Galen Weston Jr. puts $180-million in vencap fund

TORONTO – Billionaire Galen Weston Jr. (pictured) is expanding his financing commitments to startups with the launch of a $180-million venture capital fund by his family holding company’s private capital arm, Wittington Ventures.

The venture capital fund, Wittington’s third, will invest in startups operating in areas familiar to the Weston family’s commercial and philanthropic interests.

That includes commerce, healthcare, consumer, climate and food sectors, Jim Orlando, managing partner of Wittington Ventures, told the Globe and Mail. Mr. Weston is the controlling shareholder of George Weston Ltd., which in turn controls Loblaw Companies Ltd.

The new fund will focus on backing Series A and Series B rounds, the first two financings by startups that tap venture capital firms, as opposed to earlier fundings backed by angels, friends, family members and other seed-stage investors.

Wittington Ventures, launched seven years ago, has now committed $820-million to five private capital funds. That encompasses $400-million for venture capital, including the new fund and two earlier funds that deployed $100-million and $120-million, respectively, mostly in the United States.

Wittington has also launched a $100-million early-stage fund focused on creating startups based on Canadian cutting-edge research in healthcare and climate technology.

That early-stage fund has backed two companies to date. In early 2025, it funded Toronto-based Grey Matter Neurosciences Inc. The company is working on treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and other brain ailments using a mode of treatment called focused ultrasound, developed by the Sunnybrook Research Institute.

The fund also led a $4.9-million seed funding in April of Vancouver-based ViewsML Technologies Inc., which is building a digital biomarker library using artificial intelligence to help with biomarker detection in precision medicine development.

In addition, Wittington has also launched a $320-million later-stage growth capital fund that targets companies that are profitable or close to breaking even in the consumer, healthcare and climate sectors. The growth strategy includes a $100-million commitment to help Canadian food producers and growers build resilience and scale.

“We will look for new projects and people, with ideas that can directly and positively improve the lives and prosperity of Canadians,” Mr. Weston said in his speech to Loblaw and George Weston shareholders in May, 2025.

Wittington had significant capital to deploy after the 2021 sale of British luxury retailer Selfridges & Co. for an estimated $6.9-billion.