2022 is in the books and despite what we’ve all been through, it was a pretty good year for the Vancouver tech community and the provincial scene as a whole.
Tech companies specializing in everything from capturing carbon dioxide to social investing, and from background screening to non-fungible people have been leading an unprecedented tech stampede for the local economy.
We have much to look forward to across the province in 2023 and what better way to kick off the calendar year than to highlight 10 homegrown startups Techcouver will be watching closely this year.
Blossom
Blossom is a social network for retail investors — the first of its kind available to Canadians. The fintech startup bills itself as unique from existing social networks because it links to a user’s brokerage account. Users can follow friends and top investors, and they can get notified of their trades in real time, discovering new investment ideas from a community where opinions are backed up by performance.
Co-founded by Kartik Bhutani, Annika Ng, and Maxwell Nicholson, Blossom publicly launched on the App Store, was one of three Canadian startups selected for a Google Accelerator, and received a pre-seed investment round from a venture fund co-founded by Shutterstock founder Jon Oringer in 2022.
Cuboh
Y Combinator alumni Cuboh is a platform for the food and beverage industry that consolidates delivery orders into one place. The Victoria-based startup integrates delivery apps such as Uber Eats and Doordash with point-of-sale systems in restaurants across the U.S. and Canada.
Cuboh has raised a total of $4 million since its 2019 founding and was among the finalists for the Anchor Company of the Year award at the 2022 Victoria Tech Community Awards. Cuboh co-founder Juan Orrego, a first-generation immigrant from Colombia, was recently named to the Forbes’ 30 Under 30 list.
Durable
In 2022 a serial entrepreneur and designer co-launched a startup that leverages artificial intelligence to help users create and manage their own business. Durable claims to launch a business in less than a minute using AI.
The brainchild of Vancouverites Ross Howard-Jones, James Clift, and Helio Bentes, Durable offers products covering different aspects of the business, such as website building, invoicing, and CRM. One year in, Durable has raised more than $6 million in capital across a pre-seed and seed round and, so far, more than 75,000 websites have been built through the startup’s platform.
Eigen Fitness
Connor Holowachuk and Zach Higgins met through the League of Innovators’ youth-focused Labs program, established by former Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes to mentor and invest in young entrepreneurs. The pair are now working on a wearable tech solution to track resistance training.
Eigen Fitness has developed Nodes, which are coin-sized wearables that empower gym goers to progress as fast as possible while avoiding injury. The new technology leverages real-time power, velocity, range of motion, tempo, and rep variation data to provide insight on ideal weight selection for each set. Nodes are available for pre-order starting in January 2023.
Metriport
Launched in early 2022 by Vancouver software engineers Dima Goncharov and Colin Elsinga, Metriport helps digital health companies access and manage health and medical data, through a single open source API. With passion for wellness tech and data science, the pair merged concepts to create the Plaid for healthcare data, as a B2B offering.
Metriport was accepted into Y Combinator’s Summer 2022 batch of startups and in December announced they had raised a $2.4 million seed round at a $20 million valuation. Metriport is hard at work with plans to launch its Medical API in 2023.
OnDeck Fisheries AI
Using artificial intelligence, OnDeck delivers scalable automated monitoring software for commercial fisheries. Their cloud analytics platform and tools automate the review of video footage from fishing vessels to help fishers meet mandatory compliance measures.
Founded by Alexander Dungate, Sepand Dyanatkar, and Matthew Leighton in 2022, OnDeck has already netted a number of accolades including winning entrepreneurship@UBC’s 2022 Venture Showcase in the Sneak-a-Peek category and first place in Canada’s Ocean Idea Challenge and Canada’s Ocean Startup Challenge. Look for OnDeck to begin paid pilots of their platform in 2023.
OVOU
By tapping an OVOU card on any smartphone, users can instantly share a curated professional profile and contact information, setting a new standard for networking and reducing paper waste. Bootstrapped to profitability, OVOU currently facilitates over 5,000 new connections daily and has seen impressive user adoption across organizations like RE/MAX.
OVOU won the top prize of $110,000 at the 2022 New Ventures BC Competition, presented by Innovate BC. The competition brings together emerging BC startups who receive access to education, mentorship, and community while they compete for $250,000 available in cash and prizes.
UVX
UVX helps businesses reduce infection transmission risk through innovative light-based technology. The team has developed the world’s first intelligent ceiling device that continuously kills pathogens within seconds.Their technology disinfects both air and surfaces, even when people are present in the room.
Founded by UBC Engineers Kunal Sethi and Saimir Sulaj, UVX has secured global access to the IP through a strategic partnership, built a $2.3 million sales pipeline through LOIs and RFQs, and partnered with departments across UBC. Last year UVX won the Canada-wide TELUS & Spring Investor Challenge and was a Top 11 finalist in the New Ventures BC Competition.
VoxCell BioInnovation
VoxCell BioInnovation is creating vascularized, human-like cancer tissue models by combining a custom high-resolution 3D bioprinter, advanced software, and proprietary bio-inks. The Victoria startup aims to accelerate the development of life-saving anti-cancer drugs by providing tissue models that can identify viable candidates earlier in the drug-development pipeline.
Founded by CEO Dr. Karolina Valente, VoxCell finished third in the 2022 New Ventures BC Competition and went on to win a $100,000 investment from Spring Activator and the TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good via the Women-led Impact Investor Challenge.
Wecasa
Launched in partnership with Conconi Growth Partners, Wecasa enables Canadians to co-own a luxury vacation home with a minimum of two and up to eight other people. In contrast to traditional timeshares and many other forms of fractional ownership, Wecasa owners share ownership of a distinct luxury home.
Co-ownership of fully managed second homes is a fast-growing category in the U.S. with Pacaso, reAlpha, Divvy Homes, and Doma currently offering co-ownership options. Wecasa has officially launched with their first two properties in British Columbia in Whistler and the Okanagan.
Photo by Aditya Chinchure on Unsplash
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