Quebec-based E2ip, which develops tech for smart displays and surfaces, raised a $120M Series B co-led by Export Development Canada and McRock Capital
Export Development Canada and McRock Capital co-led the round. — St-Laurent, Québec-based E2ip Technologies … LinkedIn: Mike Dawson LinkedIn: Mike Dawson : Yet another big announcement from a McRock portfolio company. A huge funding round for a great Canadian success story building some amazing tech. …
Context & Ripple Effects
E2ip's $120M Series B is the largest Quebec hardware round in this coverage arc, and the co-lead is the tell: Export Development Canada, a federal lender, is acting as a growth-stage VC. That role recurs — a year later EDC led Toronto fintech Brim's $85M Series C, making E2ip the first data point in an EDC-led pattern.
The round also fits Quebec's run of institutional-scale checks: Montreal's GSoft raised CA$125M from CDPQ months later, and telecom-software firm Gaiia followed with a CA$54.8M Series B in 2026 — provincial startups pulling nine-figure backing from quasi-governmental and specialist funds rather than US leads.
First-order effects
- E2ip gets $120M to scale its smart-display and smart-surface technology out of St-Laurent, with McRock Capital adding it to an industrial-IoT portfolio its principals publicly championed on LinkedIn.
- Export Development Canada deploys federal capital directly into a private hardware company's cap table, extending its mandate beyond trade financing into venture-style ownership.
Second-order effects
- Other Canadian growth-stage founders gain a template for courting EDC as a lead rather than a follow-on, forcing domestic VCs to compete against a crown corporation with deeper balance sheets.
- McRock's win reinforces the niche of industrial-focused funds in Quebec hardware deals, pressuring generalist funds either to specialize or cede the segment.
Third-order effects
- If EDC keeps leading rounds like E2ip's and Brim's, Canadian late-stage financing structurally shifts toward government-backed institutions anchoring rounds that would otherwise depend on US venture capital.
- Hardware and industrial-tech companies in Quebec emerge as a distinct funding corridor — pension and export-credit capital filling the stage where traditional VCs thin out.
The trend: Canadian growth-stage tech is being anchored by quasi-governmental capital — EDC, CDPQ — alongside specialist funds, reducing dependence on US-led rounds.