Joshuah Lebacq, director at NAventures, is one of our top 50 Rising Stars in corporate venturing for 2026.
Joshuah Lebacq has ambitions to expand the investment coverage of NAventures, the corporate VC arm of the National Bank of Canada, to bring in more Asian startups, as he seeks to give the bank a competitive edge with the best technologies.
Lebacq joined NAventures in 2021 as director at the investment unit. Before joining the ventures team, he worked in corporate strategy at the Business Development Bank of Canada and as a strategy consultant at consultancy Accenture.
He was headhunted to join the ventures team, but initially turned down the role because he wanted a fast-paced job where he could have real impact. “I did not think a bank that is more than 160 years old could offer me that type of experience. I thought there is no way things are going to move. But here I am, nearly five years later and happy I made the switch,” he says.
“We believe there is a lot of innovation coming from the Asian markets, so we might do a few investments there in the coming year.”
The NAventures team invests from the corporate’s balance sheet with allocated capital similar to an evergreen fund. Since its launch in 2018, it has invested C$200m in more than 35 companies. Cheque sizes range from C$500,000 to C$20m in seed to series D.
Lebacq is particularly excited about advancements in financial crime detection technologies that draw on AI and big data. He says he is a contrarian when it comes to investing, backing away from areas where everyone else invests. This approach has stood him in good stead in sectors such as wealth tech, which the team invested in a few years ago, but has backed away from as valuations have surged. “When everyone starts to see the same opportunity, it is where we typically tend to shy away,” he says.
The fund has invested in North America, Europe and Israel and is now looking at the Asian startup market. “We believe there is a lot of innovation coming from the Asian markets, so we might do a few investments there in the coming year.”
The Rising Stars are early-career corporate venture professionals who are making an outstanding contribution to their teams and the industry.
See the full list of Rising Stars 2026 here.
