A historic transfer of small business ownership is underway. IETA turns it into Indigenous wealth.
Canada is on the brink of an unprecedented business succession crisis, one that creates both systemic risk and transformational opportunity. Most of the companies changing hands are profitable, deeply embedded in their communities, and led by owners who care more about legacy and people than the highest bidder.
Bear & Bison's IETA Fund sources, recruits, and trains Indigenous searchers to lead these acquisitions, filling a market gap that is too small for traditional private equity and too important to fail. Traditional searchers won't relocate to the rural, remote, and Indigenous-served regions where alpha exists and where Indigenous People already are. That is our competitive advantage.
Recruit. Train. Acquire. Optimize. Exit.
IETA institutionalizes the entire ETA lifecycle, from sourcing Indigenous talent to exiting investments, creating a repeatable, community-centred acquisition engine.
- 01
Recruit
Indigenous searchers are recruited across Canada through a rigorous, values-driven funnel, partnering with Indigenous organizations, post-secondary institutions, and our community networks.
- 02
Train
An 8-week ETA bootcamp prepares each cohort through financial diligence, deal structuring, operations, and Indigenous governance before a funded 12–18 month staggered search with in-person residence requirements.
- 03
Acquire
10–12 acquisitions targeting <$20M EV and $500K–$5M EBITDA, with traditional and proprietary sourcing led by the IETA team alongside each searcher. Indigenous Searchers are given the opportunity to earn into the companies they acquire (at no cost) based on time- and performance-based milestones.
- 04
Optimize
Post-close, our platform team provides mentorship, corporate governance, supply-chain optimization, technology adoption, and follow-on financing, operator-to-operator.
- 05
Exit
Exits occur through management buybacks, sales to financial and strategic buyers (including First Nations development corporations), and dividends.
The numbers behind the moment.
Changing hands by 2035
Approximately 150,000 Canadian businesses are expected to transition ownership in the next decade. An unprecedented succession wave with systemic risk to local economies.
Of SMB exits close, don't sell
McKinsey estimates 92% of SMB exits in 2022 occurred through closure; only 5% through sales and 3% through transfers. The problem isn't a lack of good businesses. It's a lack of succession infrastructure.
Of rural employment is SMBs
Failed transitions hollow out local economies, a risk amplified in Canada's aging northern and Indigenous communities, where Bear & Bison's searchers are already rooted.