The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and the Business Development Bank of Canada are creating a $330 million fund to invest in Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises(SMEs).

“Both our institutions want to support companies with strong growth potential,” says Normand Provost, the Caisse’s executive vice-president, private equity. “We really wanted to repeat the experience of the first fund, which has made investments in about 100 Quebec companies over the past three years.”

Since 2003, AlterInvest&#8212the limited partnership created by the Caisse and the BDC for this initiative&#8212has made average investments of $1 million in nearly 300 Canadian firms.

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