Each month, Kathleen Reid (Founder + Managing Director at Switchboard Public Relations) connects the dots between the trends, headlines and narratives that are informing the BC tech sector.
For September’s Connecting The Dots, Kathleen looks back on VI’s exciting month, sheds light on what the recent election results could mean for tech, and looks ahead to some marquee events.
Action on the Island
BC’s regional communities are churning out more success stories than ever before, and Vancouver Island is no exception.
Blockstream Becomes a Unicorn
Victoria-based Bitcoin infrastructure startup Blockstream announced a $210 million raise as part of its Series B financing on a valuation of $3.2 billion. This new capital will fund several initiatives: launching an enterprise-grade miner by acquiring Israel-based Spondoolies, a mining chip manufacturer; continuing to scale Bitcoin’s first and most robust sidechain (the Liquid Network); and expanding its team of dedicated holders across all departments to keep pace with growth.
Audette secures $1M
Audette, a Victoria-based cleantech company creating low-carbon transition plans for large commercial real-estate portfolios, announced a $1 million seed funding raise in early September. The round was led by Active Impact Investments, with participation from Powerhouse Ventures, Panache Ventures, Turnham Green, and Undivided Ventures.
The fresh capital will help Audette scale its technology and operations to serve more property portfolios leading the carbon revolution. The funding has already enabled Audette to add two new roles to its eight-person team. Three more jobs are anticipated to be created before the end of 2022.
Two Island companies accepted into the Canadian Startup Market Accelerator program
Sannich’s Locelle and Nanaimo’s Asset Market were two of the 10 companies accepted into the Canadian Startup Market Accelerator Program. The tech startup accelerator is designed to help promising B2B SaaS companies expand to the US.
Asset Market is a software and services platform, seeks to accelerate the delivery of smart and connected services by making it faster and easier to deploy the equipment needed to make these services work. North Saanich-based Locelle, meanwhile, is a platform created to develop and retain women in the workplace through 1:1 mentor matching, live leadership sessions, and data-driven solutions.
Election Effects
With the Liberals’ 2021 Budget including $101.4 billion in new tech-related spending over the next three years, their continued hold on federal power could be interpreted as good news for sector stakeholders in B.C.
After all, Ottawa is spending $553.1 million over five years, and $110.6 million ongoing, on a new Regional Development Agency (RDA) specifically for this province. According to the feds, the new agency will deliver programs “that help businesses to scale-up, and support regional innovation.” In addition to maintaining Western Economic Diversification Canada’s existing Vancouver office, the new RDA, dubbed PacifiCan, is establishing a new headquarters in Surrey and expanding its reach by launching service locations in Victoria, Campbell River, Prince Rupert, Fort St. John, Prince George, Kelowna, and Cranbrook over the coming months.
Then there’s the Canada Advanced Research Projects Agency (CARPA). According to the Libs’ election platform, this public-private bridge will “help to develop and maintain Canadian-led tech, help unleash bold new research and ideas, protect Canada’s competitive advantage, and help Canadian companies grow and create highly skilled jobs.” Modelled on the Defense Advanced Research Projects (DARPA) in the United States, which has helped pioneer technologies including GPS mapping and, more recently, the rapid pandemic response platform developed by Vancouver-based AbCellera, CARPA is being established with an initial endowment of $2 billion.
Event Season
Events are at the core of how we connect in the tech sector, and the next few weeks offer a variety of options from annual awards to weekly meet-ups. Here’s what the Switchboard Team is looking forward to most:
21st Annual New Ventures BC Competition Awards
Type: Virtual
Date: October 4, 2021 from 5:00pm – 6:30pm PDT
Details: The 21st Annual Awards will be streamed live from Vancouver. See who’s taking home over $250,000 in cash and prizes at this year’s New Ventures BC Competition Awards, presented by Innovate BC.
The event is free, register here.
Vancouver Tech Morning Coffee
Type: In person
Date: Tuesdays from 8:00am -10:00 am PDT
Details: Hosted by Vancouver Tech Journal’s William Johnson at The Birds and The Beets (55 Powell Street).
Attendance is free, register here.
Entrepreneurship@UBC’s Immersion Week
Type: Virtual
Date: September 27 – October 1, 2021
Details: This week-long event will cross three tracks of content and includes keynote speakers, insightful panels, roundtable discussions, and interactive “Ask me Anything” (AMA) sessions. The goal of Immersion Week is for the community to engage, learn and network with a vibrant ecosystem of leaders, creators and doers.
The event is free, register here.
National AI Showcase Pitch Competition
Type: Virtual
Date: October 14 from 2:00-3:45 pm PDT
Details: In partnership with the Traction Conference, the National AI Showcase is an online pitch competition for AI startups across Canada to present to global investors. It will feature Canada’s top 40 AI startups in the following streams: Health, Robotics, Enterprise & Fintech, Transportation & Infrastructure, and Emerging Tech. The pitch competition will include the following prizes: services worth $100,000 from AWS, $60,000 from Hubspot, credits from Dialpad, and free AI expert advising, among others.
The event is free, register here.
Photo by Armon Arani on Unsplash
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