New funding is available for early-stage Vancouver companies
Up to $100M, to be exact. This is your Sunday Briefing.
Is it just me, or do short weeks somehow feel longer than those with the full five working days? Anyway. Fall is right around the corner, which means that although the weather is cooling down, tech news is going to be heating up.
Get a head start by checking out some of our top stories this week. There’s our staff writer James Matthews’ article about Vancouver’s Vida Carbon teaming up with Lewis Hamilton to sponsor a racing team (one for the Drive to Survive fans), plus William Johnson’s take on local company Curatio’s international merger, and a brand new fund for early-stage founders.
Now onto today’s briefing. It’s 774 words, a 3 minute read.
-Kate Wilson, @KateWilsonSays
P.S. Catch you at these upcoming events?
Sept 13, from 8-10 a.m.: Vancouver Tech Morning Coffee
Sept 14, from 5-8 p.m.: How To: Create a Successful NFT Project
Sept 21, from 6-8 p.m.: #vtjtalks: The Secret Sauce of Software Sales and Customer Success
Panache Ventures announces $100M Fund II to double down on early-stage founders
The firm has already made a dozen investments from the new fund in areas as diverse as blockchain, digital coaching, and artificial intelligence. Get the full story »
Vancouver’s Vida Carbon named title partner of Lewis Hamilton's Extreme E team
The winningest driver in Formula 1 history is teaming up with a local investment firm. Start reading »
Health social network Curatio merges with Australia’s RxMx to form patient experience giant
The new company has customers in over 100 countries and is available in 15 languages. Start reading »
Looking to switch up your workspace?
WeWork On Demand is the pay-as-you-go workspace option with no monthly commitment.
Enjoy access to over a hundred WeWork locations across the country where you can book workspace by the day and meeting rooms by the hour.
access to inspiring workspace
coffee to power your workday
priceless networking opportunities
Starting at just $29/day.
Download the WeWork app and use code OMG22 for 50% off your first WeWork On Demand booking. Terms apply.*
*For full terms visit we.co/OMG
Representative image only.*Sponsored
🤝 Funding and deals
BBTV entered into an agreement with Harlem Globetrotters and is set to provide content management for the global brand. Continue »
PayByPhone announced a partnership with TransLink Park and Ride Lots across Metro Vancouver to enable cashless consumer payments. Continue »
Zamba Technologies, Audette Analytics, and five other firms secure $5 million in combined investment from the province’s CleanBC Building Innovation Fund. Continue »
BuildDirect Technologies has signed a $3 million non-brokered private placement and appointed Matthew Alexander as interim to replace Ethan Rudin. The Market Herald »
The federal and provincial governments are investing $1.9 million to bring high-speed internet access to 663 rural B.C. households. Continue »
🗞️ In other news
VanHack’s Ukraine initiative has already placed 22 developers from the war-torn country into Canadian businesses, and counting. Vancouver Tech Journal »
Deloitte Canada’s new office downtown, the Deloitte Summit, will be home to what they’re calling a “Greenhouse”: a hub for tech companies to collaborate. BCBusiness »
Tracy Leparulo founded Canada's largest blockchain event, the Blockchain Futurist Conference, and helped to launch Ethereum. Read her interview with Vancouver Tech Journal contributor Erin Gee in d3crypto »
CubicFarms is featured in Farming up: the future of vertical farms in the Fraser Valley. Fraser Valley Current »
Jeff Ward, the CEO of Animikii, a local Indigenous-owned tech company, reflected on his experiences at Toronto’s Collision Conference. Continue »
Austin Nairn, vice president at Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, is leaving to join BDC. LinkedIn »
Meet Sphere, an artificial intelligence system that’s meant to automate events between friends based on their interests and availabilities. Vancouver Is Awesome »
ICYMI: Last week, accounting fintech Bench tapped Jean-Philippe Durrios as its new CEO to replace founder Ian Crosby, who now works at Shopify. Continue »
💼 Take your career to the next level
Everyone’s talking about hiring. And while some local companies have laid off team members, there are hundreds of other Vancouver tech businesses searching for talent, including Safe Software, Tantalus Systems, AbCellera, Optix, Ari, Seaspan, LandSure, and Inetco Systems.
Check out who else is hiring on our Vancouver Tech Journal Job Board »
Growing your team? Post a job with us »
💡 Ideas and insights
Mitch Budreski, principal at Acorn Interactive, shares insights from Vancouver Tech Journal’s most recent event: Find what isn't done yet, make it great
Roger Patterson, president and co-founder of Later, writing in his newsletter Engineering Success: How you can be recession-proof as a creator
Marica Pacella, managing partner at Pender Ventures, writing on her company’s blog: A call to action for startup boards
Chris Neumann, general partner at Panache, writing on his personal blog about the changing founder-investor relationship (“Are you a line or a dot?”)
Dave Dinesen, CEO of CubicFarms, writing in Newsweek: What we feed cows could be a significant key to fighting climate change
Annika Lewis, grants program lead at Gitcoin, writing on Mirror: The creator economy: money edition