Staircase Ventures

This VC firm invests in Canadian B2B software startups at seed stage, providing early-stage growth capital and support to promising companies.

ActiveVenture Capital

Website LinkedIn

Updated: Feb 17, 2026 ·

About

Staircase Ventures is focused on leading seed-stage rounds into Canadian-based B2B software companies.

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Investments Made

Date	Company	Round	Lead Investor(s)	Co-Investor(s)
Feb 4, 2026	Una Software	Seed	Staircase Ventures	—
Jun 1, 2025	Ultimarii	$2.0M Seed	—	Emerald Development Managers
May 1, 2025	Una Software	$4.0M Seed	—	Emerald Development Managers, Maple VC, Marc McCabe
Sep 1, 2024	KOHO Financial	$30.0M Venture Round	—	Afore Capital, Balderton Capital, BDC Venture Capital, Better Tomorrow Ventures, Blank Ventures, Ali Tamaseb, Drive Capital, F-Prime Capital Partners, Golden Ventures, Gradient Ventures, iNovia Capital, Pareto Holdings, Portage Ventures, Stride VC, TCV, TTV Capital, Two Small Fish Ventures, Andrew Nutter, Andy Chung, Antoine Nivard, Ayo Omojola, Gokul Rajaram, Ian Hogarth, Jeremy Yap, Marcus Exall, Toby Moore
Jul 1, 2024	Nagish	$11.0M Series A	—	Alkeon Capital, BrandProject, Canaan Partners, EVE Atlas, FJ Labs, foobar.vc, MATH Venture Partners, Northside Ventures, Precursor Ventures, Susa Ventures, The Finger Group, Todd and Rahul's Angel Fund, Christian Bach, Heini Zachariassen, Jacob Kerzner, Parker Treacy
Apr 1, 2024	Galatea Technologies	$2.0M Seed	—	Alkeon Capital, BrandProject, Canaan Partners, EVE Atlas, FJ Labs, foobar.vc, MATH Venture Partners, Northside Ventures, Precursor Ventures, Susa Ventures, The Finger Group, Todd and Rahul's Angel Fund, Christian Bach, Heini Zachariassen, Jacob Kerzner, Parker Treacy
Feb 1, 2024	Sibli	$5.0M Seed	—	2048 Ventures, Day One Ventures, Eigenspace, Golden Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, M13, Multicoin Capital, Ribbit Capital, Trajectory Ventures, Tobias Lutke, Tom Williams
Oct 1, 2023	Kasa Living	$70.0M Series C	—	2048 Ventures, ArcTern Ventures, Cherry Ventures, Day One Ventures, Eigenspace, FirstMark Capital, General Catalyst, Golden Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, Lux Capital, M13, Multicoin Capital, Reimann Investors, RET Ventures, Ribbit Capital, Salesforce Ventures, Susa Ventures, TechAviv Founder Partners, Torch Capital, Trajectory Ventures, Walden International, World Fund, Y Combinator, Zigg Capital, Chafic Kazoun, Gokul Rajaram, Jeff Hammerbacher, Scott Banister, Stefan Jeschonnek, Tobias Lutke, Tom Williams
Oct 1, 2023	QuoteMachine	$4.0M Seed	—	Alkeon Capital, BrandProject, Canaan Partners, Caravela Capital, Clocktower Technology Ventures, EVE Atlas, FJ Labs, foobar.vc, Mathias Schilling, Manresa Ventures, MATH Venture Partners, Northside Ventures, Precursor Ventures, Quona Capital, Rainfall Ventures, Red Sea Ventures, Susa Ventures, The Finger Group, Todd and Rahul's Angel Fund, Brian Sugar, Christian Bach, Heini Zachariassen, Jacob Kerzner, Parker Treacy
Oct 1, 2023	Swsh	$2.0M Seed	—	01 Advisors, Atlantico Partners (Sao Paulo), Awesome People Ventures, Browder Capital, Cornerstone Venture Partners, Dream Ventures VC, General Catalyst, LAUNCH, Glenn Solomon, Notable Capital, Pareto Holdings, Scale Venture Partners, Seaplane Ventures, WorkLife Ventures, Ben Uretsky, Cory Levy, Moisey Uretsky
