F2023 Financial Results: BDC’s reach and impact grew as entrepreneurs managed economic uncertainty

(MONTREAL) – August 18, 2023 – BDC, the bank for Canadian entrepreneurs, today reported its fiscal 2023 year-end results, showing a strong year of growth and a record 100,000 clients supported, including 16,500 in partnership with private sector financial institutions, in a year marked by economic uncertainty.

“Our clients showed impressive resilience as the economy slowed in the second half of the year, with business owners quickly adjusting their focus to manage the challenging effects of rapidly escalating interest rates, labour shortages, and higher commodity prices,” said Isabelle Hudon, President and CEO. “Entrepreneurs remained undaunted and continued to invest in new and postponed growth projects, fuelling demand for our financing and advice. BDC once again rose to the challenge and delivered in a big way, reaching a record 100,000 clients.”

Throughout fiscal 2023, BDC delivered more concretely against its renewed strategy which seeks to spur the growth of entrepreneurs and the competitiveness of the Canadian economy, increase the reach and relevance of BDC’s support to entrepreneurs, and empower entrepreneurs to respond to the big challenges of our time.

Fiscal 2023 Highlights

Spurring the growth of entrepreneurs and the competitiveness of the Canadian economy

• authorized $12.1 billion in financing and investments.
• provided essential, expert advice through 2,500 advisory mandates—its highest number since 2014. This increase was mainly driven by the services offered to support entrepreneurs in their digital adoption plan under the Canada Digital Adoption Program for which BDC’s Advisory Services team is one of the approved partners.
• authorized investments totalling $526.6 million to promising start-ups through BDC’s Venture Capital arm, compared to $495.9 million last year.

Increasing the reach and relevance of its support to entrepreneurs

• launched the $500 million Thrive Venture Fund and Lab for Women. Building on the success of BDC Capital’s Women in Technology Venture Fund, announced in 2017, Thrive is the largest investment platform of its kind in the world, supporting Canadian women-led businesses for them to grow and have a lasting impact on the economy.
• launched a $30 million financing envelope to accelerate the growth of Canada’s creative and cultural industries. With this financing, the Bank wants to support rapidly growing medium-sized businesses in the creative and cultural industries in a variety of key sectors, including media and audiovisual, video game, motion picture and video production, sound recording, and radio and television broadcasting.

Helping empower entrepreneurs to respond to the big challenges of our time

• doubled down on its commitment to fighting climate change with its $400-million Climate Tech Fund II, a new investment to play a leadership role in creating world-class Canadian cleantech champions, bringing BDC’s committed investments in the innovative cleantech/climate tech sector to $1 billion.
• launched an Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting template to help Canadian VC and mid-market private equity funds to track and report on key ESG metrics at the firm, fund, and portfolio company levels. BDC Capital will expect all its portfolio general partners and their underlying portfolio companies to report their ESG metrics annually.
• authorized $1.6 billion in loans for women-owned and led companies, as part of its commitment to finance 19,000 women entrepreneurs by 2024.

As a self-sustaining financial Crown corporation, BDC recorded consolidated net income of $302.5 million, and generated excess capital above its target ratio, leading to dividend payment of $337 million to the Government of Canada.

“Our commitment to supporting entrepreneurs with financing and expert guidance remains steadfast, regardless of the ever-changing business landscape,” said Hudon. “We are dedicated to reaching as many business owners as possible and utilizing all the tools and resources at our disposal to foster their success and generate even greater contributions to Canada’s economy overall in the years to come.”

About BDC

As Canada’s bank for entrepreneurs, BDC is a partner of choice for all entrepreneurs looking to access the financing and advice they need to build their businesses and tackle the big challenges of our time. Our investment arm, BDC Capital, offers a wide range of risk capital solutions to help grow the country’s most innovative firms. We are one of Canada’s Top 100 Employers and Canada’s Best Diversity Employers. For more information on BDC’s products and services and to consult free tools, templates and articles, visit bdc.ca or join BDC on social media.

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