Wittington Ventures closes third fund at $130M
What's the deal? Toronto's Wittington VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → has closed its third venture capital fund at C$180 million (roughly $130 million), managing partner Jim Orlando announced on LinkedIn on Thursday. The fund will back climate, commerce, consumer, healthcare, and food technology startups at the Series A and B stages.
Who's backing it? Limited partners include Wittington InvestmentsDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → — the holding company of Canada's billionaire Weston family, which controls grocery and pharmacy chains LoblawDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → and Shoppers Drug MartDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom → — plus other undisclosed institutions.
What's the endgame? The fund is 50% larger than its C$120-million, 2022 predecessor, and brings the seven-year-old firm's total assets under management to C$820 million. Wittington has yet to deploy any capital from it but plans to back 15 companies, investing an average of C$10 million apiece.
The context: Launched in 2019 under Orlando, who previously led OMERS VenturesDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, Wittington started as a single C$100-million fund focused on commerce and healthcare. It has since grown into a 15-person platform spanning pre-seed, seed, growth equity, climate, consumer, and food tech — areas where it leans on close ties to Weston-family businesses.
That platform now covers a C$100-million early-stage strategy for Canadian deep tech, C$400 million across three core VC funds, and C$320 million for growth companies. Wittington has backed more than 25 startups to date, including Toronto's Odaia and Shakudo, Vancouver's ViewsMLDealroom has a profile for this one. Try Dealroom →, and US-based Gatik.
From the source: Orlando said Wittington invests where it holds "differentiated" points of view, and expects little change. "I think we'll just continue doing what we're doing," he told BetaKit.
The signal: A corporate-backed VC scaling a fifth fund strategy underscores how family holding companies can supply patient capital and strategic pull to founders. For portfolio startups, access to Loblaw, Shoppers Drug Mart, and other Weston firms is part of the pitch.
Read more: betakit.com
Image credit: The City of Toronto
