Canada's next billion-dollar venture fund | The Morning Report

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Good Morning,

Here’s what you need to know today.

Panache Ventures has acquired San Francisco-based Commonwealth Ventures, the founder-bootcamp founded by Chris Neumann, a Vancouver-based entrepreneur and investor.

As part of the deal, Neumann has joined Panache as a partner based in Vancouver and San Francisco. Following the deal, Commonwealth Ventures’ growth and fundraising programs, which focus on bridging the gap between international startups and Silicon Valley investors, will be rolled out across Panache’s entire portfolio of more than 90 companies.

The deal is not only meant to support Panache startups, but to elevate the entire Canadian tech ecosystem, according to Lor who spoke to Vancouver Tech Journal over the phone. “What Panache is all about is making sure that we're serving not only our entrepreneurs, but serving an ecosystem of early stage startups. That’s whether we're invested or not. We have a mandate to help every entrepreneur in the ecosystem,” he said. The two organizations have collaborated previously, resulting in Vancouver-based Dooly raising a $96.5 million Series B round earlier this year. ➝ Get the full story.

Pixieset Media Inc., a Vancouver-based SaaS company for photographers and creative professionals, announced a growth investment from Susquehanna Growth Equity (SGE).

The transaction marks Pixieset’s first outside institutional capital investment and occurs amid a substantial growth phase for the company, which currently serves over 600,000+ users on its platform globally. The dollar figure for the investment was not disclosed. ➝ Get the full story.

Funding and deals:

• AbCellera has acquired Boston biotech firm TetraGenetics to enhance its capabilities to generate antibodies.“We look forward to welcoming the TetraGenetics team and believe that these new capabilities, once integrated into AbCellera’s technology stack, will empower the discovery of new antibody therapies across a range of therapeutic areas,” said Carl Hansen, CEO of AbCellera.

In other news…

• GameOn Entertainment Technologies, which develops fan engagement technologies around sports, TV and live events, launched "Behind the Ticker,” a new content series to pull back the curtain on day-to-day operations for shareholders.

• PlantX Life, which has an online shop and meal delivery services for the plant-based community, will launch sales of its 10,000 plant-based products on Amazon Marketplace.

• John Herrema has been appointed as executive vice president of product and strategy and Joel Windels has been promoted to chief marketing officer at publicly traded cybersecurity firm Absolute Software.

Ideas and insights:

• Lilian Arishenkoff, SVP at Wesbild, writing in Daily Hive: Opinion: It’s time to get serious with industrial innovation in Metro Vancouver

BC tech headlines around the web:

• BIGG Digital Assets in Cantech Letter: Two Canadian cryptocurrency stocks worth your money

• PlayWize in Rugby World: The Biarritz prop with a fascinating second life

A snapshot from last night:

That’s it for today’s Morning Report.

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Have a productive and fulfilling day. See you tomorrow.

- William (@notionport)