About MaRS IAF
MaRS IAF is a venture capital firm founded in 2005. It is primarily based out of Toronto, Canada. As of Oct 2026, MaRS IAF is an active investor, having invested in 222 companies, with 7 new investments in the last 12 months. It primarily invests in Seed round in Canada based startups. Its investments are spread across a wide range of sectors from Enterprise Applications to High Tech and Retail. Most recently it participated in the $***** Series A round of Azoma Overall, MaRS IAF portfolio has seen 1 unicorn, 4 IPOs and 63 acquisitions including key companies like StackAdapt, Profound Medical and Axonify. A lot of funds co-invest with MaRS IAF, with names like BDC sharing a substantial percentage of its portfolio. MaRS IAF has team of 9 people including 1 partners.Key Metrics
Team Members
Portfolio Count
Portfolio Sectors
Portfolio Locations
Rounds of Entry
Seed, Series A & 3 more
Portfolio Unicorns
Deals in last 12 months
MaRS IAF's List of Top Investments
MaRS IAF has a portfolio of 222 companies, one of which is a Unicorn. Their most notable investments are in Enurgen and Aislelabs.Their portfolio spans across Canada, United States, United Kingdom and 2 more locations. They have invested in Enterprise Applications, High Tech, Retail and 32 other sectors, across stages such as Seed, Series A and 3 more. Here is the list of top investments by MaRS IAF:1. StackAdapt
Provider of an AI-powered platform for digital advertising campaign management. The platform offers tools for planning, executing, and analyzing advertising campaigns across various digital channels. It provides features such as audience targeting, creative design, and performance reporting. The platform supports advertising across connected TV, digital out-of-home, email, audio, video, and in-game channels.
Key facts about StackAdapt
- Founded Year: 2014
- Location: Toronto (Canada)
- Annual Revenue: £10M - £50M as on Dec 31, 2025
- Valuation: $*****
- Stage: Series B
- Total Funding till date: $537M
- Employee Count: 1,856 as on Oct 31, 2026
- Investors: Summit Partners, MaRS Discovery District and 9 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series B, Feb 04, 2025, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
2. Top Hat
Provider of interactive learning software for higher education course management. This platform facilitates student engagement through digital tools including polling, quizzes, and interactive textbooks. It integrates with learning management systems to track attendance, monitor student performance, and deliver course content. The software includes artificial intelligence features to assist with assessment creation and study support. Educators use these tools to manage classroom activities and identify learning gaps through data analytics.
Key facts about Top Hat
- Founded Year: 2009
- Location: Toronto (Canada)
- Stage: Series E
- Total Funding till date: $200M
- Employee Count: 462 as on Sep 30, 2026
- Investors: Western Technology Investment, Teralys Capital and 20 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series E, Feb 04, 2021, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
3. Maple
Maple is an online doctor consultation platform. Users can seek remote doctor consultation through video conferencing. Provides services for a range of general illness including flu, eye and ear infections, urinary tract infections, allergic reactions, skin issues and rashes, vomiting and diarrhea, minor injuries, among others.
Key facts about Maple
- Founded Year: 2015
- Location: Toronto (Canada)
- Valuation: $*****
- Stage: Series B
- Total Funding till date: $71.9M
- Employee Count: 288 as on Sep 30, 2026
- Investors: RBC Ventures, MaRS Discovery District and 9 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series B, Sep 15, 2020, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
4. ACTO
Provider of an AI and SaaS-based educational platform for the life science industry. The company has developed a digital platform with learning tools like SALESFitness which is a product that provides trading in clinical sales, MARKETINGFitness a centralized tool for life science marketing of new launches, MSLFitness provides engaging learning experiences and more. There are features for remote video coaching, user engagement tools, and AI-assisted tools for performance tracking.
Key facts about ACTO
- Founded Year: 2014
- Location: Toronto (Canada)
- Stage: Series B
- Total Funding till date: $39.5M
- Employee Count: 116 as on Sep 30, 2026
- Investors: Salesforce Ventures, Resolve Growth Partners and 10 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Series B, Sep 12, 2024, $*****
- Highlight: Editors' Pick
Developer of image guided prostate ablation system for cancer treatment. The company uses proprietary technology and provide TULSA-PRO is an AI-powered, MRI-guided, incision-free robotic ablation system for the ablation of prostate tissue.
Key facts about Profound Medical
- Founded Year: 2008
- Location: Toronto (Canada)
- Annual Revenue: $10M - $50M as on Dec 31, 2025
- Stage: Public
- Total Funding till date: $37.7M
- Employee Count: 187 as on Sep 30, 2026
- Investors: Stifel, FedDev Ontario and 11 Others
- Latest Funding Round: Post IPO, Dec 19, 2025, $*****
- Highlight: Public
MaRS IAF's Year-on-Year Investment Trends
MaRS IAF has invested in 222 companies over the last 18 years, with an average of 7 new investments annually in the last 10 years. In 2025, it made 3 investments, while as of Oct 2026, it has made 7 investments in this year. Its most recent first time investment was in Sproutfamily and most recent follow-on round was in Azoma.Year | No. of Investments | ||
|---|---|---|---|
1st Round | Follow-on | Total | |
2026 (YTD) | 5 | 2 | 7 |
2025 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
2024 | 11 | 1 | 12 |
2023 | 4 | 1 | 5 |
2022 | 7 | 2 | 9 |
2021 | 9 | 2 | 11 |
2020 | 8 | 3 | 11 |
2019 | 9 | 0 | 9 |
2018 | 6 | 0 | 6 |
2017 | 8 | 0 | 8 |
MaRS IAF's Investments by Stage
MaRS IAF has made 84 investments in Seed stage with an average round size of $2.02M, 19 investments in Series A stage with an average round size of $4.35M, 3 investments in Series B stage with an average round size of $16M, 1 investment in Grant (prize money) stage with an average round size of $100K and 1 investment in Series C stage with an average round size of $1M.Stage of entry | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Seed | 84 |
Series A | 19 |
Series B | 3 |
Grant (prize money) | 1 |
Series C | 1 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
MaRS IAF's Investments by Sector
MaRS IAF has a diverse portfolio, with companies operating in the Enterprise Applications, Vertical SaaS, High Tech, HealthTech and Consumer. Notably, it has invested in 200 Tech companies, 179 Enterprise (B2B) companies, 136 Software companies and at least 87 companies focusing on Saas.Sector | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Enterprise Applications | 66 |
Vertical SaaS | 24 |
High Tech | 21 |
HealthTech | 19 |
Consumer | 13 |
Others | 132 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
MaRS IAF's Investments by Geography
MaRS IAF has made most investments in Canada (97), followed by United States where it has made 8 investments.Country | No. of Investments |
|---|---|
Canada | 97 |
United States | 8 |
United Kingdom | 2 |
Australia | 1 |
Note: We have considered here, only first round of investments
MaRS IAF's recent investments
MaRS IAF has made 7 investments in 2026 so far. Azoma and Sproutfamily are the latest among them.Here are the most recent investments by MaRS IAF:
Filter this listDate | Company | Location | Round Details | Round Amount | Co-Investors |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Oct 21, 2026 | Canada | Series A | 6842 | [+4] | |
Oct 15, 2026 | Canada | Seed | 6219 | [+3] | |
Sep 28, 2026 | Canada | Series A | 3094 | [+3] | |
Sep 21, 2026 | Canada | Seed | 4865 | ||
Jun 22, 2026 | Canada | Seed | 2027 | [+2] |
Unicorns in MaRS IAF's Portfolio
MaRS IAF has 1 unicorn in its portfolio - StackAdapt. The most recent unicorn in their portfolio is StackAdapt which became a unicorn in 2025, 1 years before MaRS IAF first invested in it.Here is a list of unicorns in MaRS IAF's portfolio:
Tracxn Score | Company | Short Description | Founded year | Sector | Location | Company Stage | First Investment/ Acquisition Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
73 | Provider of an AI-powered platform for digital advertising campaign management | 2014 | Toronto | Series B | yjuyhgu |
IPOs and Publicly Listed companies in MaRS IAF's Portfolio
4 of MaRS IAF's portfolio companies have become public. Conavi got listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange - Venture Exchange (TSX-V), in Oct 2024 and Chalk.com got listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) at marketcap of $3.7B.Here are MaRS IAF's portfolio companies that went public:
