The faces of Calgary’s tech scene are changing

Founded in 1986, Innovate Calgary was originally created to support the innovation community at the University of Calgary by providing researchers, faculty, and students with assistance in tech transfers and commercialization. Yet, as technology began to play a more significant role in daily life, Innovate Calgary recognized the opportunity to have a bigger part in the city’s innovation ecosystem. Now, the organization is focused on three key areas: helping entrepreneurs build innovation-driven enterprises, creating value for partners and academics, and supporting the innovation ecosystem in Canada and internationally.

In addition to UCeed (a group of early stage investment funds) and its series of hubs, Innovate Calgary launched a selection of pitch competitions in the not-so-distant past. Following a collection of listening sessions with different groups of diverse founders to find out their needs, Innovate Calgary realized that while Canada’s innovation and tech landscape was broadly rich in its diversity, some communities — specifically Black, Indigenous, Filippino, Latin American, and rural — weren’t participating to their full potential because of systemic barriers. The problem is not an isolated one: communities of colour tend to lack the social networks and access to capital necessary to develop successful enterprises.

Innovate Calgary, however, could provide.

And so, the Black Founders in Tech pitch competition was born late in 2022. The contest had 25 applicants from across the province, with winners receiving business support from Innovate Calgary and prize money. Jerome Morgan, senior innovation manager with the organization, emphasized the importance of the prize money. “We know that the data around getting access to investment [for Black communities] has been going down since 2021. Less than two percent of Black founders get access to capital. We wanted to make a goal of raising capital, raising sponsorship, and making sure folks got prize money.”

Voto is one of the companies that entered the pitch competition. Founded by two women of colour, Voto is a platform for businesses to engage with their audiences by rewarding behaviours with charitable giving. Ange Paye, one of the co-founders, told the Calgary Tech Journal that the company is currently in an accelerator and has been bootstrapping its business. She says the outfit is working on grant proposals, but as a first-time founder, there is a steep learning curve in navigating the tech ecosystem.

Paye also suggests that while she has always felt comfortable in tech spaces, being an entrepreneur has highlighted some unconscious biases by some in the industry. “[In less diverse spaces], I think people just don't think you are also a founder. It's not the first thought that they have, that you are also a founder — unless [they’ve seen] you pitch or there's an introduction from someone else.”

Canada’s population grew by 5.2 percent between 2016 and 2021, an increase that was buoyed by immigration as the country welcomed over 1.3 million new migrants. The reliance on foreign workers to support the economy means that tech founders in Canada are going to become increasingly diverse. This changing reality has been acknowledged by Innovate Calgary. “The biggest thing that we're learning in Alberta is to shift the narrative and showcase a different face and story around who tech founders are in this country and in this province,” Morgan said.

As the faces of founders change, so too do the problems being solved. Jonah Chininga, co-founder and CEO of Miq, is an entrepreneur whose business helps new immigrants build credit. For individuals born with Canadian citizenship , growing credit in Canada is not a major challenge. But those, like Chininga, who immigrated into Canada are left to build their credit history from scratch, opening them up to predatory payday lenders. The process of building credit can take time, and can prohibit people from fully participating in society, as it makes it harder to access complete financial services, get a mobile phone, or even rent an apartment.

Miq, which closed its pre-seed round, seeks to solve this problem by creating communities that can pool funds and allow a person access to that money as a credit facility — a unique take on a credit union. This can then be reported to credit bureaus and contribute to the accumulation of credit: a key component to building wealth.

Chininga says that while he’s found the Calgary ecosystem to be supportive and easy to integrate into, it’s been difficult finding investors who understand the problem Miq is trying to solve. He says, “I think the challenge is that if someone hasn't experienced the problem, or if someone doesn't know the context of how the problem might affect them, then it is a misunderstanding. It is like a learning gap. [It’s key to] have someone who understands the problem and can understand the opportunity as well.”

Jefferson Roc, founder or Eimhe – an app that takes a collective approach to mental health through peer support and community – echoes Chininga’s sentiments. “Because opportunities have not been given equally, we have created a tiered infrastructure where those who have the ability to give [venture capital investment] don't look like me. ​​So, when we go and stand in front of [them], we're talking to people that may not understand.”

To date, Roc has largely been bootstrapping Eimhe with the support of grants from Alberta Innovates. The impetus for Eimhe came to Roc when he was experiencing mental health challenges of his own and found it was challenging to find someone to talk to who could understand the struggles he faces as a Black man in Canada.The app itself is grounded in research from an Ottawa-based firm that conducted ethnographic studies to identify gaps in the delivery of mental health services.

Yet, despite the challenges and barriers they’ve all faced, Paye, Chininga, and Roc love being tech founders and have nothing but positive things to say about Calgary’s tech community. Roc sums it all up best. “Being an entrepreneur is really embarking on a journey where you're going to defy all odds,” he says. “It's uncharted territory: it's not having proper ammunition, but being creative, resourceful, and agile enough to find these resources, to find these assets, to find the arsenal that will help you go through that jungle.”