“This investment is intended to promote Canadian women entrepreneurs, giving them greater opportunities and, ultimately, a better chance of succeeding on the global stage,” said Isabel Huddon, President and CEO of BDC. (Photo: BDC Courtesy)

The Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) will provide $500 million to create franchisees – a fund and lab for women that will help women’s businesses across the country.

The Federal Reserve considers it “the largest investment platform of its kind in the world”.

said Isabel Heddon, President and CEO of BDC. “This investment aims to strengthen Canadian women entrepreneurs by providing them with greater opportunities and, ultimately, better opportunities to succeed on the global stage.” We believe the enormous potential of these women can become an important lever for the country’s economic prosperity.”

The BDC argues that it is “simply not good enough for more of them to start and establish their businesses”, believing that it is “essential to the Canadian economy that these pioneers have access to everything they need to become the global leaders of tomorrow.

Three strings

The declared amounts are divided into three blocks. About $300 million will be directly invested in promising female-led technology companies. The strength of the proposed innovation, the existing team and the means available to it to achieve its goals are among the criteria that will guide BDC in its investment choices.

On the other hand, $100 million will be allocated to directed funds focused on women entrepreneurship. Finally, another $100 million envelope will be used to establish a lab responsible for creating new equity investment models.

Even if the modalities of operating this structure are not defined, this lab will work with the entrepreneurship ecosystem partners. Its goal will be to help women-run companies present a promising business plan, but do not necessarily meet the traditional criteria to get their hands on venture capital.

The Brookings Doha Center asserts that its goal is to “close critical funding gaps in the early stages of development.”

Tout ce projet s’inspire du Fonds pour les femmes en technologie, lancé par BDC Capital en 2017. Grâce à cette initiative, 38 investissements dans des entreprises dirigées par des femmes ont déjà été réalisés, dont huit ont connu’s une sortie Present. In addition, more than 7,500 business women and partners have benefited from activities organized or supported by the Fund.

The Center for Business Development stresses that all of these initiatives aimed at giving a boost to female entrepreneurs are essential, because they have to “work harder to get the financing they need and consistently do more with less than similar businesses run by men.”

And betting on women pays off, according to the Federal Corporation. She cites a study by the Boston Consulting Group that showed that the return on every dollar invested in a startup is higher than in a startup (78 cents on the dollar versus 31 cents on the dollar).