Investor Profile: Northside Ventures - Thesis, Cheque Size & How to Apply

Northside Ventures is a Toronto-based firm backing exceptional Canadian founders at inception and ideation. For founders researching how to get funding from Northside Ventures, this profile covers Northside Ventures funding, its founder-first thesis, cheque sizes, portfolio and application route. Founded in February 2023, it writes a founder's first round of external capital, often before there is much to diligence beyond the person, the insight and the ambition.

Thesis: founder first, at the earliest moment

Founder and general partner Alex McIsaac puts it plainly: at pre-seed, when barely anything exists, the most important aspect is the founder. He looks for strong founder-product fit and founder-market fit, fast thinkers with big visions and excitement about the future. His practical advice is to find five to ten customers, iterate until they are delighted, and only then scale.

Sectors and stages

Northside Ventures invests at pre-seed and seed, with some Series A follow-on, in Canada and the United States, for companies with at least one founder with a strong connection to Canada. In 2025 it indexed towards defensible models where artificial intelligence meets the physical world, including robotics, industrial systems, defence and space.

Fund size and cheque size

Northside Ventures launched Fund I with a targeted total size of $15 million. Typical cheques are $100,000 to $500,000, with a sweet spot of about $250,000. In 2025 it invested $3 million across 12 companies at an average of $250,000, bringing Fund I to 29 portfolio companies. By a later review it reported 34 investments, 12 dual-use. Fundraising for Fund II had begun by end-2025, but its target is not publicly disclosed here.

Notable portfolio

Names reported include Terminal, Veritree, Datacurve, Switch and Unbound in earlier coverage, and newer names such as Solcoa Industries in rare-earth reactors, Valstad Shipworks in autonomous shipyards and North Vector Dynamics in low-cost counter-drone defence. It backed three Y Combinator companies in 2025, Subtrace, Relling Systems and Anytool, and followed on in Datacurve's $15 million Series A.

Partners and team

Northside Ventures was founded by solo general partner Alex McIsaac, with twelve years as an operator and investor in Canadian technology. He previously worked at BDC Capital and led the Canadian practice of Global Founders Capital, and co-founded NRStor, acquired by Blackstone in 2018. By 2025 the team had grown to six people, including associate Naomi Walch.

Programs, credits and perks

The named programme here is the Northside Scout Program, launched for 2026 to identify exceptional founders early and support them as they develop ideas, teams and companies. It also runs founder events across Toronto, Waterloo and San Francisco. No credits bundle is published here, so none is claimed.

How to apply for funding

No single public pitch form is verified in the sources reviewed here. The practical route is direct outreach to the firm and its team, ideally with a warm introduction from a portfolio founder, a scout or an investor in its network, and through its founder events in Toronto, Waterloo and San Francisco. McIsaac also screens 80 to 100 companies weekly through outbound sourcing.