Adam Froman, writing in the Toronto Star:
We have created world class technology companies, then watched them get bought before they scale, because our founders can raise equity but cannot borrow against the one thing that is actually valuable — their intellectual property.
We need to fix this financial plumbing. A government backed loan guarantee, pegged to an independent read of a company’s enterprise value, would let IP-rich Canadian firms take on senior debt and grow without selling themselves to the highest American bidder.
Do that, and we stop feeding the acquisition pipeline that empties us out.
Now is the time for new thinking when it comes to Canadian financing, trade and investment. We need our commercial banks to support the businesses that will lead the Canadian economy in the future, and if it takes the government to help by backstopping them, it should be done now.
Adam Froman’s opinion piece in the Toronto Star is also archived.