According to 2011 year-end figures from the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association, a four-year high of $1.5 billion from VC was disbursed to Canadian startups last year.  Although this was the highest level since 2008, this was far short of the $2.1 billion invested in 2007.

New funds for VC hit $1 billion in 2011, up only 2% from 2010, which pales to the 32% jump in the United States from 2010.  High-tech startups have had to look for alternative sources of funding in the past few years, due to limited VC supply.  With limited growth capital available, startups have had to rely on government funding programs, such as SR&ED, and the financing of SR&ED accruals to generate internal cashflow.

Canada’s fastest-growing tech firms include:

1.  Accedian Networks (St. Larent, Que.; 50,136%)

2. RTI Cryogenics Inc. (Cambridge, Ont.; 46,278%)

3. Avigilon (Vancouver; 38,796%)

4. NexJ Systems Inc. (Toronto; 29,161%)

5. Real Matters (Markham, Ont.; 28,265%)

6. Arise Technologies Corp. (Waterloo, Ont.; 10,017%)

7. Clevest Solutions Inc. (Richmond, B.C.; 7,976%)

8. Dominion Voting Systems Corp. (Toronto; 3,539%)

9. Acquisio (Saint-Lambert, Que.; 2,622%)

10. GuestLogix Inc. (Toronto; 2,322%)