Front Row Ventures

About Front Row Ventures

Front Row Ventures supports Canada’s next tech generation by backing the most talented student entrepreneurs with capital and teaching venture capital fundamentals in university ecosystems.

The firm is Canada’s leading university-focused and student-operated venture capital fund, present on over 20 campuses in Quebec, Ontario and now British Columbia.

Every year, Front Row Ventures’ student scouts analyze over 800 student-founded start-ups and invest $50k in the most promising ones. Over the past five years, the firm invested in more than 35 companies, including Puzzle Medical Devices, Nomic Bio, and Valence Discovery. Together, these companies have raised over $100 million in follow-on rounds from leading investors, and Valence Discovery was recently acquired by Recursion (Nasdaq Listed company) for over CAD$63M.

Thanks to their unique operating model involving students on both sides of the funding equation, not only does Front Row Ventures bridge the gap in pre-seed funding for student entrepreneurs, but they also offer participating students a first experience of venture capital, with the opportunity to develop direct, privileged relationships with venture capital firms and, ultimately, facilitate the rise of talent in the technology industry.