Jun 1, 2023	System Initiative	$15.0M Series A	—	Awesome People Ventures, Cornerstone Venture Partners, General Catalyst, Glenn Solomon, Scale Venture Partners, WorkLife Ventures, Ben Uretsky, Moisey Uretsky
Jun 1, 2023	Nori	$6.0M Venture Round	—	2048 Ventures, Day One Ventures, Eigenspace, Golden Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, M13, Maven Ventures, Multicoin Capital, Recursive Ventures, Ribbit Capital, Toyota Ventures, Trajectory Ventures, Tobias Lutke, Tom Williams
May 1, 2023	BenchSci	$70.0M Series D	—	Afore Capital, BDC Venture Capital, Blank Ventures, Felicis Ventures, F-Prime Capital Partners, Golden Ventures, Gradient Ventures, Graph Ventures, Ground Up Ventures, GSV Acceleration, Indicator Ventures, iNovia Capital, Inventus Capital Partners, Northside Ventures, Pareto Holdings, Quiet Capital, Red Swan Ventures, RiverPark Ventures, TCV, Two Small Fish Ventures, Antoine Nivard, Ben Jabbawy, Brian Sugar, Kevin Miller, Michael Hyatt, Paul Hedrick, Phil Libin, Preetha Parthasarathy, Rob Goldman
Feb 1, 2023	Axion	$8.0M Seed	—	Alkeon Capital, Amplo, BrandProject, Canaan Partners, EVE Atlas, FJ Labs, foobar.vc, Immeasurable, MATH Venture Partners, Northside Ventures, Precursor Ventures, Susa Ventures, The Finger Group, Todd and Rahul's Angel Fund, Christian Bach, Gabriel Jarrosson, Heini Zachariassen, Jacob Kerzner, Nate Lipscomb, Parker Treacy
Feb 1, 2023	Peggy	$8.0M Seed	—	Maple VC
Feb 1, 2023	Digma	$7.0M Seed	—	Alkeon Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, Boldstart Ventures, BrandProject, Canaan Partners, Chalfen Ventures, EVE Atlas, FJ Labs, foobar.vc, IA Seed Ventures, Insight Partners, MATH Venture Partners, Nexus Venture Partners, Northside Ventures, Precursor Ventures, Preston-Werner Ventures, Sorenson Ventures, Susa Ventures, The Finger Group, Todd and Rahul's Angel Fund, Tribe Capital, Heini Zachariassen, Jacob Kerzner, Mathias Biilmann Christensen, Parker Treacy
Feb 1, 2023	Fillip	$5.0M Seed	—	Awesome People Ventures, Cornerstone Venture Partners, General Catalyst, Glenn Solomon, Scale Venture Partners, WorkLife Ventures, Ben Uretsky, Moisey Uretsky
Nov 1, 2022	Vial	$67.0M Series B	—	10100, 20VC, Kevin Hartz, Addition, Alt Capital, Alumni Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, Banana Capital, Rexhep Dollaku, TJ Nahigian, Base10 Partners, Blockchain Capital, BoxGroup, Buckley Ventures, Byers Capital, Cathay Innovation, Construct Capital, Craft Ventures, CRV, Curie.Bio, Data Tech Fund, Matt Ocko, DX Ventures, Engineering Capital, ENIAC Ventures, Equal Ventures, Flex Capital, Founder Collective, Founders Fund, Future Ventures, General Catalyst, Global Founders Capital, Gradient Ventures, Graduate Entrepreneur, M.G. Siegler, Index Ventures, Infinite Niches, Javelin Venture Partners, Jetstream, Jude Gomila Rolling Fund, Khosla Ventures, Lainy, LAUNCH, LGF, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Long Journey Ventures, NEO, NextView Ventures, Hans Tung, Not Boring Capital, Oak HC/FT, Operator Partners, Pantera Capital, Pareto Holdings, Pear