Join Mario Nigro and Senia Rapisarda, Managing Director of HarbourVest Canada, for a discussion of Canada’s changing venture, growth and private equity landscape. Senia and HarbourVest have become a significant presence in the Canadian market, with $1.2 billion in investments focused on the technology, climate tech and life sciences sectors. Key challenges for Canada’s entrepreneurs, in Senia’s view, include building large, enduring Canadian champions, overcoming the shortage of domestic growth capital, and encouraging a culture of repeat entrepreneurship. Looking ahead, Senia believes that geopolitical uncertainty will prompt Canadian entrepreneurs to pursue global opportunities, fostering a more balanced and internationally connected business sector.

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In this episode, Mario Nigro speaks with Adrian Bartha and Quinten Griffiths, founding partners of GoodCapital, about their approach to midmarket private equity. GoodCapital was built on a high involvement, hands on model that influences everything from deal selection to post acquisition engagement and is informed by Quinten and Adrian’s own experiences as business owners and acquirers. While not exclusively tied to the proprietary deal model, its four acquisitions to date have been sourced internally from the founders’ extensive networks. This underscores the firm’s core belief that deep and longstanding personal relationships are the key to success in any economic environment.

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David Au-Yeung and Victor Wong join Mario Nigro to discuss CollectiveXP, which provides investment and advisory services in Canada’s lower midmarket. After exiting Flipp, a VC-backed tech startup that achieved revenues over $100 million, David and Victor decided to use their skills, connections and capital to work with other investors. CollectiveXP’s philosophy centres on relationship building, early collaboration with founders, and leveraging real-world experience to apply technology – including AI – to drive growth in midmarket businesses across all sectors. CollectiveXP typically makes minority investments, with flexibility for majority stakes.

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Sebastien Dhonte joins Mario Nigro to discuss Clairvest’s approach to mid-market M&A. Based in Toronto but very active on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border, Clairvest has decades of experience with its distinctive partnership-driven investment model. Their approach prioritizes alignment of interests, with existing management teams maintaining effective operational control. While Clairvest often holds a minority stake, it is far from passive: the firm supports management growth strategies and retains approval rights on hiring, financing, M&A, and budgeting. Sectors of interest include IT services, waste management, operations and maintenance and equipment rentals, among others. Sebastien and Mario conclude their discussion by looking at some of the trends that Clairvest is currently seeing in the marketplace.

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In the 150th episode of Views from the Market, Ira Goldstein joins Mario Nigro to discuss the evolving role of cybersecurity in midmarket M&A. As he explains, cybersecurity diligence has become a key part of deal-making, driven by the ever-increasing value of data in many business sectors. He stresses the value of hands-on technical assessments – rather than check-the-box exercises – for many organizations, as well as the importance of proactive controls and the challenges smaller firms face in allocating resources for cybersecurity. Looking ahead, Goldstein predicts increased use of AI-driven tools for risk assessment as cybersecurity awareness continues to grow.

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This episode of "Views from the Market" features Sévrine Labelle, Managing Director of BDC’s Thrive Lab and Thrive Entrepreneurship Through Acquisition Fund, which focus on women entrepreneurs. As Sévrine notes, only 4% of investment in Canada supports women-founded businesses. The conversation centres on the newly launched $50 million Thrive ETA Fund, which helps women become entrepreneurs through acquisition – whether via search funds, self-funded deals, or management buyouts. The fund provides equity for women to acquire mid-sized businesses. Sévrine emphasizes the sector-agnostic fund’s flexibility in investment models and cheque sizes (typically $1 - 2 million) and its reliance on co-investment rather than majority ownership.

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In this episode, Mario Nigro speaks with Andrew Sarna and Vanessa Hui of Forthlane Partners, an independent wealth management firm. Forthlane offers sophisticated institutional investment strategies to its clientele of high-net-worth individuals, family offices, and foundations. Vanessa and Andrew discuss how the firm diversifies client investments through private equity, hedge funds, and defensive credit strategies that offer downside protection. The broad experience of Forthlane’s team allows it to tap into geographies and lower midmarket investments that are sometimes overlooked. Opportunities in precious metals and other commodities, which are partly AI-driven, are among the recent developments that are considered.

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In this episode, host Mario Nigro talks with Oaklins Canada partner Jonathan Sherman. As a worldwide M&A advisory firm, Oaklins is able to expose Canadian midmarket businesses to a global marketplace of potential buyers and sellers, in addition to assisting with purely domestic transactions. The discussion focuses on the effect of tariff-related uncertainty on potential foreign acquirors. Jonathan notes that while many buyers are hesitant about acquisitions in the metals and auto sectors, there is still a healthy appetite in the U.S. and overseas for acquisitions in CUSMA-protected industries. Looking ahead, Jonathan predicts that pent-up supply will drive higher deal volumes in 2026, fueled by succession planning and delayed transactions.

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Scott Foster, Canadian Practice Leader of the Global Transaction Advisory Group at Alvarez & Marsal, joins Mario Nigro to discuss transaction diligence in the Canadian midmarket. A&M’s integrated Canadian diligence offering has grown in recent years to encompass financial, commercial, operations IT, and tax services. As Scott notes, the current economic climate is extending many diligence processes as clients try to get a more complete picture of the exposure of businesses to tariff and inflation-related pressures. He and Mario also discuss the potential impact of AI on diligence before concluding with a few thoughts about where midmarket M&A is headed.

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In this episode, we welcome Mike Alberts of Boston-based Cohere Capital. Cohere focuses on founder-owned businesses in the $2-15 million (U.S.) EBITDA range, primarily in the tech-enabled services, software and business services sectors. The firm’s preference is to partner with existing leadership. As Mike notes, he and Cohere have had many positive experiences in the Canadian deal space and regularly travel north in search of new opportunities. The rise of AI is also considered: Mike sees AI as augmenting businesses rather than replacing their core services and human capital. Looking ahead, Mike expects a rebound in deal flow as the market adjusts to ongoing economic uncertainty and finally deploys the “dry powder” that built up in H1 2025.

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