TOGETHER WITH
Welcome to this week's Sunday Briefing. In this edition:
A fintech company expands south of the border
Alberta makes its pitch in Texas
Supporting the next generation of innovators
Have a great day. We'll see you again next week.
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The leadership team at PrePad. Photo: PrePad
Calgary's PrePad wins U.S. engineering award for drilling software
Calgary software company PrePad has won the 2025 Meritorious Award for Engineering Innovation in the Digital Oilfield category from Hart Energy, one of the leading energy publishers south of the border. The company's Completions Module helps oil and gas operators run simulations on well decisions in seconds, pulling together cost, time, and production data that used to live in separate spreadsheets.
Sean Hervo and Brandon Eidson started PrePad in 2021 after leaving Shell, where they'd seen firsthand how the industry planned unconventional wells. The company raised US$2.8 million in seed funding earlier this year to grow its U.S. sales team. Industry engineers and scientists picked PrePad's software because it lets companies test out different scenarios and weigh the trade-offs before they spend money on actual drilling and completions work.
PrePad now counts Chevron, Devon Energy, and Shell Canada among its clients, along with Canadian players like Whitecap Resources and Birchcliff Energy. The company was named a Top Oil & Gas Innovator in 2023 and took home the Disruptive Digital Innovator award at last year's Global Energy Show in Calgary.
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🤝 Funding, Deals, and Partnerships
Verizon taps Helcim as the payments platform for its SMB ecosystem. The deal will see Helcim become the first payments provider embedded in Verizon’s new business marketplace, giving the Canadian firm a significant new channel to grow south of the border. Fintech.ca
TransPod partners with Canadian steelmakers for 1,000-km/h Alberta rail project. Algoma Steel and Supreme Steel to supply and build backbone for Calgary-to-Edmonton rail line. Betakit
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📰 Need To Know
Entrepreneurial alumni thrust UCalgary into PitchBook’s Top 100. University produces alumni entrepreneurs successful in raising venture capital. University of Calgary
How Alberta aims to attract investment and partnerships at Blockchain Summit in Texas. Nate Glubish is in Texas, where the Minister of Technology and Innovation is a featured speaker at the North American Blockchain Summit. Calgary.Tech
Calgary Games Kiln prepares local game creators to bring their products to market. While our region is home to passionate developers and new experiential game ideas, the journey from concept to commercial success can be difficult to navigate. Calgary Economic Development
MindFuel bolsters team to better support young innovation talent across Alberta. Since its establishment in 1990, MindFuel has invested over $130 million in Canada’s innovation ecosystem across more than 1,600 communities, supporting what it considers to be the country’s most valuable resource: young, skilled talent. Calgary.Tech
Future Summit heads to Calgary. Future Summit explores the cutting-edge innovations redefining our world. From AI-driven breakthroughs to industry-shaping technologies, we bring together visionaries to discuss what’s next—and how it will transform the future. Future Summit