6 November 20269 min read

AI Investors in Toronto (2026): Who Is Backing Early-Stage Startups

Investors backing early-stage AI startups in Toronto in 2026, with the Toronto deals and stated stages behind each one.

Investors backing early-stage AI startups in Toronto in 2026 include Radical Ventures, Two Small Fish Ventures, Staircase Ventures, BDC Capital's Thrive Venture Fund, the MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund and Golden Ventures, writing cheques from pre-seed onwards.

Researched and written by Zeeshan Ali at Platvix. Checked on 6 November 2026.

TL;DR

Is there real money in Toronto for an AI startup? Yes. All six have money in a Toronto company, and each card's latest Toronto deal was reported in 2026, from a $2 million ($2.8 million CAD) pre-seed to a $153 million USD round.
Who writes the first cheque? The MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund backs Ontario founders from day zero through seed stage, and Staircase Ventures leads pre-seed and seed rounds with cheques between $1M to $2M.
What does AI look like here to an investor? In these deals, applied to an industry: insurance quoting, construction bidding, logging infrastructure for AI agents and drug discovery.

Early-stage AI investors in Toronto

Radical Ventures

A firm built around artificial intelligence, based in Toronto with offices in London and San Francisco.

Invests in: early-stage AI companies. BetaKit describes its $650 million USD fund as the fourth in its early-stage category, and the firm's own site says it backs AI visionaries.
Latest early-stage fund: a $650 million USD final close, reported on 7 October 2025.
AI startups backed: General Magic in Toronto, which builds AI agents for insurance, and Veeda AI, which works on world models for physical AI and lists Toronto first among its locations.
Latest Toronto deal: led General Magic's $7.2 million USD seed round, reported on 24 February 2026. BetaKit reported on 19 August 2026 that Veeda AI had confirmed $90 million USD raised from investors including Radical.
Website: radical.vc

Two Small Fish Ventures

A deep tech firm with a Toronto office that says it invests in the next frontier of intelligence.

Invests in: early stage. Its own site calls it an early-stage deep tech venture firm that backs founders early in their journey, and it signs itself an Early Stage Deep Tech Venture Capital Fund.
Latest fund: a $41 million CAD final close for Fund III, reported on 14 June 2024.
AI startups backed: YScope, which gives its address as 108 College St., Toronto and builds open-source storage, search and analytics for the log data that AI agents generate.
Latest Toronto deal: the firm says it led YScope's US$3.9 million financing on 18 March 2026. BetaKit gives the figure as $3.9 million USD ($5.3 million CAD), raised on a simple agreement for future equity.
Website: twosmallfish.vc

Staircase Ventures

A Toronto firm backing Canadian B2B software founders, which closed a second fund in 2026.

Invests in: pre-seed and seed stage investment rounds, which it says it leads.
Cheque size: $1M to $2M on its own site. BetaKit reported initial cheques of $1 million to $2.5 million into about 12 companies for Fund II.
AI focus: the firm told BetaKit that about half of its portfolio companies have large language models at their core, and its portfolio page describes Mave, a Toronto company, as an AI assistant built for residential real-estate agents and brokerages.
Latest fund: a $50 million CAD Fund II, reported on 9 March 2026.
Latest Toronto deal: MedEssist, a Toronto healthtech startup, reported on 15 January 2026 as taking recent investment from Staircase alongside a returning investor. BetaKit later named MedEssist as Fund II's first investment.
Earlier Toronto deal: led Una Software's $4.4 million USD ($6.1 million CAD) all-equity seed round, reported on 14 May 2025. BetaKit describes Toronto-based Una Software as adding artificial intelligence features to its financial planning and analysis platform.
Website: staircaseventures.com

BDC Capital's Thrive Venture Fund

A fund that makes direct investments in women-led technology businesses, which is a condition worth checking against your own cap table before you approach it.

Invests in: pre-seed through Series B.
Fund: $350 million in capital, within a wider $500 million investment platform.
AI startups backed: Tyce, which says it was built in Toronto and gives construction firms a private AI system trained on their own project data.
Latest Toronto deal: co-led Tyce's $2 million ($2.8 million CAD) pre-seed round on 19 October 2026 with the MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund. A month earlier it co-led a $4.24 million CAD pre-seed in Blair Health, which BetaKit describes as a Toronto-based, AI-powered telehealth platform, reported on 23 September 2026.
Website: bdc.ca

MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund

An Ontario seed fund covering enterprise software, healthtech, cleantech and deeptech, which co-led a Toronto AI pre-seed in October 2026.

Invests in: Ontario founders from day zero through seed stage, in enterprise software, healthtech, cleantech and deeptech.
Cheque size: not given as a range. The fund says it is not always the largest cheque in a round.
Track record: more than 200 startups and more than $100 million deployed since 2008, reported on 17 August 2026.
AI startups backed: Tyce in Toronto, whose platform reviews drawings and specifications, supports estimating and bid management and flags contract risk.
Latest Toronto deal: co-led Tyce's $2 million ($2.8 million CAD) pre-seed round on 19 October 2026.
Website: marsdd.com

Golden Ventures

A Canada-based seed firm that describes itself as sector agnostic, with positions in Toronto AI companies including Biossil.

Invests in: pre-seed, seed and seed+, sector agnostic.
Cheque size: $500K-$3M for initial cheques.
AI startups backed: Biossil in Toronto, which uses an AI platform to find drug candidates among molecules that failed earlier trials, and Space, which is building an AI-native file system.
Latest Toronto deal: took part in Biossil's $153 million USD ($216 million CAD) all-equity round on 28 September 2026, which the OpenAI Startup Fund led.
Latest confirmed new investment: Brodie, announced on the firm's own news page on 29 September 2026. Transaction counsel's deal record for the round gives the same date and names Golden as one of two leads in a $3.6 million USD seed financing for the Toronto-based recreational basketball league.
Website: golden.ventures

Also worth knowing

Several firms are active around Toronto AI without a card here. Relay Ventures, which gives its entry stage as pre-seed and seed, led Endo's $815,000 CAD pre-seed, reported on 7 October 2026, in a Toronto company building AI-powered software for sports agencies. Deloitte Ventures and Inovia Capital co-led Peripheral Labs' $8.7 million USD ($12.1 million CAD) seed on 17 August 2026, both named as new investors in a Toronto AI startup. GreenSky Ventures, which invests in early stage Canadian B2B start-ups, funded Bot Food's $1.5 million CAD all-equity pre-seed, reported on 29 October 2026. Panache Ventures, which writes first cheques of up to $1.5M from a $100M Fund II and has a Toronto office among four, was among the investors in Biossil's round. Ripple Ventures in Toronto invests at inception, before incorporation, product or traction, with cheques of $250K-$1M USD. Georgian, also in Toronto, invests across the AI technology stack but targets initial investments of $25M or more, which puts it past the stages this guide covers.

Other support in the region

University money shows up in these rounds too: U of T's UTEST accelerator took part in YScope's round alongside Two Small Fish and the Snowflake alumni syndicate Snow Angels. On the health and life sciences side, the Ontario Centre of Innovation's Life Sciences Innovation Fund supported Blair Health's pre-seed. For women-led companies, BDC's wider $500 million Thrive platform sits around the Thrive Venture Fund and includes a $100M indirect envelope. And the MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund has deployed more than $100 million since 2008 across more than 200 Ontario startups.

FAQ

Are any of these investors AI-only? Radical Ventures is the one on this list built around artificial intelligence: its own site says it backs AI visionaries and BetaKit describes its $650 million USD fund as an early-stage AI fund. The rest are generalist, deep tech or mandate-led funds that reach AI through applied deals.

I am a pre-seed founder or a university spinout. Who should I approach? The MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund backs Ontario founders from day zero through seed stage, and Staircase Ventures leads pre-seed and seed rounds with cheques of $1M to $2M. YScope's round shows one shape a spinout raise can take here: a lead investor, an angel syndicate and U of T's UTEST accelerator, all on a simple agreement for future equity.

How were these investors chosen? Each one had to have a dated investment in a Toronto company within the last 24 months, a stated early-stage focus covering pre-seed, seed or Series A, a new investment since May 2025, and either an AI focus or an AI deal. This guide treats Toronto as the City of Toronto plus the inner GTA, meaning Mississauga, Brampton, Markham, Vaughan, Richmond Hill and the Durham municipalities, so Waterloo Region and Ottawa are out even though Canadian coverage files Kitchener-Waterloo companies under the Toronto-Waterloo corridor, and each company's city was taken from its own pages or from body text in reporting rather than from a press-release dateline.

How do I find which Toronto investors fit my startup? Platvix is an investment intelligence platform for founders. It helps you through your fundraising journey, from analysing your pitch deck to finding the right capital for your startup, including VC firms, angels, accelerators and grants.

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