(Bloomberg) -- Cedar Leaf Capital, Canada’s first Indigenous-owned investment dealer, is planning an official launch later this month after winning approval from regulators.
The startup, which applied in February for permission to operate, said Wednesday it has received approvals from the Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions, Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization and Ontario Securities Commission, on behalf of all of the provincial regulators.
Cedar Leaf is majority-owned by three Indigenous shareholders — Nch’kay Development Corp., Des Nedhe Group and Chippewas of Rama First Nation — while Bank of Nova Scotia controls the remaining 30%.
“I’ve worked in the space of Indigenous business and economic development for over 25 years and never thought I’d see something like this happen,” Cedar Leaf Chief Executive Officer Clint Davis, an Inuk from Labrador with a background in finance and public service, said in an interview. “The concept of having an investment dealer that would actually be owned by an Indigenous community and play a role in terms of really facilitating access to capital for communities wasn’t even something I would have considered.”
The startup’s initial focus will be on debt capital markets, he said, noting that 15 of the 20 largest public companies in Canada have made public commitments to working with Indigenous people as part of broader reconciliation efforts.
“We do recognize that obviously we have to earn the business,” Davis said, adding that Cedar Leaf also hopes to work with with First Nations Finance Authority, a British Columbia-based organization that issues bonds on behalf of a collection of Indigenous communities. “We would want to see what we can do to hopefully earn our way into that syndicate.”
A third major opportunity comes from Indigenous communities themselves, he said, noting that many across Canada are looking to participate in medium- to large-scale projects, such as pipelines and hydroelectric developments. “They need access to capital, they need to have good understanding of how capital markets works,” he said. “And we think we can actually be strategically positioned to provide that support.”
Cedar Leaf, based in the center of Toronto’s financial district in space it’s subleasing from Scotiabank, has eight employees, three of whom are Indigenous, Davis said.
Scotiabank has provided logistic and tech support to get the operation off the ground, but will eventually reduce its interest in the firm. The company is supporting the launch of what could one day be a competitor, Davis noted, as part of its own Indigenous reconciliation efforts.
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