“An important and strategic shift” is how impact investor Paul Lacerte describes the launch of InBC Investment Corp.

The $500 million fund was announced April 27, 2021 as “a first-of-its-kind strategic investment fund” to drive innovation, sustainability and inclusiveness into B.C.’s economy. InBC will support startups, help promising companies scale up, attract investment, create family-supporting jobs and diversify B.C.’s economy, according to a B.C. Government media release.

“As Canada’s first and only Indigenous owned VC/Impact Fund in Canada, headquartered in B.C., Raven Indigenous Capital Partners sees this fund as an opportunity for the Province to partner with us in a variety of ways including planning, Indigenous approaches to impact measurement, deal sourcing, and possibly co-investment,” says its Managing Partner Paul Lacerte.

He says the announcement is both timely and welcome given the “real and positive change and growth” Indigenous innovators are driving in the B.C. economy, and is interested to see “how the reconciliation lens will manifest in the investment decisions, practices and partnerships under this initiative. This is good news and an important step as we work to build back better.”

Dan Gunn, CEO of Victoria’s VIATEC (the advocacy and support hub for the city’s tech sector) says the Fund means B.C. companies become much more competitive on the world stage and it enables them to leverage provincial investment to create greater opportunity. Raising capital in Canada has traditionally been seen as a lot more difficult than it is, say in the U.S., and “so having this Fund in place specifically designed to identify B.C. innovations with high potential and to help them scale shows not only faith in their potential, but also unlocks support and funding from private investors.”

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