Thrive Venture Fund
Compared with the 242 other application forms we have read
- Scored mainly on market demand and growth. 19 lead with that.
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Eligibility & Details
What this program funds and who can apply
Program Description
BDC Capital's Thrive Venture Fund is a $300M venture capital fund taking equity stakes in women-led Canadian technology companies at seed through Series B stages — this is dilutive financing where founders give up ownership in exchange for $500,000 to $5,000,000 per investment. A company qualifies as "women-led" if a woman founder, co-founder, or C-suite executive has been driving the business for at least one year. The fund is sector-agnostic within technology.
Eligibility Requirements
- Must be a Canadian technology company (incorporated in Canada)
- Must be women-led: a woman founder, co-founder, or C-suite executive must have been driving the business for at least one year
- Equity financing — company gives up ownership stake ($500,000–$5,000,000 per investment); not a grant
- Seed through Series B stage with high growth potential
- Must be in a technology sector (software, hardware, biotech, cleantech, fintech, etc.)
Quick Assessment
Funding Details
- Amount
- Varies
- Type
- Program
- Level
- Federal
- Deadline
- Ongoing
Program Scorecard
Competition, effort, and approval at a glance
Very difficult — extensive requirements
Very high competition — highly selective
Very complex — extensive preparation required
How to Win
Insider tips, common pitfalls, and what successful applicants look like
Insider TipThe Thrive Venture Fund is the successor to the WIT Fund, which had 8 successful exits from 38 investments.
Rejection Pitfalls 10
- Company is not 'women-led' per BDC's definition (no woman founder/co-founder/executive in role 1+ year)
Success Profile
Evaluation Criteria
How Thrive Venture Fund judges your application
What the reviewer scores, what gets applications rejected, and what to write.
Distilled from 6+ source documents on bdc.ca, condensed into one brief. Sources as of 2026-09-07.
6 of the sources
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What Thrive Venture Fund favours
Strong growth and scalable market potential◦
“Businesses with strong growth and scalable market potential”
The form
Company and contact
- 1Company nameshort answer
- 2First nameshort answer
- 3Last nameshort answer
- 4Email addressshort answer
- 5Business phoneshort answer
- 6Extensionshort answer
Province and industry
- 7Provinceselection
- 8Industryselection
Investment fit
- 9Women-led statusselection
- 10Yearly revenue rangeselection
- 11Current fundraising statusselection
Consent
- 12Marketing consentcheckbox
Thrive Venture Fund states no length limits for these answers.
Judged against
- 1
Is this a women-led Canadian tech company?
Show them Say plainly that a woman founded, co-founded or sits in the C-suite of your Canadian technology company, and pick the industry category that fits.◦
In the funder’s words · 2
- Seed and Series A/B women-led Canadian technology companies seeking equity investments
- Businesses across a wide range of sectors
- 2
Can this business grow and scale?
What to show, and the funder’s 1 criterion behind it in Premium
- 3
Are you raising equity right now?
What to show, and the funder’s 1 criterion behind it in Premium
Where applicants fail
“Please note: We are a venture capital fund focused on returns and do not provide loans or grants.”
“For security reasons, the platform does not allow you to attach a presentation of your project.”
Premium · the rest of this brief
See all 3 rules that can reject you and every criterion you are judged on. Then we draft your application for you.
1 more criteria · 4 more prompts
Do you pass?
Each one can rule you out. Tick the ones you meet.
Your business
Seed to Series A/B women-led tech
Seed and Series A/B women-led Canadian technology companies seeking equity investments
Strong growth and scalable market
Businesses with strong growth and scalable market potential
Canadian women-led tech company
We are a venture capital fund that invests exclusively in Canadian women-led tech companies.
Documents to attach
Ticks are kept on this device.
From application to money
- Warm introduction advisedWarm introduction advised
- Send the web formSend the web form
- Send your presentationSend your presentation by email
- BDC decidesBDC decides
In the funder’s words · 3
- Warm introduction advised
- BDC says a warm introduction is the best way to talk to the fund, though it also accepts an investment request.
- Send the web form
- Submit the public no-login form with your company, contact, province, industry, women-led, revenue and fundraising details.
- Send your presentation
- The confirmation email then lets you send a presentation document, because the form cannot accept attachments.
Quoted lines are word for word from the source documents; lines marked ◦ are our reading of them.
Everything you need to win Thrive Venture Fund
Not a marketing summary. The actual checklist, intel, and stack strategy reviewers look for.
- 10 rejection pitfalls reviewers flag — so you catch them first
- 10-document checklist with what each reviewer is actually checking
- Your Application Game Plan — the print-ready PDF the preview below describes
- 6-step application timeline with prep hours per step
- Insider tip from program officers on what separates winners
- 5-program stacking strategy to combine with compatible funding
- Success profile + evaluation criteria — exactly what reviewers score on
Application Playbook
Step-by-step process, required documents, and expenses
Application Steps
Required Documents 10
Eligible Expenses 6
Ineligible Expenses 5
Intake Periods
Deadline Notes
Ineligible Organizations
Funding Stack Strategy
Compatible programs, clawback risk, and combined funding potential
Compatible Programs
Clawback Risk
Not-applicable RiskHow Thrive Venture Fund Compares
Side-by-side with similar programs
| Program | Amount | Difficulty | Payment | Deadline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Thrive Venture Fund | Varies | Hard | Equity | Ongoing |
| NRC IRAP Clean Technology Program | $100,000–$500,000 | Hard | Mixed (Advance + Reimb.) | Ongoing |
| CanExport SMEs | Up to $50,000 | Moderate | Mixed (Advance + Reimb.) | Between intakes — the... |
| BDC Thrive Lab for Women | $100,000–$2,000,000 | Hard | Equity | Ongoing |
| Strategic Response Fund (formerly Str... | Minimum $10 million contribution | Hard | Mixed (Advance + Reimb.) | Ongoing — continuous... |
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Frequently Asked Questions
Quick answers to the questions founders most often ask about Thrive Venture Fund