Welcome to this week's Sunday Briefing. In this issue, dig into Osler's deal points report, plus a whopping 16 other things you may have missed in Calgary's tech ecosystem. Have a great day. We'll see you again Wednesday.

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Unique data revealed in Osler's annual deal points report

Osler’s Emerging and High Growth Companies Group published its second annual Deal Points Report: Venture Capital Financings. It's a study of 353 anonymized venture capital and growth equity financings completed by the firm from 2020 to 2022, representing more than US$6 billion in total transactional value. While the report is limiting in that it only includes Osler deals, it still reveals useful insights, including:

• For 2022, early-stage financings represented the bulk of financings covered by the Deal Points Report, accounting for nearly 69% of all such financings.

• The number of companies co-founded by women in the Deal Points Report rose to 16.4% in 2021, up from 13.3% in 2020 — a sign of the rising number of women in the Canadian ecosystem.

• Companies in the information technology industry (including artificial intelligence, blockchain, adtech, edtech and cybersecurity) made up over 40% of all companies raising a financing round covered by the Deal Points Report, with consumer-/retail-based companies having the second highest concentration of financings, representing 19% of the financings covered.

• Similar to a recent report from CVCA, the Osler report shows an increase in the number of financings completed in Alberta.

"We continue to publish the Deal Points report to help provide data and insights for founders, entrepreneurs, and advisors who may be considering completing transactions in the next year," says the report’s lead author, Calgary-based partner Michael Grantmyre.

"The report provides unique access as it combines publicly available data with Osler’s confidential, anonymized data sources, to deliver a deeper, more comprehensive view of financing transactions and the terms and trends associated with those transactions.”

🤝 Funding, Deals + Partnerships

• Alberta's women-founded companies – including NanoTess, Virtual Gurus, and Areto Labs – have raised an impressive $127M USD over 12 funding rounds. Start Alberta

• There is up to $20 million available for successful teams in the Carbon Fibre Grand Challenge. Details

📰 Need To Know

• Bobbie Racette, founder and CEO of talent-as-a-service platforms Virtual Gurus and askBetty, is the Peter B. Gustavson School of Business 2023 Distinguished Entrepreneur of the Year Award recipient. Continue

• Automation asset inspection company Thread announced its expansion into Canada, and they're setting up a Canadian HQ in Calgary (hat tip: Ian Macdonald). Details

• ICYMI: 10 Alberta firms on Financial Times' fastest-growing companies list. Calgary Tech Journal

• New maps from Lightspark estimate energy efficiency for thousands of homes in Edmonton and Calgary. CBC

• Calgary Economic Development is looking for Calgary and Alberta cleantech companies to join them on a trade mission to Tel Aviv, Israel June 4-9, 2023. Details

• “We had to frantically take calls that were coming from all angles." How Emmertech’s managing director Sean O’Connor dealt with the SVB fiasco. Yahoo! Finance

• Twitter hasn’t paid thousands of dollars in charitable donations that employees made in 2022 through the Calgary platform Benevity. Details

• mesh conference launches showcase program to shine the spotlight on underrepresented innovators, organized by The51, The A100, and Platform Calgary. Details

• UCeed Startup Investment Fund named two new directors: Dr. Jehangir Appoo joins as Director, UCeed Health Fund and the UCeed Child Health & Wellness Fund; Vincent Chahley joins as Director of the recently launched UCeed Energy Fund. Details

• Ontario firm Engineering Link sees Alberta Advantage in setting up shop in Calgary. Calgary Herald

💡 POV: Ideas and Insights

• Tate Hackert, founder and president of ZayZoon, joined Evan McCann on The Hard Part podcast. Listen now

• Jasleen Dhanoa, a law student at the University of Calgary, discusses the legal implications of ephemeral messaging: The Legal Implications of Snapchats, BeReals and Other Kinds of Self-destructing Messages

• AI can write essays now — what that means for Calgary universities and colleges. CBC

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