Aaron Bast

Aaron Bast is a General Partner at Graphite Ventures, one of Canada's leading dedicated seed-stage venture capital firms focused on B2B technology founders building capital-efficient growth companies. With over 20 years of experience in the Canadian technology and finance ecosystem, Bast has established himself as a key figure in the country's early-stage investment landscape. He is based in Waterloo, Ontario, where he serves as one of four general partners alongside Lance Laking (Ottawa), Craig Leonard (Toronto), and Omi Velasco (Calgary).

Bast began his career after enrolling in the business program at Wilfrid Laurier University in 2002, where he earned his BBA. He obtained his CPA (Chartered Professional Accountant) designation and joined Ernst & Young in 2006, spending approximately five years working across audit and tax capacities. He then moved into the technology sector as Chief Financial Officer of Miovision Technologies, a Waterloo-based smart transportation company, where he worked closely with the founders to grow revenue tenfold, launch two new lines of business, expand internationally, and triple the size of the team. This operational experience gave him deep firsthand understanding of the challenges and opportunities faced by early-stage technology companies.

Bast later joined the MaRS Discovery District's Investment Accelerator Fund (IAF) in 2014, rising to Senior Investment Director. At MaRS, he acted as a talent scout and seed investor for promising Canadian technology ventures, particularly in the Waterloo Region. In 2021, his team spun out of MaRS to launch Graphite Ventures as an independent firm. Under his leadership, Graphite has grown to manage over $110 million in its fourth fund and has helped hundreds of Canadian B2B tech founders grow their businesses, including facilitating over 40 liquidity events.

Graphite Ventures, under Bast's leadership, is Canada's dedicated seed-stage investor focused on B2B technology. The firm's thesis centers on backing capital-efficient Canadian founders building scalable businesses across several core verticals:

The firm invests nationally across Canada, having expanded from an Ontario focus to a pan-Canadian mandate with Fund IV. Graphite typically writes initial checks of $250K to $1M at the seed and pre-seed stages, with capacity for follow-on investments of $1M to $3M. The team takes a founder-first approach, positioning themselves as "seed-stage investment allies" who provide operational support beyond capital.

• B2B SaaS / Enterprise Software: Business operations and productivity tools
• FinTech: Financial and compliance technology
• Digital Health: Health technology and medtech
• PropTech / Industrial Property: Real estate and industrial technology
• Capital-Efficient Hardware: Hardware companies with strong unit economics, often leveraging AI and machine learning