Canadian innovators, and the investors who support them, have played a pioneering role in the Intelligent Industry and the advent of the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Canada’s early financial support for Intelligent Industry, dating back to 2012, has grown into the largest concentration globally, with this sector now comprising more than 1/7th of all financing activity in Canada. In fact, Canada now boasts the world’s largest concentration of financings in the Intelligent Industry.

Yaletown Partners recently conducted extensive research into investment activity over the past decade in this emerging category of technology in Canada, the United States and Europe. A revealing analysis of the results may be found in Yaletown’s latest White Paper, entitled “The Investment Activity Catalyzing A New Intelligent Industry Technology Constellation.”

Of particular note, in each of the past two years, nearly $25 billion has been injected into technology companies in the Intelligent Industry investment category throughout North America and Europe.

The Intelligent Industry represents an unprecedented opportunity to capitalize on the convergence of three key trends—digitalization, transformation, and sustainability—to catalyze climate resilient growth. Key avant garde technologies, such as artificial intelligence, software defined systems, digital twins and the Industrial Internet of Things, are driving the digitalization of economic sectors historically defined by heavy physical capital that, until recently, have been under-penetrated by technology.

Through its ongoing adoption of Intelligent Industry, Canada can become a global leader in the low-carbon economy. However, simply converting to renewable energy generation would yield only a fraction of the change needed to reach climate-based goals. To truly have a sustainable impact and catalyze climate-resilient growth, the most significant changes will have to be driven by Canada’s traditional industries through the digital transformation of their entire value chains.

Yaletown Partners has seen firsthand the positive impacts of converting business processes through the use of digital technologies. We intend to continue to support the transformation of our country’s industrial ecosystem, to the benefit of our nation, our investors and our planet.