We finally got around to launching the Narwhal List 2021. 2020 was another remarkable year for Canadian Narwhals. In particular, four companies from last year’s list went public. (Nuvei, Chinook Therapeutics, Repare Therapeutics, and Fusion Pharmaceuticals.) Five were sold (Element AI, Verafin, North, Fiix, and Northern Biologics.) Of particular note, Verafin, a 17 year old company from St John’s was sold for $2.75 billion. (All Amounts $US)

Twenty five companies on the 2021 list raised a total of over $1 billion with the largest raise of the year going to CSI Solar in Guelph which raised $260 million.

Canada now has three Unicorns with PointClickCare finally being recognized as such with a valuation of $4 billion. Applyboard also joins Coveo on the list this year with a valuation of $1.5 billion

This year we have enhanced the scoring system to be able to include firms that are scaling successfully by bootstrapping. What we have created is a Scale-Up Score which reflects the success a firm is having scaling their business. This is explained further in this document. Exhibit 1 features the ten leading Canadian Narwhals. The full list is published here:

The Narwhal List 2021 V5

As would be expected, the greatest number of companies on the list is from Toronto with substantial numbers coming from Montreal and Vancouver as well.

In terms of when these companies were founded, the average year of founding is 2008 with more than half founded since then.

For a white paper with more details on the Narwhal List 2021 click here.