Montréal game accelerator and investment platform Execution Labs Inc has raised $6 million in a Series A financing. The round was led by Corus Entertainment Inc, a Canadian media company, and was joined by existing investors BDC Capital, Real Ventures and White Star Capital. Execution Labs said the capital infusion will allow it to expand its mentoring, funding and other support services to new game studios. Corus said it will help the company build its brand presence in the market. To this end, Scott Dyer, a senior executive and CTO at Corus, will join Execution Labs' board of directors. Founded in 2012, Execution Labs also has operations in San Francisco.
4 min read · 10 November 2014
AmorChem has collaborated with École de technologie supérieure, Hôpital Sacré-Coeur de Montréal and Univalor on a project to develop and bring to market a medical device used to repair post-surgical hip fractures. The recently patented technology is the result of research by Dr. Yvan Petit, Dr. Georges-Yves Laflamme and Yan Bourgeois. Managed by Montréal-based venture capital firm GeneChem, AmorChem invests in R&D-stage initiatives to enable pre-clinical proof-of-concept in a semi-virtual mode. Univalor is a Québec university technology transfer organization.
5 min read · 10 November 2014
Farmers Edge has secured an undisclosed investment from U.S. venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB). Based in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Farmers Edge is a provider of precision agriculture and independent data management solutions to agribusinesses. Update: The investment from Kleiner Perkins will help finance the expansion of the company's technology platform and support its growth in international markets. Farmers Edge was founded in 2005. It is also a portfolio company of Canadian venture capital firm Avrio Capital.
3 min read · 10 November 2014
ORBCOMM Inc (Nasdaq: ORBC) has agreed to acquire SkyWave Mobile Communications, a provider of satellite and satellite-cellular products and applications based in Ottawa. The purchase price was US$130 million, however, John Eckert, former managing partner at Canadian venture capital firm McLean Watson Capital, which has backed SkyWave since 1999, told peHUB Canada that gross proceeds from the sale will total US$182 million. Skywave's CEO Pui-Ling Stanley Chan was formerly with McLean Watson. Eckert, who co-founded Round 13 Capital in 2012, is the company's chairman. The deal, expected to close in early 2015, will create the largest global space-based machine-to-machine communications company, ORBCOMM said.
7 min read · 07 November 2014
Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc has priced its previously announced initial public offering (IPO). The Canadian clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company said it intends to raise $36 million in gross proceeds based on an offering of 4 million common shares at a price of $9 per share. The offering includes an additional purchase option of 600,000 shares. Xenon will begin trading this week on Nasdaq under the symbol "XENE." Based in Burnaby, British Columbia, the company's investors include Fidelity Investments, Five Corners Capital, InterWest Partners, Invesco Private Capital, LipoteRx, MX Associates and RBC Capital Partners.
2 min read · 06 November 2014
App building platform AppMakr has bought its Canadian competitor Appifier. The financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. Appifier, which enables the creation of native mobile apps and mobile websites, was backed by Canadian venture capital firm BDC Capital and The National Research Council of Canada. Update: The company, which is based in Montréal, was founded in 2011 by entrepreneurs Michael Gozzo and Stephen Panetta.
3 min read · 06 November 2014
Kash Corp, a San Francisco mobile payments company originally started in Canada, has received US$2 million in seed-stage funding. Backers of the round included U.S. venture capital firms Draper Associates, Green Visor Capital and Structure Capital. The company said the capital infusion would help it develop, market and expand its mobile payments technology, which provides an alternative to traditional credit cards. Launched earlier this year in Toronto, Kash moved to the United States to join the startup program at Silicon Valley's Y Combinator.
3 min read · 05 November 2014
Intel Capital, the venture capital investment arm of Intel Corp, has announced new investments totaling US$62 million in 16 technology startups. Among the companies backed by Intel Capital is Reno Sub-Systems Canada Inc, a designer and developer of process control systems technology. The specific size of the investment was not disclosed. Co-founded by CEO David Ferran and other company executives including Christopher Davis, Jeff Spencer, Imran Bhutta, Daniel Mudd and Robert Ferran, Reno is based in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
5 min read · 04 November 2014
Mobile monetization startup Fuse Powered Inc has bought Corona Labs Inc, a cross-platform mobile development company based in Palo Alto, California. The financial terms of the acquisition were not published. Fuse Powered said the combined companies reach more than 200 million monthly active users with a platform supporting more than 10,000 mobile game and app publishers worldwide. Founded in 2009, the Toronto-based Fuse Powered is backed by Canadian venture capital firm Relay Ventures, NFQ Ventures and other investors. Corona was also venture-backed, counting among its investors U.S. venture capital firm Merus Capital.
3 min read · 04 November 2014
The government of Newfoundland and Labrador has unveiled its previously announced Venture Newfoundland and Labrador, a fund that will invest in local entrepreneurs and startups. The fund, which will be managed by GrowthWorks Atlantic, will be capitalized at around $15 million, with $10 million provided by the government, $2 million provided by BDC Capital, and a further commitment expected from private investors. The government said a 30 percent tax credit will be made available to encourage private investors to partner in the fund.The government also confirmed its $10 million commitment to Build Ventures, a venture capital firm established in May 2013 to invest in startups located in Atlantic Canada.
5 min read · 04 November 2014
