Investissement Québec leads $150-million raise for Montreal automation firm Vention
Investissement Québec put $55 million into Vention’s $150-million financing, joining Desjardins, Nvidia’s NVentures and Fidelity as the Montreal company eyes more R&D and European growth.
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By Torontoer Staff
Investissement Québec led a $150-million financing round for Montreal industrial automation company Vention Inc., contributing $55 million to the deal announced Tuesday. New investors Desjardins Capital and Nvidia’s NVentures joined existing backer Fidelity Investments, while U.S. funds including Bain Capital Ventures and Bold Ventures also participated.
The round, which includes about US$20 million of debt, did not include secondary sales; all proceeds go to Vention. The financing values the privately held firm at more than US$1.2 billion and marks Investissement Québec’s largest venture capital commitment to date as part of roughly $800 million it has deployed in venture over the past decade.
What Vention does and who it sells to
Founded a decade ago and led by former McKinsey consultant Etienne Lacroix, Vention mixes hardware, parts supply, e-commerce and 3-D computer-aided design software for factory automation. Engineers at more than 4,000 factories in 30 countries use Vention’s online platform to design, order and deploy custom equipment such as robot workstations, test benches and assembly lines.
Vention manufactures its own metal parts and integrates products from suppliers including Fanuc and Universal Robots. The company maintains a library of thousands of ready-made designs that customers can adapt, and ships flat-packed orders with assembly instructions that typically arrive within days.
Why investors are buying in now
Jean-Simon Cayer, venture capital investment director at Investissement Québec, said the market dynamics favour automation. He pointed to western reindustrialization and persistent labour shortages as drivers that increase demand for automation, and said Vention reduces complexity and cost for manufacturers.
Vention has the right team with the right product at the right time. Big shifts are happening with western reindustrialization and labour shortages. All that leads to more automation. It’s complex and costly but with Vention, the complexity is greatly reduced, and the company has one of the best teams we’ve ever seen.
Jean-Simon Cayer, Investissement Québec
Nvidia’s NVentures joins the round after collaborating with Vention on motion-control technology. Nvidia has also backed other Canadian AI startups, and Vention plans to invest more in simulation and artificial intelligence to advance autonomous factory robotics. The company said it will also use funds to expand sales capacity for large customers and to grow in Europe, which makes up about 20 per cent of current sales.
Growth, profitability and the capital mix
Vention has tripled in size since its 2022 financing, when it raised US$95 million in a round led by Georgian Partners, and recently surpassed US$100 million in annualized revenue. The new preferred shares were issued at the same price as the 2022 round, according to a filing with Industry Canada.
Lacroix said the company has significantly improved its path to profitability but remains unprofitable as it invests heavily in research and development. The firm plans to keep funding work in design, programming, simulation and AI, areas Lacroix identified as essential to make factory robots more autonomous.
We’ve always raised on both sides of the border, but we wanted to make sure Vention stays Canadian forever. That is why more than 75 per cent of this round came from Canadian sources.
Etienne Lacroix, founder and CEO, Vention
The broader picture for Quebec venture capital
Investissement Québec has backed several prominent Quebec tech companies, including Lightspeed Commerce, Coveo and AlayaCare. The Vention investment represents a larger trend of public and private capital targeting industrial technology and AI-enabled manufacturing tools as companies respond to supply chain shifts and labour constraints.
For Vention, the financing should accelerate product development and international expansion while keeping the company anchored in Canada. For Investissement Québec, it is the crown corporation’s biggest single venture bet so far and a signal that it will continue to place sizable stakes in local tech firms.
Vention plans to deploy the capital over the next months to scale engineering teams, broaden its software and automation offerings, and grow sales operations in Europe and among large enterprise customers.
VentionInvestissement Québecventure capitalindustrial automationMontreal
