Canada’s entrepreneurs are world-class, building companies that can compete – and win – on the global stage. Many have succeeded in big ways despite early-stage risk capital being historically difficult to access. By expanding the availability of risk capital at the earliest stages, Canada can accelerate this momentum, fueling more game-changing companies that drive prosperity, job creation and global leadership.

Canada’s industry association for angel investors is expanding its investor education programming in Atlantic Canada and collaborating on new programs with the 40+ regional angel groups and 45+ innovation hubs in the NACO network to support the emerging trend of syndicated angel investing.

BetaKit spoke with Rojas on Friday in an exclusive interview to talk about bringing a founder-centric approach to NACO, the state of angel investing in Canada, and his plans to support a tech ecosystem he says is struggling to evolve from startup to scale-up.

“I’m passionate about solving Canada’s unicorn problem… this matters to me because unicorns are not only the new economic power, they influence how we live, how we interact, and how we work.”

Claudio Rojas, a frequent critic of the lack of high-growth companies in Canada, will take over as CEO of the National Angel Capital Organization.

Without a reliable access to informed capital at the early stages of the innovation pipeline, we risk losing a generation of entrepreneurs and their future economic and social contributions.