Welcome to Startup of the Week. A column highlighting BC’s most innovative and exciting tech startups. Today, we’re featuring Vancouver’s Omnisearch. A pain point can spark the best ideas. That was the case for Omnisearch. This company arose out of its co-founder’s frustration with the time-consuming nit-picking task of searching for an exact minute within […]
News
Brüush Acquires The Dollar Brush As It Gears Up For Expansion
Vancouver’s Bruush Oral Care has acquired The Dollar Brush, a direct-to-consumer player in the electric toothbrush subscription space. The acquisition will allow Brüush to accelerate its strategic initiatives, including increasing brand awareness as well as bolstering the company’s innovative, integrated, subscription-based business model. “At the end of 2020, we committed to aggressively building our brand […]
Business Is Killing The World; Can Social Enterprise Save It?
Approximately $40,000 worth of plastic is dumped into the world’s oceans every minute. Since the pandemic was declared, the amount of trash filling our oceans has only multiplied. In fact, COVID-19 has triggered an estimated global use of 129 billion face masks and 65 billion gloves every single month. Single-use plastic has exponentially increased because […]
Shopify Invests In Bench As They Expand Beyond Accounting Into Banking
Vancouver’s Bench has raised $73 million in a Series C financing round led by Contour Venture Partners, supported by existing investors Altos Ventures, iNovia Capital, and BMO T&I, and including new investors including Sage and Shopify. The raise more than doubles Bench’s total funding to over $120 million and coincides with a major relaunch of […]
How Vancouver Small Businesses Can Prepare for a Post-Pandemic Boom
With provincial restart plans in place, in-store shopping, indoor dining and indoor events are set to resume in the coming months. At last, a sense of normalcy is returning. Local and small businesses have been disproportionality impacted by the pandemic. In a survey we recently conducted at Interac, we found 75 per cent of Canadians […]
Loop Insights Rebrands as Fobi AI To Address The Enterprise
Vancouver’s Loop Insights is now Fobi Ai. The data intelligence company that uses artificial intelligence to help clients turn real-time data into actionable insights and personalized customer engagement has rebranded. The company’s ticker symbol (MTRX:TSXV) will also change to FOBI in the near future to match the company name. The rebrand syncs the company’s image […]
Precision NanoSystems Acquired By Danaher And Vancouver Manufacturing Centre Still In The Works
Vancouver’s Precision NanoSystems has been acquired by Danaher Corporation’s Life Sciences platform. PNI will join Danaher’s Life Sciences platform and will be complementary to other businesses in the platform, including Cytiva and Pall. PNI is a global leader in ushering in the next wave of genetic medicines in infectious diseases, cancer and rare diseases, including […]
Fintech Startup BlocPal To Raise $25 Million Private Placement
Vancouver fintech startup BlocPal will soon be a publicly traded company. BlocPal has agreed to complete a business combination by way of a reverse takeover of 1290448 B.C. Ltd and in the process will raise a $25 million concurrent private placement. “Today marks a significant step for BlocPal’s evolution as we continue to expand and […]
Mogo Is Well On Its Way To Majority Ownership Of Coinsquare
Vancouver fintech Mogo (TSX:MOGO) has been slowly acquiring more and more of Coinsquare, Canada’s leading digital asset trading platform for Bitcoin, Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies. Three months ago Mogo acquired 20 percent of Coinsquare. Last month Mogo nearly doubled its stake, increasing its ownership in to approximately 37 percent. Today Mogo announced it would be […]
Clir Renewables Raises $27 Million For Renewable Energy Assets
Clir Renewables has raised a $27 million Series B funding round co-led by Longbow Capital and ArcTern Ventures and including Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPP Investments), BDC Capital, Active Impact Investments and Tokio Marine HCC. Founded in 2017, Clir is dedicated to maximizing project returns from renewable energy assets. Clir has provided critical technology […]