Southern California has a large and growing startup community whose international reputation continues to grow. With established centers of innovation in Santa Monica - Silicon Beach, Downtown LA, Pasadena, Orange County and San Diego, investors are increasingly finding that Southern California is an ideal place to help launch and accelerate the growth of innovation.

MAPLE® connects Canadian and Southern California entrepreneurs to new markets, partnerships and investors. We help facilitate the connections and conversations that can help take new ideas forward and mentor their growth.

2015 Investment Trends

  • Venture capital firms invested US $16.3 billion in 1070 deals in the U.S. in the third quarter of 2015. For the first three quarters, US $47.2 billion has been invested in U.S. companies.
  • VC fundraising by Canadian funds reached $1.1 billion in the first nine months of 2015 – a 20% increase over the same period in 2014.
  • Investment by Canadian funds in non-Canadian companies was $318 million in 85 deals for the first three quarters.
  • In the 12 months ending Sept. 30, 2015, Canadian funds had invested $496 million in foreign portfolio companies – a six year high.
  • California ranked #1 in VC investments in the United States and Canada for the first nine months of 2015 at $35.3 billion CAD.
  • California accounted for 53.7% of all VC investments in the United States and Canada for the same period.
  • Average round size in the U.S. was $17.9 million. Average round size in Canada was $4.8 million.
  • VCs invested $1 billion into Silicon Beach investments for the first three quarters of 2015, $845 million into San Diego companies and $722 million into Orange County companies.

Sources: Canadian Venture Capital Review – First Three Quarters, Thomson Reuters; Los Angeles Times – The next Silicon Beach? Orange County wants to build its tech community, Oct. 29, 2015, San Diego Union Tribune – Oct. 16, 2015.

At MAPLE, our mission is to promote investment, trade and entrepreneurship between Southern California and Canada. MAPLE Business Council connects executives, entrepreneurs, institutions, investors and service providers through our unique Market, Access, Promote, Lead and Enable networking model.

WE ARE MAPLE.