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 […]
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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 […]
3 Vancouver Startups Win at Fundica Roadshow
The 2019 Fundica Roadshow hit the city on April 4th for their first regional event in Vancouver. Sixteen startups, representing industries ranging from femtech to greentech, pitched to a panel of investors from iNovia, Panache Ventures, BCF Ventures, VFF VC, Framework VC, Vanedge Capital, Active Impact Investments, and R&D Capital. At the end of the […]
HeadCheck Partners with Trek Factory Racing to Improve Concussion Care for Riders
The Trek Factory Racing (TFR) off-road program has announced that they will be using Vancouver’s HeadCheck Health to identify, assess and manage concussions.
TELUS Ventures Invests in Precision Medicine Company GenXys
TELUS Ventures announced today that it has completed investments in three of Canada’s leading precision medicine and diagnostics-focused startups: Acorn Biolabs, GenXys Health Systems and Vital Biosciences.
Mailchimp Wants to Make Lemonade with Vancouver Acquisition
In early March Shopify announced a series of changes to its partnership program and API access that had implications for its partners and merchants. At that time it was also announced that Mailchimp is leaving Shopify’s marketplace. MailChimp said it asked Shopify to remove its MailChimp for Shopify integration from the e-commerce platform’s app store […]
Carbon Engineering Raises US $68 Million Round Led by Bill Gates
Squamish-based Carbon Engineering has announced the completion of an equity financing round of US $68 million, marking the largest private investment made into a Direct Air Capture (DAC) company to date. This $68M financing will allow CE to commercialize and enter mainstream markets with its fully demonstrated DAC technology that is able to capture and […]