MaRS Discovery District, in collaboration with the Ontario government and private sector investors, announced the launch of Graphite IAF IV—a $100 million private-sector venture capital fund aimed at supporting early-stage Canadian technology startups. The fund achieved a first close of $77 million, with contributions including $25 million from the Ontario government and an equal amount from OMERS, a Canadian pension fund. ?

Graphite Ventures, the entity managing the fund, is an evolution of the MaRS Investment Accelerator Fund (IAF), which has previously invested in over 175 startups, generating more than $1.7 billion in follow-on funding and creating over 5,700 jobs. The new fund focuses on providing seed and pre-seed capital to early-stage ventures, particularly in sectors like B2B SaaS, digital health, fintech, proptech, and capital-efficient hardware.

Bennett Jones is acting for MaRS with a team led by Jesslyn Maurier and includes Barry Reiter, James Beeby and Phil Ward.