This week’s lay off news from Hootsuite headquarters in Mount Pleasant has been anything but pleasant. A reported 10% reduction in staff amounts to 100+ lost positions at the high tech hero and some have described the scene as internal chaos. Messages sent in a private online group for employees obtained by The Logic describe panicked […]
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Cybersecurity Startup Kobalt Raises $1 Million Round
Cybersecurity startup Kobalt has raised a CAD $1 million round led by its co-founders, Pankaj Agarwal and Michael Argast, and including Version One Ventures. Version One’s Boris Wertz is both a co-founder and an investor in Kobalt. The Vancouver-based company aims to bring the monitoring capabilities of enterprise-class security teams to smaller organizations. The company […]
Hootsuite Lays Off Over 100 Employees
CTV News is reporting that Vancouver-born Hootsuite has laid off more than 100 employees. In a statement, the company would not specify exactly how many people were let go but did say “Today Hootsuite communicated organizational changes in order to drive greater alignment with our growing company’s strategic priorities that best serve our customers.” Long-rumoured […]
LightIntegra Raises $6.9 Million for Blood Analyzer Tech
Vancouver’s LightIntegra Technology has raised a $6.9 million Series A round led by Genome BC and Boardwalk Ventures and including Tower Beach Capital, Coleco Investments, and Quimby Investments. The company intends to use funding to bring its test to the US market. LightIntegra has advanced ThromboLUX, a non-invasive, five-minute, easy-to-use optical test that assesses platelet […]
Vancouver’s Lendesk Acquired by Quicken Loans’ Parent
Rock Holdings, the parent company of Quicken Loans, has acquired a majority stake in Vancouver’s Lendesk , a fintech startup that provides technology to connect mortgage brokers with the country’s top lenders. Quicken Loans is the United States’ largest mortgage lender. This is the second investment Rock Holdings has made in Canada over the past two years. In 2017, Rocket […]
Vancouver Startups to Pitch the Duke of York
The Duke of York founded Pitch@Palace in 2014 to provide a platform to amplify and accelerate the work of entrepreneurs. Pitch@Palace gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to meet the people who can help make their business dreams become a reality. Pitch@Palace is an initiative set up by the Duke of York to support entrepreneurs by providing […]
Vancouver Venture Deals Highlight Cascadia’s First Quarter
Troy DeFrank’s Crosscadia has published their quarterly summary of investment activity in the Pacific Northwest. According to DeFrank, the region saw a bit more geographic balance in investment activity during Q1 of 2019, while overall more capital went into fewer deals compared to Q4 of 2018. The median deal size in British Columbia was $2.48 […]
Spexi GeoSpatial Wins Top Prize at SFU’s Largest Entrepreneurship Competition
Spexi GeoSpatial has won SFU’s largest entrepreneurship competition. The Vancouver-based startup aims to empower organizations by using drone technology to deliver aerial intelligence at scale. Spexi GeoSpatial’s cloud-based platform provides a streamlined end-to-end solution that automates drone flights, photogrammetric data processing, and geospatial data analysis. Spexi GeoSpatial emerged from a slate of promising early-stage SFU […]
Security Startup to Screen Fans at Rogers Arena Using AI
According to a report in the Vancouver Sun today, fans entering Rogers Arena could be early test subjects for one company’s bid to screen sports fans upon entry. Vancouver-headquarted Liberty Defense Technologies (TSX: SCAN) will use advanced radar, 3D imaging and AI to unobtrusively screen sports fans as part of a Memorandum of Understanding it […]
Tiny Acquires Top Shopify Partner Pixel Union From Teligence Capital
Victoria’s Tiny Capital has re-acquired a majority stake in Pixel Union, a leading partner in the Shopify ecosystem. Tiny Capital sold a majority stake in Pixel Union to Teligence Capital in 2014. So, this week’s announcement is a bit of a homecoming. Pixel Union started out building themes for Tumblr in 2008, but after witnessing the growth […]