VC, Pioneer Fund, Polychain Capital, Renegade Partners, Ribbit Capital, Section 32, Speedinvest, Summit Partners, Team Ignite Ventures, Todd and Rahul's Angel Fund, True Ventures, Union Square Ventures, Vast Ventures, Vibe Capital, Voyager Ventures, WGI Group, Winklevoss Capital, XFactor Ventures, Y Combinator, Ade Olonoh, Cameron Teitelman, Chad Nitschke, Daniel Burka, Fidji Simo, Garrett Smallwood, Gordon Wintrob, Hanno Renner, Harry Hurst, Joi Ito, Josh Abramowitz, Kevin Lin, Kiran Bhatraju, Louis Beryl, Mark Pincus, MG Siegler, Mike Volpe, Nikhil Krishnan, Oliver Cameron, Peter Bell, Pieter Schoen, Riccardo Zacconi, Ron Pragides, Scott Belsky, Shivon Zilis, Steve Martocci, Teddy Citrin, Tom McInerney, Tony Xu, Zachary Sims, Zak Kukoff
Nov 1, 2022	Guaranteed	$7.0M Seed	—	Alkeon Capital, Autism Impact Fund, BrandProject, Cake Ventures, Canaan Partners, EVE Atlas, FJ Labs, foobar.vc, MATH Venture Partners, Northside Ventures, Precursor Ventures, Susa Ventures, The Finger Group, Todd and Rahul's Angel Fund, Christian Bach, Heini Zachariassen, Jacob Kerzner, Parker Treacy
Nov 1, 2022	circle labs	$4.0M Seed	—	10100, 20VC, Addition, Amplo, Andreessen Horowitz, BoxGroup, C2 Investment, Caffeinated Capital, Citi Ventures, Dell Technologies Capital, ENIAC Ventures, Founder Collective, M.G. Siegler, Heretic Ventures, Javelin Venture Partners, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Oren Yunger, Preface Ventures, SciFi VC, Seven Seven Six, Weekend Fund, WorkLife Ventures, XFactor Ventures, Y Combinator, Ade Olonoh, Anthony Pompliano, Baron Davis, Deepak Jeevan Kumar, Fidji Simo, Jeremy Yap, John Collison, Kevin Lin, Louis Beryl, Matt Carbonara, MG Siegler, Mike Krieger, Scott Belsky, Steve Chen
Jun 1, 2022	Emergency Response Africa	$20K Seed	—	FJ Labs, Techstars, Anthony Lacavera
Jun 1, 2022	Delphia	$60.0M Series A	—	2048 Ventures, Accelerator Ventures, Aglae Ventures, Broom Ventures, Daffy, Day One Ventures, Eigenspace, Founder Collective, G20 Ventures, Galaxy Digital, Global Innovation Fund, Golden Ventures, Hack VC, Harrison Metal, IA Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, M13, MS&AD Ventures, Multicoin Capital, Scott Sandell, Paradigm, Pareto Holdings, Polychain Capital, Ribbit Capital, Shine Capital, Solana Ventures, Soma Capital, Tenacity Venture Capital, The General Partnership, Trajectory Ventures, Tribe Capital, True Ventures, Y Combinator, Arash Ferdowsi, Brian Totty, David Rogier, Elie Seidman, Helen Liang, Luc Levesque, Mark Williamson, Tobias Lutke, Tom Williams
Jun 1, 2022	Prime Trust	$110.0M Series B	—	2048 Ventures, Day One Ventures, Eigenspace, Golden Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, M13, Multicoin Capital, Ribbit Capital, Trajectory Ventures, Tobias Lutke, Tom Williams
Jun 1, 2022	Workstream.io	$7.0M Seed	—	2048 Ventures, Day One Ventures, Eigenspace, Golden Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, M13, Multicoin Capital, Ribbit Capital, Trajectory Ventures, Tobias Lutke, Tom Williams
Feb 1, 2022	Nori	$7.0M Series A	—	2048 Ventures, Day One Ventures, Eigenspace, Golden Ventures, Lerer Hippeau, M13, Multicoin Capital, Ribbit Capital, Trajectory Ventures, Tobias Lutke, Tom Williams

