Staircase Ventures: January to April 2026 Highlights

We’ve had a busy start to 2026 at Staircase Ventures! Here are some of the updates from Staircase Ventures and our portfolio companies so far this year.

January to April, 2026 Highlights:

• Fund II Final $50M Close: We announced the final close of our $50M Fund II with five institutional investors: BDC Capital, InBC Investment Corp, Northleaf Capital Partners, RBC and the University of Alberta. Fund II will follow the same strategy as Fund I: leading seed-stage rounds into Canada’s highest potential tech companies and providing our founders with unparalleled commitment to their growth and performance.   

• Mave Investment and Mave’s Toronto Launch: Staircase Ventures announced our investment in Mave following their successful Toronto launch. We are honoured to be working alongside founder and CEO, Raz Zohar, and the rest of the Mave team, who have been selected as OREA’s partner to educate all 96,000 Ontario Realtors on how to use AI to build strong, profitable businesses.

• Banting AI enters the prestigious CancerX Accelerator Program: Banting was selected for the global CancerX Accelerator 2026 program, the leading public-private partnership for innovation in cancer care. CancerX is anchored by Moffitt Cancer Center and Advocate Health, with partner organizations including Dana-Farber, Memorial Sloan Kettering, AstraZeneca, and Novartis and will help accelerate Banting’s entry into the U.S. market. In addition, Banting’s research was accepted for publication in the Journal of Biomedical Informatics, which demonstrates that Banting’s technology performs materially better than off-the-shelf AI on clinical trial documents.

• Biossil Growth & Expansion: Biossil has emerged from ‘stealth mode’ to publicly share their impressive growth, fundraising and progress to date, including having two drugs in clinical trials, and they have raised more than $70M USD from leading global investors including Founders Fund and OpenAI to help accelerate their growth and deepen their competitive moat.

• Fillip Fleet U.S. Launch: Fillip Fleet expanded into the United States with the launch of its national commercial fleet card program. Fillip has built a strong business in Canada, including partnerships with Circle K, Telus, and leading fleet management companies. They are now taking their proven model to the US market.

• MedEssist Investment: We announced our investment in MedEssist, our first Fund II portfolio company. MedEssist enables pharmacies to become health clinics to better meet the needs of their customers. With MedEssist, pharmacists can diagnose and prescribe medication for over 50 conditions including weight loss, contraception, strep throat, and ED. We are excited to partner with co-founders Joella and Michael as they expand their business across Canada and the U.S. 

• Master Tour was named the Tour Services Company of the Year at the Pollstar Awards: This recognition reflects the trust placed in Master Tour by tour managers, production teams, and partners who rely on Master Tour every day to deliver precision, clarity, and coordination at scale. It is also a testament to the relentless focus of our team on building tools that solve real-world challenges on the road. As we look ahead, this moment reinforces our commitment to pushing the industry forward by strengthening the shared infrastructure that powers live events and enabling professionals to do their best work, night after night.

• Staircase Annual General Meeting: We hosted our AGM in Toronto with investors, founders and advisors. The theme this year was “Scaling by Design” and we spoke about how both Staircase Ventures and our portfolio companies have grown over the past year. Several of our CEOs spoke about how they were leveraging AI to improve operational efficiencies, accelerate their growth, and enhance their value proposition.  

• Andrew Tiffin joins Staircase Ventures: In January, Andrew joined the Staircase Ventures team as Operating Partner to work closely with our founders on their most important growth and commercial challenges. Andrew brings a strong combination of experiences including leadership roles at Shopify and Uber and launching new markets for fast-growing tech start-ups.