A year after the C100 re-booted and re-named its flagship—from 48Hrs in the Valley to C100 Fellows—the organization announced its 2022 participants. Just two of the 20 companies hail from Vancouver, one less than in 2021. This year, the local startups that made the grade were SaaS platform and mobility operating system Spare and infrastructure and mining tech startup RockMass.

Co-founded by Kristoffer Vik Hansen, Spare raised $6 million in seed funding from Mitsubishi Corporation in 2019 before securing an $18 million Series A funding round led by Inovia Capital last year.

Co-founded by Shelby Yee and Matthew Gubasta, RockMass helps engineers and geologists improve the safety and efficiency of mining projects through better access to geological data. In December 2020, the startup revealed that it raised $2.5M CAD in seed funding. RockMass has an office in Toronto where Gubasta is based, in addition to Vancouver, where Yee resides.

The C100 is a member association that connects Canadian tech talent to expertise and community in San Francisco and around the world. The C100 Fellows program selects 20 promising early-stage Canadian-led startups for an eight-month experience focused on supporting founders through mentorship and peer-to-peer support.

Spare and Rockmass were selected out of a record 450 applications from Canadian founders based all around the globe. According to the C100, 60 percent of the cohort have one or more founders who identify as a visible minority and 35 percent have at least one female founder.