According to Adobe Digital Insights, digital commerce jumped 49% in April and e-commerce companies experienced Black-Friday-like sales boosts as the COVID-19 pandemic drove traditionally offline economic activity online. To take advantage of this unprecedented rise in e-commerce, Vancouver’s Merchant Growth has launched an e-commerce financing platform to help support Canadian businesses. The fintech startup expedited […]
Ziva Dynamics Raises $7 Million To Bring Lifelike Characters To Major Game Titles
Vancouver’s Ziva Dynamics has raised a $7 million seed round led by Grishin Robotics, Toyota AI Ventures and Millennium Technology Value Partners’ New Horizons Fund. Ziva Dynamics is a virtual character software company that is changing the character creation process by bringing physics-embedded soft tissue simulation to the forefront of the media and entertainment industry. With […]
Meal Kit Delivery Service Fresh Prep Has Now Raised Over $10 Million
Vancouver meal kit delivery service Fresh Prep has raised a $7 million Series A round led by Renewal Funds. Fresh Prep raised $3.3 million from First West Capital in 2018 and has now raised over $10 million. Genevieve Pinto, a partner at Renewal Funds, has joined Fresh Prep’s board of directors. Fresh Prep was started […]
Finger Food Advanced Technology Acquired by Unity
San Francisco’s Unity Technologies, the world’s leading platform for creating and operating interactive, real-time 3D (RT3D) content, has acquired Port Coquitlam’s Finger Food Advanced Technology Group. The acquisition price was undisclosed. Founded in 2009, Finger Food uses artificial intelligence, augmented and virtual reality and robotics to solve complex business problems for some of the world’s […]
FansUnite Raises Millions, Acquires UK Betting Service, And Lists on CSE
Victory Square Technologies portfolio company FansUnite had a big day yesterday. The online sports betting startup completed a $3+ million non-brokered private placement, acquired U.K. betting service McBookie, and listed on the CSE under trading symbol FANS. Under the terms of the financing, FansUnite issued almost 9 million common shares at $0.35 cents. FansUnite paid […]
Canadian Tim Bray Quits Amazon, Cities Firing Of Activist Employees
Vancouver’s Tim Bray, a Vice President and distinguished engineer at Amazon Web Services has quit, citing the company’s firing of employees he said voiced concerns over work conditions amid the COVID-19 pandemic. In a blog post on his personal website, Bray, who has worked at the company since 2014, denounced the firings and said the […]
AgTech Investor Ospraie Invests $5 Million in Langley’s CubicFarms
Top Ag-tech investor Ospraie Ag Science has made a $5 million strategic investment in Langley’s CubicFarm Systems. The investment was made as a non-brokered private placement and Ospraie now holds an 18.7% interest in CubicFarms. CubicFarms is a provider of automated controlled-environment growing systems that produce commercial-scale quantities of fresh produce and nutritious livestock feed. […]
BC Tech Association Announces Finalists for 2020 Technology Impact Awards
The BC Tech Association took to Zoom today to announce the finalists for the 2020 Technology Impact Awards (TIAs). BC Tech President and CEO Jill Tipping joined co-host Riaz Meghji online to announce the finalists live amid the COVID-19 pandemic. This year the theme of the B.C.’s largest and longest-running tech awards program is “Purpose,” […]
Vancouver Home To World’s Largest Global Review of COVID CT Scans and X-rays
Vancouver experts are leading an international study to help predict the likelihood that a person has COVID-19, using CT scans, chest x-rays and AI technology to crunch the data. The study is being lead by radiologists at Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) and University of British Columbia’s Department of Radiology. Since January, teams have been collecting, […]
Trudeau Announces 75% Rent Relief Program For Small, Medium-Sized Businesses
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced significant rent relief for businesses that can’t afford to pay their landlords at a time when their operations are shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance program will provide forgivable loans to qualifying commercial property owners to cover 50 per cent of three […]