Joe Regan

Worth knowing

Few people in Canada have written cheques across as many sectors as he has: agtech, food and beverage, advanced manufacturing, biotech and SaaS, typically $2M to $5M a company. He knows which federal capital is available for hard technology and which companies it is meant for. Founders in deep tech, defence, agriculture or life sciences raising in Canada should get in touch.

Story

Joe studied science at Guelph and took an MBA at McMaster, then spent his first fifteen years in life sciences venture capital and the pharmaceutical industry, including stretches at Ventures West and GrowthWorks Capital. In 2013 he moved to the other end of the economy, founding Bioenterprise Capital to build an agtech fund in Canada, and made the case for the sector on stage at Global AgInvesting in New York. Export Development Canada brought him into public finance in 2017, where he led the cleantech investment strategy and launched an internal seed fund. He joined BDC Capital in 2019 to run its Industrial Innovation Venture Fund and now oversees the full set of direct funds, including the life sciences and StrongNorth vehicles launched in 2024.

In Joe's words

Born in Scotland, raised in Canada. Three decades of VC experience have vanished in a whisper. Overseeing all BDC direct VC Funds.

Highlights

• Senior Managing Partner, Venture Capital, BDC Capital (2019-present)
• Managing Partner, BDC's $250M Industrial Innovation Venture Fund (2019-2024)
• Founding Managing Partner, Bioenterprise Capital (2013-2017)
• Board member, MineSense Technologies; formerly SmartSkin Technologies and Noze
• Honours B.Sc., University of Guelph; MBA, McMaster University