Manitoba increases venture capital tax credit to $30M

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The province will add $8 million to a tax credit for small-business ventures and lower the minimum amount needed for investors to access the credit in hopes of tapping into a growing startup economy in Manitoba.

The small-business venture capital tax credit is increasing to $30 million from $22 million to meet the increasing level of investment in the province, Innovation and New Technology Minister Mike Moroz said on Thursday.

“What it means is a huge influx in interest, in getting engaged in the innovation and the tech ecosystem,” he said. “People have been sitting on the sidelines a little bit. The rules have been challenging for some potential investors.”

The small-business venture capital tax credit offers Manitoba businesses a 45 per cent non-refundable tax credit on an investment of up to $500,000 per company. The maximum tax credit in a calendar year is $225,000, or $120,000 in a tax year.

Moroz said the province will also be reducing the minimum eligible investment to qualify for the credit to $5,000 to $10,000 and expanding investment eligibility to include limited partnerships beginning in April.

According to the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association, venture capital investment in Manitoba jumped to $127 million in 2025 from $4 million in 2024 — the stark difference likely in part due to Winnipeg-based financial software company Conquest Planning raising $110 million last year.

Manitoba has largely been a non-actor in the world of Canadian venture capital investment, but that’s changing, said Iain Crozier, founder of Trillick Ventures Inc., Manitoba’s first early-stage venture capital fund.

“Rather than just investing in public markets and outside of benefiting our province, we’re going to see a lot of active investment here in Manitoban companies,” he said.

“The tax credit is a huge incentive in order to invest your capital here in an asset class that is normally, and traditionally, very challenging to access.”

The province is also expanding its investment guidelines, including recognizing simple agreements for future equity, or SAFE agreements, a contract popular in other North American cities that allows an investor to purchase a future equity stake in a startup with future conditions.

They’re typically used for early stage startup funding because they’re more flexible than typical financing models.

Winnipeg-based tech firm Taiv Inc., is one of the startup turned-success stories in the city.

It closed a US$13 million growth round this year, less than nine months after raising US$10.5 million in series A financing.

The changes coming in April will help Manitoba investors build companies like theirs at home, said Taiv co-founder Noah Palansky.

“These changes are a huge key piece in unlocking that flywheel, making it so that when people have that liquidity, and they look at the startup ecosystem, they look at how strong an asset class it is, and say, ‘Yeah, I want to invest back in that,’ they can now do it.”

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca