Canada has no official ranking of angel investors. The closest public record is the National Angel Capital Organization's Angel of the Year award, won most recently by Joe Canavan in 2025. This page profiles eight winners from 2014 to 2025 in alphabetical order, each tied to a press report, then sets out how large the Canadian angel market was in 2025.
Who are Canada's best-known angel investors?
The National Angel Capital Organization (NACO) gives an annual Angel of the Year award, supported by BDC Capital, to an angel who has contributed to Canada's entrepreneurial ecosystem and gone beyond capital to mentor founders. Its awards page lists Joe Canavan as the 2025 winner and seven earlier honourees, without years. The years below come from the press coverage linked in each entry, and every winner here is backed by a news report or release of the time, not by the awards page alone.
The award recognizes contribution, not volume of deals, so it is a starting list and not a leaderboard. The profiles run in alphabetical order by surname, with the award year in each heading.
Joe Canavan (2025)
BetaKit's report from the 2025 NACO Summit in Ottawa names Canavan, principal of Canavan Capital, as Angel of the Year. It says he has held leadership roles at LOGiQ, Assante and Fidelity Investments Canada, and as an angel has backed Wealthsimple, Koho Financial and Borrowell. The same report lists Arlene Dickinson, a general partner at District Ventures Capital, among eight 2025 Nation Builder honourees, an award for business and cultural leaders rather than for angels, and says Professor Colin Mason, who authors NACO's annual angel investing report, received the lifetime achievement award.
Mike Cegelski (2015)
When he won, BetaKit reported in October 2015 that he was an angel with Anges Québec, sat on its board and had chaired it from 2010 to 2012. He had backed more than 30 companies in the previous five years, in Canada and the US. BetaKit says he founded Beltron Technologies and iBWave and led both to successful exits. NACO's awards page now lists him with Panache Ventures, a name the 2015 article does not mention.
Mark Dobbin (2020)
Dobbin was named Angel of the Year at the virtual NACO Atlantic Summit, BetaKit reported in December 2020. He is founder and president of Killick Capital, a Newfoundland firm set up to invest in aerospace, and sits on the boards of portfolio companies including CT Aerospace and Celtx. BetaKit also says he was an early angel investor in Verafin, the St. John's anti-financial-crime company that Nasdaq acquired in November 2020 for $2.75 billion in cash.
Sophie Forest (2017)
A release from the Canadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association says Forest won the award at NACO's annual conference on 5 October 2017. She is a managing partner at Brightspark Ventures, which she joined in 2003, and has led or managed more than 50 tech investments. The release names Radian6, which Salesforce acquired in 2011 for US$326 million, among her investments, and says she credits Brightspark's mix of venture and angel investing with reflecting a blurring of the two categories.
Randall Howard (2014)
BetaKit reported in October 2014 that Howard received the Canadian Angel of the Year award, presented with BDC, for contributions made between June 2012 and May 2014. It describes him as a senior serial technology executive who had invested in and mentored more than 20 early-stage companies, mainly in the Waterloo area, and names him a partner at Verdexus and CEO of Middlebrook Corp. NACO's awards page lists his affiliation as ArchAngel Network of Funds, which the 2014 article does not mention.
Derrick Hunter (2019)
BetaKit's June 2019 report on the NACO awards says Hunter, president and CEO of Bluesky Equities, was selected from over 4,000 angel investors and describes Bluesky as one of the most active angel investors in Alberta. It adds that he is Calgary-based and a founding partner and fellow at Creative Destruction Lab Rockies, and that he took part in a $15 million round for the Calgary company ZayZoon.
Manny Padda (2016)
BetaKit reported in October 2016 that Padda, founder and managing director of New Avenue Capital, won the award in Vancouver, presented by BDC Capital. The article says he also founded GradusOne, which connects students and graduates with mentors, and that he credited the Canadian angel community and NACO with championing startups.
Arati Sharma (2021)
BetaKit's December 2021 profile calls Sharma a former Shopify senior leader and founding partner of Backbone Angels, a group she co-founded in March 2021 to back women and non-binary founders. She told BetaKit she began angel investing while at Shopify and backed 28 startups and four funds in 2021. The article also notes that the award was first launched in 2014.
How big is Canadian angel investing?
NACO's 2026 report, covered by BetaKit in May 2026, found angels invested about $114 million in 2025 across 490 deals. That is 22 percent less capital and 20 percent fewer deals than in 2024, and the average deal of about $232,000 was the lowest of the past five years. NACO's tracking since 2010 totals $1.92 billion.
Two details stand out. The first is geography: Northern Ontario led on average cheque size and per-capita activity, at 35.9 deals per million people against 21.9 in Southern Ontario, which NACO attributes to its organized angel infrastructure and predictable federal regional development funding. The second is who writes the checks: women made up 40 percent of members in reporting angel networks in 2025, up from 14 percent in 2017. The same article says NACO and the venture association CVCA hold competing proposals for the $750 million earmarked in the 2025 federal budget for firms facing early growth-stage funding gaps.
Do Canadian provinces help angels with tax credits?
Some do. British Columbia's investment capital program is one documented example, and its source covers only B.C. The program guidelines say B.C.-based individual and corporate investors receive a 30 percent tax credit on investments in registered eligible business corporations or venture capital corporations, with limits that may apply. The shares must be held for five years, and the credit is refundable for individuals and non-refundable for corporations. The business must also meet conditions such as a permanent place of business in B.C. and at least 75 percent of wages paid to B.C. employees. This is general information, not tax advice.
Where do the winners' groups and networks sit?
The profiles above show several structures rather than one model. Anges Québec is a Quebec angel association, in BetaKit's words, with a board that Cegelski chaired from 2010 to 2012. Backbone Angels is a collective aimed at women and non-binary founders. Bluesky Equities in Calgary, Killick Capital in Newfoundland, Canavan Capital and New Avenue Capital are firms led by their winners, and Forest credits Brightspark's mix of venture and angel investing. The 40 percent share of women in NACO's 2026 data covers reporting angel networks, so it describes organized groups, not every angel.
For tactics, read how to find angel investors for your startup and how to join an angel group or syndicate. If investors from outside Canada will take part, the international angel investing guide and how to raise funding from international investors cover the cross-border issues, and how much angel investors invest puts check sizes in context. More lists are in the angel investing section.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q:Is there an official list of the top angel investors in Canada?
No. NACO names a Canadian Angel of the Year, and its past honourees are the nearest thing to a public list. The award is judged on contribution to the ecosystem, not on number of deals or results.
Q:How much does a Canadian angel group invest per deal?
NACO's 2026 report, as covered by BetaKit, put the average deal at about $232,000 in 2025, the lowest in five years. That is an average across angel group deals, so individual checks within a deal are smaller.
Q:Where in Canada are angels most active?
By NACO's 2025 data, Northern Ontario had the highest deals per capita at 35.9 per million people, ahead of Southern Ontario at 21.9. The sources used here do not rank the other regions or name the most active groups.
Q:Do I need to be an accredited investor to join a Canadian angel group?
Usually, yes. Canadian securities rules generally limit private placements to accredited investors, such as individuals with more than $1 million in financial assets or net income above $200,000 in each of the last two years. Exemptions and group rules vary, so the group and the provincial securities regulator set the terms.