The Numbers Behind a Lean Year: NB Raised $15M Across 15 Deals in 2024

The regional scorekeepers at Entrevestor have published their read of the 2024 funding numbers — drawing on CVCA venture data — and they deserve an unflinching read.

The topline

Per Entrevestor's read of the CVCA figures, Atlantic Canadian companies raised $176 million in venture capital in 2024. Nova Scotia led with $79 million across 18 deals. New Brunswick recorded $15 million across 15 deals — plenty of activity by count, thin by dollar volume, averaging just $1 million per round. P.E.I. logged a single $1-million investment.

For context, Entrevestor notes the region averaged $190 million a year from 2020 through 2024 (about $950 million total), so 2024 landed below trend — and its own 2024 Atlantic Canada Startup Data Report flags a more structural worry: declining company counts, shrinking employment, and what it calls a "disturbing drop in early-stage funding" across the region.

Reading the NB line

Fifteen small deals is a double-edged number. The optimistic read: the seed-stage machinery — NBIF, angel networks, student funds — kept writing cheques through a down cycle. The pessimistic read: nothing scaled. New Brunswick's largest disclosed round of the year belonged to Dieppe's Triple Hair at $4 million; there was no Introhive-sized event anywhere in the ecosystem.

Our take

Dollar-volume league tables flatter provinces that land one big round and hide the health underneath. New Brunswick's problem isn't deal flow — it's the missing middle: companies that should be raising $5–15 million Series A rounds either bootstrap (a fine outcome), sell early, or stall. The industrial-tech and security benches are real; the capital to scale them mostly still lives elsewhere.

The 2025 question is whether any of the province's compounding companies — in agtech, vehicle intelligence, or cloud security — converts execution into the round that resets this table.

Sources

• Atlantic Canada Raised $176M in VC in 2024 — Entrevestor's provincial breakdown of CVCA 2024 venture totals ($176M Atlantic; NB $15M / 15 deals)
• CVCA 2024 Venture Capital Market Overview (PDF) — primary Canadian VC data underlying the Atlantic figures
• Data Report Reveals Challenging Environment for Startups — Entrevestor's 2024 Atlantic Canada Startup Data Report findings on company counts, employment, and early-stage funding
• 2024 Atlantic Canada Startup Data Report — full report (email gate)
• Triple Hair Group Closes $4 Million Financing — New Brunswick's largest disclosed 2024 round