On the TechTO stage ×3
Christian Lassonde of Impression Ventures presents Is it Harder to Raise VC Money in Canada?
Watch on YouTube ↗
A FinTech Market Deep Dive | Christian Lassonde
Watch on YouTube ↗Why Fintech Infrastructure Wins in Canada | Christian Lassonde
Watch on YouTube ↗First seen on a TechTO stage in 2015. Every TechTO talk is searchable — ask the archive about Christian ↗
In their words
The problem is, in Canada there's two sets of rules. They don't mix. And that's one of the reasons why it's hard.
We have scars and we're happy to share them with our founders. We will tell you what we would do, but we'll never tell you what to do.
If you spot a theme here, it's that boring is beautiful. Sexy UX might win headlines, but rock-solid infrastructure makes unicorns.
More from TechTO ×2
Around the web ×1
Quick answers
Who is Christian Lassonde?
The founder and managing partner of Impression Ventures, a Toronto venture capital firm that leads seed rounds in fintech. He launched it in 2013 and its first investment was Wealthsimple's seed round. He co-manages the firm with Maor Amar, who joined as a managing partner in 2016.
What stage and cheque size does Christian Lassonde invest at?
Seed. Impression says it typically writes $2 million into rounds of $3 million or more, leads or co-leads, and takes a board seat. On the TechTO stage in December 2025 Lassonde said the firm screens roughly 800 companies a year and says yes to two or three.
What did Christian Lassonde do before Impression Ventures?
He started four technology companies. He spent a decade in San Francisco building Virtual Greats, a luxury online property rights broker, and Millions of Us, a social media digital agency, and before that built software for Second Life, LucasArts and Electronic Arts.