Initiative

Northern Innovation Corridor

A cross-border corridor connecting Canadian and Norwegian innovation companies with growth and capital opportunities, with a focus on women-led and co-led ventures.

Status

Inactive

Timeline

2023-2024 (proposed)

Lead Partners

Business Angels Norway, Spring Activator

Focus

Women-led ventures, angel investing, climate innovation

The Challenge

Barriers to Capital for Women-Led Ventures

Women-led and co-led ventures face persistent barriers to capital access, limiting their ability to grow and scale. In the North Atlantic context, early-stage investment culture is often thin outside major hubs, and capital can remain tied up in traditional assets rather than flowing into emerging innovation companies.

This affects regional job creation, climate innovation growth, and the ability for founders to access peer learning, investment readiness supports, and cross-border expansion pathways.

The Response

A Structured Corridor Program

A structured, hybrid (digital and in-person) corridor program designed to:

Build investment readiness for women-led ventures
Train and mobilize new and existing angel investors, including women investors
Create stronger deal flow and cross-border investor relationships
Convene participants through program sessions, summits, and a culminating conference

Objectives

What the Corridor Aimed to Achieve

Empower innovation across aligned markets in Norway and Canada through cross-border learning and access to capital
Connect capital across borders to fuel innovation venture growth
Build collaboration among ecosystem support organizations across both countries
Increase access to capital and growth opportunities for women-led and co-led businesses, strengthening equity in capital markets
Accelerate climate solutions and newcomer (immigrant) entrepreneurship sectors

What Was Proposed

Key Activities

Kick-off and partner planning meeting (anchoring, work distribution, scheduling)
Angel investor training programs (including a dedicated course for women angel investors) using proven methodologies, real deal flow, and practical investment experience
Investment readiness programs for founders built around data room and due diligence checklists
A shared digital collaboration channel to support ongoing information exchange and relationship building
Ongoing summits (monthly online and hybrid sessions) for learning, networking, and deal flow
International conference on the gender capital gap to share results and strengthen continuation pathways

Our Role

Cross-Border Ecosystem Building

Sustainable Impact Foundation's connection to this initiative is rooted in cross-border ecosystem building, systems thinking applied to capital flows, and enabling pathways for community and impact-driven ventures to access the relationships and investment readiness supports they need to grow.

Current Status

Inactive - Potential for Relaunch

This initiative is marked as inactive. If reactivated, it is well-suited for a lean relaunch using a minimum viable cohort model, with clear partner anchoring, defined deal flow sources, and a small number of high-trust investor and founder participants to validate the corridor mechanics.

Related Focus Areas

Connected themes

Systemic Finance

Redesigning capital flows to support long-term resilience and equity.

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Knowledge Commons

Translating collective insight into action across borders.

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Interested in this work?

If you are working in cross-border innovation, gender-lens investing, or angel investor ecosystems, we welcome conversations about potential reactivation or related initiatives.

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