”
“We’ve partnered with Radical Ventures from the very beginning and are excited by its ability to help power Canada’s AI sector,” Chun remarked.
Darryl White, CEO of BMO, agrees, noting that “Canada has the talent and the resources to be an innovation leader across the board, from discovery to commercialization and adoption—helping to build the next era of world-class companies and the technologies that power them.”
“As Canada’s first bank, we’ve been investing in innovation for centuries and are proud to support this next generation,” White stated.
Canada “has never had a shortage of world-class AI companies,” affirms Jacobs. “What we have lacked is capital at the scale required to keep them here as they grow.”
“The Radical Breakouts Fund closes that gap,” he says.
Radical Ventures was founded in Toronto in 2017.
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