Toronto’s AI Sector Continues to Draw Global Heavyweights

Global tech industry heavyweights continue to attach themselves to emerging players in Toronto’s Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) sector. The latest to do so is John Megrue Jr, one of the top global names in private capital. He is joining Toronto’s Radical Ventures, a financier of AI start ups, as vice-chairman and partner. Mr. Megrue was previously co-chairman of Bridgewater Associates, one of the worlds largest hedge funds which was founded by Ray Dalio. 

Canada is the third fastest growing place for AI jobs globally and is the first country to establish a national framework for the AI sector. This national framework was established in part because of concerns over a brain drain of talent and resources from the AI sector in Canada to other countries. Radical Ventures co-founders Jordan Jacobs and Tomi Poutanen were key in raising these concerns which led the federal government to introduce a $125 million dollar AI strategy to keep and expand AI talent in Canada.  

Mr. Megrue joins a list of other heavyweights to attach themselves to emerging players in the AI sector such as Moderna’s former chief Medical Officer Tal Zaks who became a strategic adviser to AI-powered drug discovery company Deep Genomics and Jessica Pop, former vice-president of engineering at Twillio Inc, who joined chat-bot provider Ada Support as chief technology officer.

Mr. Megrue joins Radical Ventures as it gears up to raise its second fund. The first fund raised US $325.5 million, which at the time was one of the biggest debuts by a Canadian venture capital fund, and it backed 17 companies. The second fund will be substantially larger than the first and is another testament to Canada’s emergence as a leader in the AI sector. 

Author: Erik Axell, 2021/2022 Articling Student-at-law