Financial History

Total Raised

N/A

Valuation

N/A

Leadership Team

Key people at Staircase Ventures.

Janet Bannister

Managing Partner

Leadership Team

Key people at Staircase Ventures.

Janet Bannister

Managing Partner

Deep Dive

High-Level Overview

Staircase Ventures is a Canadian venture capital firm that invests primarily in seed-stage B2B software startups, focusing on companies with initial products in market and early signs of product-market fit. Their mission centers on accelerating founder development and performance by providing early-stage growth capital alongside deep operational support. The firm targets technology-driven companies that deliver significant efficiency or effectiveness improvements to their customers, mostly aiming at North American or global markets. Staircase Ventures distinguishes itself by dedicating a portion of its carried interest (profits) back to founders and advisors, fostering a founder-focused growth environment that supports human capital as much as financial capital[1][2].

Origin Story

Founded in 2018 and headquartered in Quebec, Canada, Staircase Ventures was established under the leadership of Managing Partner Janet Bannister, a veteran entrepreneur and investor with over 25 years of experience building and scaling tech companies, including founding Kijiji. Bannister’s vision for the firm emerged from her desire to create a venture capital model that prioritizes founder empowerment and long-term success, contrasting with traditional VC approaches focused narrowly on financial returns. The firm’s unique structure, including profit-sharing with founders and advisors, reflects this philosophy. Over time, Staircase Ventures has evolved to lead seed rounds with cheque sizes between $1M and $2M, supported by a team of advisors who have built billion-dollar businesses, enhancing the firm’s operational and network strength[1][3][4].

Core Differentiators

Founder-Focused Investment Model: Staircase Ventures allocates 20% of its carry to founders and advisors, aligning incentives and fostering long-term commitment.
Experienced Leadership and Network: Led by Janet Bannister, supported by advisors with experience in building $1B+ companies, providing mentorship and strategic guidance.
Seed-Stage Specialization: Focus on pre-seed and seed rounds in Canadian B2B software startups with early product-market fit.
Operational Support: Beyond capital, the firm offers hands-on support to accelerate founder development and company growth.
Market Focus: Primarily invests in companies targeting North American or global markets, emphasizing scalable tech solutions that improve efficiency or effectiveness[1][2][3].

Role in the Broader Tech Landscape

Staircase Ventures rides the wave of increasing demand for specialized B2B software solutions that automate and optimize business processes. The timing is favorable as Canadian tech startups gain momentum and global markets open up for scalable SaaS and AI-driven platforms. By focusing on founder development and sharing carry, the firm fosters a collaborative ecosystem that encourages innovation and resilience among early-stage companies. This approach helps address a historical gap in Canadian venture capital, where founder support and long-term partnership were often lacking, thus strengthening the overall startup ecosystem in Canada and beyond[1][3][6].

Quick Take & Future Outlook

Looking ahead, Staircase Ventures is poised to deepen its influence by continuing to lead seed rounds in high-potential Canadian B2B software startups, leveraging its unique founder-aligned carry model and operational expertise. Trends such as AI integration, vertical-specific SaaS solutions, and automation will likely shape their investment focus. As the Canadian tech ecosystem matures, Staircase Ventures’ human-centered approach and strong network position it to be a key driver of sustainable startup growth and innovation. Their model may inspire other VCs to rethink founder relationships and long-term value creation, reinforcing their role as a pioneer in Canadian venture capital[1][2][3][6].

Sources

High-Level Overview

Origin Story

Core Differentiators

Founder-Focused Investment Model: Staircase Ventures allocates 20% of its carry to founders and advisors, aligning incentives and fostering long-term commitment.
Experienced Leadership and Network: Led by Janet Bannister, supported by advisors with experience in building $1B+ companies, providing mentorship and strategic guidance.
Seed-Stage Specialization: Focus on pre-seed and seed rounds in Canadian B2B software startups with early product-market fit.
Operational Support: Beyond capital, the firm offers hands-on support to accelerate founder development and company growth.
Market Focus: Primarily invests in companies targeting North American or global markets, emphasizing scalable tech solutions that improve efficiency or effectiveness[1][2][3].