A National
Imperative
Canada must build over 4 million homes by 2035 — at a pace never achieved in history. Technology is not optional. It is the only path.
In partnership with
The Structural Challenge
In Canada, restoring housing affordability will require over 4 million new homes by 2035 — a pace never achieved in history. At the same time, many housing projects no longer pencil under traditional development and construction models.
While provinces face different market dynamics, they share many of the same structural challenges:
Public capital and policy are increasingly aligned around a simple reality: Canada cannot close its housing gap at the required cost or pace without deploying MMC technologies at scale.
A report published by RBC’s Housing Innovation team earlier this year found that Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) can deliver homes up to 50% faster and 40% cheaper than conventional approaches. Yet despite this potential, adoption remains limited.
As the report notes, what is missing is the “coordinated, sustained commitment across government, industry, and the financial sector to create the environment for MMC to flourish.” Unlocking scale will require policy reform, greater standardization, more integrated delivery models, and financing mechanisms that better support off-site construction and create the long-term demand needed for MMC to succeed.
A National Venture Strategy for Housing Innovation
GroundBreak Ventures is a platform focused on the industrialization of housing. We work across the housing value chain and ecosystem to finance, scale, and deploy technologies that can increase housing supply, improve affordability, and modernize housing delivery.
As part of our Home Innovation Fund strategy, we have been exploring a broader national venture initiative with provincial funds-of-funds, financial institutions, industry partners, and government stakeholders to build the national infrastructure required to support MMC adoption across Canada.
The proposed National Venture Strategy (NVS) is a collaborative initiative designed to help advance the objectives of Build Canada Homes (BCH) by building the innovation, commercialization, and deployment infrastructure required to scale MMC and other housing innovations across Canada. The NVS seeks to better coordinate existing pools of capital while creating commercialization pathways that connect innovators with builders, manufacturers, governments, and investors, accelerating industry adoption of proven technologies and ultimately supporting the delivery of more housing at lower cost.
The strategy is being developed alongside a growing coalition of industry, government, and capital partners, including CMHC, the Manitoba First Fund and the Canadian Startup Capital Association, and with input and collaboration from Build Canada Homes, ISED, Canada Lands Company, and the Ontario Home Builders’ Association.
A national venture strategy can align capital, innovation, and industry to improve housing economics through faster delivery and lower costs, while influencing broader policy and regulatory changes.
Create a True Commercialization Pathway
Connect Innovators to Scale
A national platform would connect innovators with builders, developers, manufacturers, housing agencies, and institutional partners across multiple provinces — creating a pathway from isolated pilots to repeatable, large-scale adoption.
Aggregate Capital Beyond Pilot Stage
A coordinated national syndicate would provide the capital and expertise required to help Canadian companies scale while retaining economic value, intellectual property, and jobs within Canada.
Build National Infrastructure
A national strategy would enable shared diligence, deployment learnings, procurement pathways, policy coordination, and industry data — reducing duplication and accelerating adoption across the country.
How the NVS Is Structured
The NVS operates through two interconnected layers: a small national steering body that sets strategic direction, and a broad commercialization network that activates across the country.
A small group of national leaders from government, industry, capital, and housing that sets Canada’s housing innovation agenda — identifying priority technology areas, commercialization barriers, policy opportunities, and investment themes, and providing strategic direction for the broader ecosystem.
National Commercialization Network
A cross-country coalition serving as a coordinated commercialization platform — not another membership organization.
Federal agencies, provincial housing ministries and agencies
Align policy priorities, reduce commercialization barriers, and connect companies to funding and public-sector deployment opportunities
Provincial funds, family offices, financial institutions, impact and corporate investors
Mobilize capital, syndicate investments, support follow-on financing, and connect companies with strategic investors
Universities, research institutions, incubators, accelerators, and applied research centres
Validate technologies, accelerate R&D-to-market, and provide testing, research, talent, and commercialization expertise
Builders, developers, housing providers, industry associations, and manufacturers
Facilitate pilot projects, customer introductions, real-world validation, industry feedback, and commercialization partnerships
Utilities, climate organizations, sustainability experts, and green building organizations
Validate environmental performance, support utility partnerships, and identify funding and deployment opportunities
Municipalities, affordable housing providers, and institutional asset owners
Create demand through procurement, connect innovators to asset owners and municipalities, and support broader market adoption
Guided by the recommendations of the Steering Committee, GroundBreak acts as the ‘commercialization quarterback’ by connecting high-potential housing technologies with the capital, deployment partners, customers, and regional ecosystems they need at each stage of growth. By coordinating these existing organizations, the network accelerates commercialization, reduces fragmentation, and helps Canada’s most promising housing innovations scale nationally faster and more effectively.
Investment Approach
The Home Innovation Fund will invest across the housing value chain, including planning and design, financing, construction, manufacturing, building materials, operations, and asset management.
Capital should flow toward technologies with the greatest potential to increase housing supply, improve affordability, and modernize housing delivery at scale.
For every dollar invested by a province in the Home Innovation Fund, we will seek to deploy 1.5x back into local technologies that support provincial housing priorities and economic development objectives.
While primarily focused on Canadian companies, a limited portion of capital may be invested in leading international technologies — with value creation anchored in Canada through domestic deployment, technology transfer, and local manufacturing partnerships.
Provincial partners will benefit from access to national deal flow, shared diligence, and commercialization opportunities across Canada — providing exposure to the country's most promising housing innovations while maintaining meaningful participation in the growth of their local housing innovation ecosystem.
Expected Outcome
By coordinating capital, deployment partners, and industry expertise, Canada can build the commercialization infrastructure required to industrialize housing delivery, improve affordability, and create a globally competitive housing innovation ecosystem.