As Alberta Innovates explores new ways to help businesses grow after the end of its accelerator program, one venture capitalist said such accelerators do not influence his firm's investments, anyway.
"(Accelerators don't offer) a formula that anybody can just look at and go, 'OK, now I can scale, right?'" Arden Tse, an investment manager at Yaletown Partners and board member at Edmonton Unlimited, told Taproot. "There has to be an understanding of a company's specific needs at that point."
The Alberta Scaleup Growth and Accelerator Program by Alberta Innovates (better known as Scaleup GAP) concluded a three-year pilot in August. Alberta Innovates supported Alberta Accelerator by 500, Plug and Play Alberta, Thrive Canada Accelerator, Alberta Catalyzer, and the Community Safety and Wellness Accelerator. These programs paired tech companies with mentors for education. Lawtiq is among the notable Scaleup GAP graduates.
When it launched Scaleup GAP in 2021, Alberta Innovates said the programs would catalyze investment. A 2023 report suggested the accelerators had drawn nearly $150 million in investment.
In 2024, Alberta Innovates fired its former CEO, Laura Kilcrease. It then faced scrutiny for budget cuts in May. Its new CEO, Michael Mahon, then described the organization's new direction during a podcast interview in September.
Karen Garth, issues communications manager with Alberta Innovates, told Taproot in early September that changes were coming. "We are taking what we have learned from each of (the accelerators in the Scaleup GAP pilot) to develop new scaleup and growth programming that will provide the best support for Alberta companies, and aligns with our new strategic direction," Garth said. "That planning is still underway." Garth said in a subsequent email that the organization does not yet have specific updates on scaleup programming.
Accelerators, a staple in the tech world, have come under increasing scrutiny. Stéphane Nasser, with OpenVC, a database aimed at startup founders looking for investment, has recently suggested that accelerators are "worthless," and that companies should rethink their value entirely. Nasser wrote that while accelerators have some benefits, they can also be "riddled with bad actors," including those who want to sell services.
In the Edmonton region, accelerators were linked with some success. Beyond Lawtiq, accelerator grads like Kid-Drop and Wyvern have found success from Alberta Innovates and from Y Combinator, respectively.
Both Kid-Drop and Wyvern's successes happened in the very early 2020s. Tse said the ecosystem has since changed, especially after investments began to decline in 2023.
"Nobody's really sure how to value an AI company, and how that's going to change the landscape (is yet unknown)," Tse said. "There's been so much volatility due to tariffs and the uncertainty with the U.S. … It's the hangover from 2023 that we're all still paying for. In 2022 and 2023, the post-COVID era when money was loose, everybody was doing deals. Valuations were sky-high, right before all the interest rates started climbing."
Arden Tse, a board member for Edmonton Unlimited (pictured here) and a venture capitalist, said the end of the Scaleup GAP program by Alberta Innovates is not a big deal for investors. Groups like Yaletown Partners don't care much about tech companies unless they have an ironclad plan for expansion, he said.
The Bank of Canada has eased its interest rates over time from 4.25% in January 2023 to 2.5% in September 2025.
The most recent data from the Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association (better known as CVCA) suggests early deals, like pre-seed and seed, are getting smaller. But it also suggests that VCs are investing more in later-stage deals, such as the US$38 million Series C round for Nanoprecise Sci Corp.
Nanoprecise won a prize as part of Cohort 5 of the Maruti Suzuki Innovation accelerator, but founder Sunil Vedula is now moving on to a new job for a company based in Texas.
The question whether accelerators lead to major investments is not simple to answer, Tse said. Venture capitalists like Yaletown are agnostic about whether a company has participated in an accelerator when it comes to cutting a cheque, he said. Instead, Tse said, he looks at readiness for expansion, which may or may not be something a founder learns from an accelerator.
"For us in the venture world, 'scaleup' means you have product-market fit, you have sales, and you now need to repeat those sales in a global fashion — in a direction that is heading towards profitability," Tse said. "Everybody talks about the winners that come out of accelerators, but (a lot of companies that participate in accelerators) also don't make it. Believe it or not, a lot of Y Combinator companies don't get funding, don't grow, and don't succeed."
Correction: This story has been updated to correct Arden Tse's job title.