Shopify Inc has launched its fifth annual Build a Business competition, which encourages entrepreneurs with a product idea to start selling through its e-commerce and retail platform. The Ottawa-based startup said that over the past four years its contest has helped launch more than 36,000 new businesses that have sold more than $180 million in products. Winners of this year's event will be flown to Richard Branson's Necker Island for five days of mentorship and growth opportunities. Branson is the founder of Virgin Group. Last December, Shopify raised $100 million in Series C funding led by OMERS Ventures and Insight Venture Partners.
3 min read · 22 September 2014
The Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) has announced that it experienced a 6.7 percent increase in the number of Canadian small and medium-sized enterprises it serves as clients in fiscal 2014. These clients now total more than 30,000. According to the bank's 2014 annual report, it also committed around $862 million to the venture capital market, which is up from around $822 million in fiscal 2013. BDC's subordinate financing group, now known as growth and transition capital, also reflected a portfolio of $601 million in fiscal 2014, up from $566 million the year before.
4 min read · 22 September 2014
ClearFit, a portfolio company of Canadian venture capital firm Relay Ventures and U.S. firm GrandBanks Capital, has brought on Chris Billetz as its head of business development. Prior to joining ClearFit, Billetz was director of agency relations at U.S.-based career network Beyond.com, which is also venture-backed. Based in Toronto, ClearFit is a hiring platform designed to help small businesses quickly and easily find applicants and make better hiring decisions. The company has made several strategic hires since closing its $7 million Series A financing round in May 2013.
4 min read · 19 September 2014
Venture capital raised by C100 companies has passed the $1 billion dollar mark. Due to recent financings of Montréal startups Frank & Oak and LightSpeed Retail, money going into Canadian companies that have participated in C100 mentoring programs or that have received investments from C100 charter members reached nearly $1.1 billion in September. That is a ten-fold increase since the Silicon Valley-based nonprofit organization got underway in 2010.
2 min read · 19 September 2014
AbCelex Technologies Inc, a developer of innovative approaches to advance the health of food animals and improve human food safety, has received a top-up investment to its previously announced Series A financing round. Canadian investment and merchant banking firm Pinetree Capital Corp invested $1 million in the round, adding to the $2 million invested by U.S. venture capital firm Cultivian Sandbox Ventures in April. Proceeds will be used to finance research of an antibody-based approach to controlling pathogens in farm animals that have been implicated in a variety of food-borne illnesses. Founded in 2010, AbCelex is based in Toronto.
4 min read · 19 September 2014
Sulvaris Inc, a developer of technology that converts by-product elemental sulfur into a plant nutrient sulfur fertilizer called Vitasul, has secured equity funding from Alberta Investment Management Corp (AIMCo). The investment, the value of which was not disclosed, will fund the company's Strachan project through to name plate production of more than 200,000 tonnes per year of Vitasul. The Calgary-based Sulvaris also announced that Sunshine Oilsands Ltd executive David Sealock has been appointed to the role of president and COO. In 2013, the company also received project financing from Canadian venture capital firm Avrio Capital and other investors.
4 min read · 19 September 2014
SocialChorus Inc said Thursday that it has received US$7.5 million in Series B funding. U.S. venture capital firm Kohlberg Ventures led the round. In addition to the funding, the company said it will be opening its first international office in Vancouver. Also, SocialChorus has hired Lee Diaz as its new solutions director. Based in San Francisco, SocialChorus is an advocate marketing platform purpose-built for all employees and brand ambassadors.
3 min read · 18 September 2014
A new report by the global Social Impact Investment Taskforce focuses on the potential for impact investing, or private financing of ventures that address social challenges. A parallel Canadian report, Mobilizing Private Capital for Public Good: Priorities for Canada, which has been made available through the MaRS Centre for Impact Investing, a division of MaRS Discovery District, discusses the importance of social entrepreneurship and means for encouraging new sources of impact investment in a Canadian context.
4 min read · 17 September 2014
Lumenpulse Inc (TSX: LMP), which completed a $100 million initial public offering in May, announced a $66.5 million bought deal offering of common shares by a group of shareholders. The group includes the company's founding shareholders, including François-Xavier Souvay, its president and CEO, and Groupe W Inc, and several investors, including Canadian venture capital firm XPND Capital. The offering will diversify the holdings of the shareholders, while allowing them to maintain significant ownership interests. Based in Montréal, Lumenpulse designs and manufactures high performance and sustainable LED lighting products.
4 min read · 17 September 2014
LightSpeed Retail Inc, a Montréal-based retail commerce platform, has secured $35 million in new financing. The round was co-led by Canadian venture capital firm iNovia Capital and U.S. firm Accel Partners, which led LightSpeed's prior funding in 2012. The investment, which brings the company's total funding so far to $65 million, will allow for scaling of market reach and breaking into new verticals and geographies. LightSpeed reports that more than 20,000 stores processing more than $7.5 billion in transactions annually use its platform to unify inventory, customer preferences, sales and analytics, in-store and online. The company was founded in 2005 and has additional offices in New York City, Olympia, Ottawa, and Santa Cruz, California.
4 min read · 17 September 2014
