The Canadian Asset Management Entrepreneurship Alliance (CAMEA) was founded to promote the growth of entrepreneurship in Canadian asset management, to foster innovation, capital formation and job creation, and to increase our local representation in a competitive, global market by engaging in regulatory and policy advocacy. CAMEA's proposed policy solutions are intended to broadly inspire conversation and action across government, regulators, institutional investors, financial sector organisations and economic development organisations.

• AIMA (Alternative Investment Management Association) Canada

• CFA Societies Canada

• EMB (Emerging Manager Board)

• PMAC (Portfolio Management Association of Canada)

CAMEA represents a formal branding of the existing alignment among these organisations in support of entrepreneurship in the Canadian asset management industry – a theme that they have been advancing informally for several years. 

Policy Solutions for Fostering Canadian Entrepreneurship in Asset Management 

Canada is globally recognized for its exceptional financial talent. From the highest number of CFA charterholders per capita to banks deftly steering through the 2008 great financial crisis to the globally-recognized Maple Model pension system, there is every reason that our country’s expertise would also extend to being a global destination for next-generation champion asset management firms.

While some bold and capable entrepreneurs have built successful asset management businesses locally, there has been a decline in Canadian launches at scale. This is not unique to asset management, as other sectors are noting similar declines in entrepreneurship. In a 2023 report, the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) examined numbers from Statistics Canada noting that the country has 100,000 fewer entrepreneurs than it did 20 years ago, despite growing the population by more than 10 million over the same period.

While there are some great local success stories in asset management, the bigger picture is that many assets continue to flow to larger US and globally-domiciled asset managers. In fact, PwC estimates that by 2027, half of asset management AUM will be managed by just ten firms globally. None of these ten firms are based in Canada. While concerning for our domestic economy, this sheer concentration of asset ownership also presents concerns of portfolio company control in the hands of a powerful few.

Emerging asset managers are typically defined as having less than $1B in assets under management and/or fewer than 3 or 5 years of performance track record. While there may be an aura of cachet surrounding the asset management industry, these firms are small businesses. Canadian asset management entrepreneurs often launch with only a few employees and less than $10M, an amount much smaller than their average US or global peers. As they scale, managers may grow to 30 or significantly more employees, contributing to the job market and Canadian economy.

Asset management entrepreneurship is increasingly challenging, with increasing costs of talent, operations, compliance and trading, especially as cyber-security, AI and other technological tools become table-stakes in the global race to deliver differentiated, risk-adjusted returns. Canada’s multi-provincial regulatory system, two official languages and heightened registration and compliance measures versus global peers create additional burdens unique to our jurisdiction. Access to distribution is also challenging, with a tightly-controlled wealth channel and our state-of-the-art pension systems hiring strong investment talent internally to manage funds directly.  Additionally, Canadian emerging managers have relative constraints in tax, registration and more which could be improved to better facilitate launches in Canada instead of through offshore jurisdictions abroad.  

There are many policy benefits of further Canadian asset management entrepreneurship: economic development and capital formation, job creation (extending also to ancillary service provider firms), increased competition, innovation and leading industry infrastructure. 

Beyond policy benefits, there is an investment benefit too. Multiple academic and industry studies note the out-performance of emerging asset managers versus their larger, more established peers. This has been one of the key drivers of dozens of emerging manager investment programs in the US. Compared to the US, though, Canada features only a single prominent emerging asset manager investment program with Quebec fostering a mandate to invest in managers close to home. In Quebec, this has created 96 direct jobs (+13% growth in full-time employees) and 127% AUM growth for managers in the program, which has $584M invested across 15 managers currently (plus two who have already graduated from the program, having reached “established” size, due in part to QEMP’s investment), with more investment pending.

To spur more Canadian entrepreneurship in asset management, there are a number of policy solutions from a sector-focused economic development strategy to targeted tax incentives to investment capital to regulation that could be enacted by a variety of stakeholders - Federal, provincial and municipal governments, regulators, pensions and more. Especially in the face of tariffs, it is critical that our local asset management industry is united and aligned for success and growth in an increasingly competitive global market where talent and dollars continue to leave our borders.

The policies outlined below would support to launch positive incentives to put more dollars and leading talent to work within our borders while fostering economic development and job growth here in Canada. Through the Canadian Asset Management Entrepreneurship Alliance (CAMEA), we hope that these suggested policy solutions will spark conversation and action across stakeholders and investors to ensure the growth and continued vibrant vitality of the Canadian asset management industry for years to come.

​​DOWNLOAD THE WHITEPAPER HERE

There are multiple studies citing the outperformance of emerging asset managers. For example:

• The Performance of Emerging Hedge Fund Managers by Rajesh K. Aggarwal Northeastern University and Philippe Jorion, University of California, Irvine - Paul Merage School of Business (2008)​

• Preqin Special Report: Making the Case for First-Time Funds (2016)

• Opportunities investing with early lifecycle Hedge Funds: A Preqin & 50 South Capital Study (2019)

• Performance of Emerging Fixed Income Managers paper

• Early Lifecyle Hedge Fund Performance (Preqin, 2025)

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Early Lifecyle Hedge Fund Performance (Preqin)

Method & Overview, Preqin: 

Early lifecycle hedge funds are determined by the launch date of a fund manager’s first-time fund across any fund tracked by Preqin. Any hedge fund managed by this firm within the first three years of this launch would be appropriately pooled within an Early Lifecycle Manager Hedge Fund Benchmark. Once this three-year threshold had been satisfied, all hedge funds managed by this firm would transition and be represented in the Established Hedge Fund Benchmark. For this study, a total of 712 unique hedge funds across 554 unique hedge fund managers were analyzed for the construction of the Early Lifecycle Manager Hedge Fund Benchmark, which encompasses 15,301 individual net monthly return data points to generate the benchmark track record from January 2018 until January 2025. In addition, the Established Hedge Fund Benchmark utilized performance data across 2,718 unique hedge funds across 1,323 unique hedge fund managers amounting to 121,095 individual net monthly return data points.  

• Revisiting ‘stylized facts’ about hedge funds*, by Juha Joenvääräa, Robert Kosowskib, and Pekka Tolonenc  (2012) 

• PERTRAC - Impact of Fund Size and Age on Hedge Fund Performance (2011)

• Other non-public sources include Goldman Sachs Prime Services data  (2022) and Pitchbook (2023)

Benefits of Emerging Manager Programs

Case study: The Quebec Emerging Manager Program ​​​

• More on the Quebec Emerging Asset Manager Program and how it can be re-created (Innocap, 2025)
• Other examples of pensions and fund of fund programs investing in emerging managers: Global List of Emerging Manager Programs
• Emerging manager program implementation whitepaper:  Recommended Practices in Public Pension Fund Emerging Manager Programs Report​​​​​
• Further reading on challenges facing Canadian asset management entrepreneurs and policy support suggestions: AIMA Building Support for Emerging Managers in Canada Whitepaper (2021)

Webinar Replay: Become an Asset Management Entrepreneur in Canada 

February 6, 2026

How to deliver on the Government of Canada's Economic Growth Agenda with Asset Management, according to CAMEA 

November 10, 2025

Download the Federal Policy Briefing

STATEMENT: Canadian Asset Management Entrepreneurship Alliance (CAMEA) commends Federal Budget outlining investment opportunity with Canadian emerging fund managers

November 5, 2025

Download Statement

CAMEA Launch Event, April 30, 2025

Slides here, remarks here, replay below:

Event Photo Gallery

Event

May 22, 2025: Founders on the Future of Canadian Asset Management

In the News:​

Industry groups launch alliance to support Canadian asset managers

Industry groups launch alliance to support Canadian asset managers

New asset manager coalition waves the flag to boost Canadian sector

Press Release

Frequently Asked Questions