A Joint Letter from Kingston
Kingston's entrepreneurs need local access to angel capital
If you believe Kingston's founders should be able to raise their first capital here and build their companies here, add your name to the letter below.
- The Honourable Evan Solomon, Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Innovation and Minister responsible for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario
- Mark Gerretsen, Member of Parliament for Kingston and the Islands
Re: Kingston's entrepreneurs need local access to angel capital
Dear Minister Solomon and Mr. Gerretsen,
We are entrepreneurs, investors and champions of entrepreneurship in Kingston. We are writing to ask for FedDev Ontario's support for local access points to capital for the founders building companies in our community.
Entrepreneurs raise their first capital close to home. In Kingston, that first cheque often comes through our local angel network, KNDL (formerly the Southeastern Ontario Angel Network). KNDL connects local investors with founders, including many Queen's University graduates, to back companies building here.
That access point is under strain. FedDev Ontario's support for Southern Ontario's angel networks through the National Angel Capital Organization ended on March 31, 2025, and KNDL has had to scale back as a result. Angel investment in Canada fell to a five-year low of $113 million in 2025. When local networks pull back, founders lose the place where their first capital comes from, and many leave to find it elsewhere.
We welcome the federal government's recent commitments. Canada's venture capital strategy now starts at pre-seed, with a $75 million Pre-Seed and Seed Investment Stream, and Canada's AI strategy recognizes that startups need a healthy angel investor community to access capital and grow locally. Both depend on local investors writing the first cheque. Without a strong local network to organize those investors, new federal capital will flow to the largest centres and miss communities like ours. In Kingston, that network is KNDL.
KNDL's reach does not stop at the city limits. Through the National Angel Capital Organization, a founder who raises locally can reach angel investors and early-stage investment organizations across the region and the country. That is why we support the National Angel Capital Organization's proposal to FedDev Ontario to restore support for Southern Ontario's angel networks, including KNDL. That support would keep Kingston's access point open and help local angels invest together, so capital reaches founders faster.
Kingston has the universities, the talent and the founders. With strong local access to capital, more of the companies started here can grow here. We are asking for the support that makes that possible.
Respectfully,
cc: Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario)