Combine Venture Builders awarded $1.9M from OCIF to scale up Calgary tech startups

Local venture studio Combine Venture Builders is receiving up to $1.9 million from the Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund (OCIF) to help scale-up early-stage Calgary tech firms.

As part of a two-year agreement with OCIF, Combine will identify at least 20 problem-solving concepts and collaborators a year that will turn into a portfolio of six or more companies. The expectation is that Combine will assist the companies to lower their risk while optimizing their ability to raise capital at the pre-seed, seed and Series A funding stages.

Combine was founded in 2020 by a team of Calgary entrepreneurs and company builders, including Jeremy Barber. It works with corporate partners and entrepreneurs through a division referred to as Combine Labs that turns ideas into venture-funded companies with rapid customer adoption. “Building a great startup is hard. It requires domain expertise, uncommon talent, focused execution, great timing, and a little luck,” according to Barber. “It also requires the ever-elusive great idea.”

He says his team “has developed the playbook on how to rapidly validate, refine and build new technology businesses and de-risk the startup phase for these ambitious founders.”

As part of Combine’s processes, it identifies several complex problems for businesses or consumers to address each year. Then through its in-house resources and network of industry experts, it plays a co-builder role providing hands-on product development, design, people, operations and fundraising for ventures.

An example of a scaling company in Combine's portfolio is Agora Labs, an automated impact accounting platform that enables companies of all sizes to easily measure, track and manage Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) performance.

By funding Combine, OCIF aims to support Calgarians with business ideas to experience greater progress and growth. “There's no shortage of people in Calgary with promising ideas to solve problems, but there is a strong need to support them to scale to the size of their ambitions,” said Brad Parry, president and CEO of Calgary Economic Development and CEO of OCIF.

“Combine will play the important role of taking some of the high-potential startups in Calgary to a higher level of business success,” Parry added.