Company | IPO Date | First Invested on | First Round of Investment | Round Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Oct 16, 2024 | - | - | 9613 | |
Jul 30, 2021 | Jan 16, 2015 | Seed | 1255 | |
May 17, 2017 | - | - | 8577 | |
Jan 07, 2000 | Apr 22, 2009 | Seed | 9876 |
Acquired companies in MaRS IAF's Portfolio
63 companies from MaRS IAF's portfolio have been acquired. The most recent acquisition was Welbi in Oct 2026 by FURTHER for $*****.Here are MaRS IAF's portfolio companies that got acquired most recently:
Company | Acquisition Date | First Invested on | First Round of Investment | Round Size |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Oct 22, 2026 | Apr 2022 | Seed | 1906 | |
May 05, 2026 | Mar 17, 2020 | Seed | 1636 | |
Apr 03, 2026 | - | - | 5153 | |
Mar 25, 2026 | - | - | 2762 | |
Oct 28, 2025 | Feb 06, 2019 | Seed | 5699 |
Team profile of MaRS IAF
MaRS IAF has a team of 9 members located in Canada. MaRS IAF's team does not sit on the board of any company as of now.Co-investors of MaRS IAF
Over the past 18 years, 419 investors have co-invested in MaRS IAF's portfolio companies. This includes funds and angels.
- Invested before MaRS IAF: Accelerator Centre, Techstars and 70 others have invested in rounds before MaRS IAF. There are 6 companies where Accelerator Centre has invested before MaRS IAF and 5 companies where Techstars has invested before MaRS IAF.
- Top Co-investors of MaRS IAF: 192 investors entered a company along with MaRS IAF. These include investors like BDC (14 companies).
- Invested after MaRS IAF: A total of 155 investors have invested in MaRS IAF's portfolio after their investments. Top Investors include BDC (14 companies), Graphite Ventures (7 companies) and EDC (6 companies).
Recent News related to MaRS IAF
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Thri5 Secures $5.4 Million Seed Funding for AI Retail Execution PlatformBetaKit•Sep 21, 2026•Thri5, Mistral, Whitecap Venture Partners, MaRS IAF and 1 other
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SELLIT9 Raises $4.1M to Expand Recommerce Trade-in Platform Across North AmericaCNW•Jun 22, 2026•Sellit9, Anges Quebec, MaRS IAF, AQC Capital
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Cyder Secures $3M Seed Round to Fuel Growth of Credit Union Loyalty PlatformFintech.ca•Jan 27, 2026•Sprout Fund, Cyder, Graphite Ventures, Conexus Venture Capital and 1 other
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Azoma Raises $4M in Pre-Series A FundingFinSMEs•Dec 04, 2025•Azoma, Ignite Ventures, Rank Ventures, eBay and 4 others
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Enurgen Raises $4.1M USD in Seed FundingFinSMEs•Oct 08, 2025•Enurgen, BDC, MaRS IAF, Brightspark Ventures and 1 other
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CIBC Innovation Banking Provides Growth Capital Financing to MedMe HealthBusiness Wire•Aug 20, 2025•MedMe Health, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Graphite Ventures, M12 and 2 others
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Ecomtent Secures Us$1.4m To Revolutionise Ai-powered Ecommerce SearchDirect Commerce•Dec 17, 2024•Ecomtent, MaRS IAF, Twin Path Ventures, eBay
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Cyder Raises CAD$1.5M in Pre-Seed FundingFinSMEs•Dec 10, 2024•Aperture Group, Desjardins, MaRS IAF, Cyder
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Waterloo-based startup runQL raised $1.65 million.Therecord•Nov 21, 2024•RunQL, MaRS IAF, Mistral, Inovia Capital and 1 other
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runQL Raises Oversubscribed Pre-Seed Round to Modernize Data Work and Tame Query ChaosCIO Influence•Nov 13, 2024•RunQL, Mistral, MaRS IAF, Inovia Capital
