The Narwhal Project identifies a set of young Canadian companies that have the potential to become successful on the world stage. The Narwhal List sheds light on the ability of firms to scale up and reach world-class status.
2019 was a remarkable year for Vancouver’s technology sector as there are eleven companies that made the cut.
“The 2020 Narwhal List shows that Vancouver is making tremendous progress at developing world class companies.” says Charles Plant, Founder of the Narwhal Project. “Every year, more capital is being made available to fuel the growth of firms. In 2019, seven Vancouver firms on the list raised an average of over $77 million.”
The Narwhal Project’s ranking system is based on publicly available information and tracks all firms in the country with data in the public domain—not just those that elect to participate by revealing private revenue data.
The Narwhal List enables businesses to benchmark themselves against other Canadian firms and their competition. Since the Narwhal List includes all private firms with fundraising activity, it is also a useful indicator for how Canada as a whole is faring in business incubation and growth.
The list measures the progress of product focussed technology companies through the use of “financial velocity.” This concept enables companies to think easily and quickly about growth. If you have a large market that is ready and willing to purchase your innovation, then your growth is limited only by the capital you have on hand to fuel that growth.
Here are the eleven local Narwhals along with their founding date, total funding, and financial velocity:
– Chinook Therapeutics (2019) – $65,000,000 | 65.0
– Hootsuite (2008) – $299,693,624 | 25.0
– Clio (2008) $276,000,000 | 23.0
– Dapper Labs (2018) – $38,850,000 | 19.4
– D-Wave Systems (1999) $238,850,000 | 11.4
– General Fusion (2002) $192,133,043 | 10.7
– Mojio (2012) $80,700,000 | 10.1
– Carbon Engineering (2009) $107,355,246 | 9.8
– Visier (2010) $91,500,000 | 9.2
– Trulioo (2011) $80,700,000 | 9.0
– Lungpacer Medical (2009) $75,380,000 | 6.9