Celebrating milestones

👋 Good morning, and welcome to (or welcome back to) VTJ’s Sunday Briefing: your weekly digest of the city’s innovation news, deals, insights, and more.

The past week marks a month since we first started our weekly series as another way to share more inspiring and insightful stories across Vancouver’s tech community — from OG and new members to the startups building in our city and the founders behind them.

If you’re hoping to be considered for the next one, let’s connect on LinkedIn or email me. That aside, we’ve got more milestones to share coming from Vancouver’s must-know companies and key players.

Now onto today’s briefing. It’s 1,024 words: a four-min. read.

-Lisa

🗞️ FROM VTJ

See more stories at VanTechJournal.com 

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🤝 FUNDING & DEALS

• The Pacific Economic Development Agency of Canada announced over $1.6 million in funding for sustainable tech startups, Plascon Plastics and GridGear, through its business scale-up and productivity program to expand production of recycled plastics and energy monitoring solutions.

• New Ventures BC is looking for local innovative startups to participate in its 2024 pitch competition for a chance to receive $250,000 in cash and prizes — along with mentorship, workshops, events, and a community of like-minded founders.

• Pioneera Ventures, based in Vancouver, announced its pivot from venture capital to private equity and put a call out for anyone looking for private equity options.

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🗞️ IN OTHER NEWS

• Foresight Canada, the cleantech accelerator, revealed the list of winners from its ‘BC Clean Tech Awards’ where various leaders were recognized — including startup Arca, investor Pangaea Ventures, and funder BC Centre for Innovation and Clean Energy.

• Ray Walia, CEO of Launch Academy HQ, is in Malaysia to represent and highlight Canada’s vibrant tech ecosystem alongside fellow Canadian delegates and International Trade Minister Mary Ng.

• Sim Desai, CEO of Hiive, shared that the trading platform for private, VC-backed companies is now closing five deals per day — resulting in 1,000 transactions to date.

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💡 IDEAS & INSIGHTS

• Invest Vancouver shared reflections from its ‘Taking Steps in BC’ event which offered a day of learning, sharing and relationship-building between Indigenous entrepreneurs, capital providers, and seekers.

• Tacio Oliveira, leasing manager at WeWork, compiled takeaways from the co-working space’s conversations with founders on how wellness played a key part in their journey to success.

• Hamed Arbabi, founder and CEO of VoPay, joined the ‘Leaders in Payment’ podcast to share how embedded payments are reshaping industries from healthcare to real estate.

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👀 CAN’T MISS

April 2 | Vancouver Tech Morning Coffee x Co-Work With Us: Ease into the week with new connections and fresh ideas and inspiration by meeting the VTJ team and tech community through our weekly meetup series.
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April 2 | Co-Working with Vancouver Tech Journal: ​Do you work from home but miss the camaraderie of the watercooler? Join us and and others from the tech community for a free co-working day at WeWork!
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April 9 | #VTJTalks: Adopting AI in Business: How are leading BC-based growth stage companies adopting AI tech as part of their overall business operations? Learn best practices, pain points to consider, and success stories from Trevor Johnston at Jane, Hamed Arbabi at VoPay, and Steve Munford at Trulioo. Discount code for members is at the top of the newsletter!
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April 16-17 | INNOVATEwest: ​Join the VTJ team and thousands of tech and business leaders to discover how to drive meaningful and transformative business results. Attendees can expect to hear from high-profile speakers and benefit from networking, matchmaking, business development, and more.
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April 24 | ‘Show Her the Money’: Vancouver Screening & Networking: ​Celebrate the power and progress of women in entrepreneurship and investment. SoGal Ventures will be screening an acclaimed documentary on the trailblazing journeys of women founders, angel investors, and VCs. Plus, I’ll be moderating a panel between the executive producer Catherine Gray and director Ky Dickens and Pocket Sun at SoGal and Vicky Pasche at Dapper Boi.
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April 25 | Vancouver AI Community Meetup: Future Proof Creatives Studio will be hosting its next meetup where anyone interested in the future of AI – researchers, artists, entrepreneurs, experts, and students — can gather to connect, share their thoughts, and check out hands-on demos.
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