Three Calgary startups in the hot seat

This is your new weekly Sunday Briefing.

November 27, 2022

Welcome to Calgary Tech Journal, your new No. 1 resource for staying up to date with Calgary’s thriving tech ecosystem. As a subscriber, you can expect to receive at least two emails from us every week: On Sundays, you'll get a Briefing that curates top news, deals, data points, and ideas, and on Thursdays, an in-depth feature or an upcoming events digest. For daily updates, follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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We chose today for our first issue to coincide with the end of Calgary Innovation Week. And to that end, our top story focuses on the three startups awarded prizes at last Thursday's Launch Party. But there’s a lot of other news to get to this week too, so let’s get into it.

-William, @notionport

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Caret, NanoTess and Propra win top prizes at  Launch Party, Calgary's annual tech showcase

At the 13th annual Launch Party hosted by Platform Calgary, three startups were recognized for their growth prospects and contributions to the Calgary tech community. Caret, a tenant experience platform, won the Alumni’s Choice Award. NanoTess, which has developed an advanced wound dressing for the management of chronic wounds, was given the Alex Raczenko Pitch Award. The People's Choice Award went to Propra, an automation platform for residential property management.

The winning startups were chosen from a top ten nominated by the Calgary innovation community and selected by a committee that included Claire Dixon, co-founder and COO of Neuraura, Umair Tazeem, founder and CEO of Embold, and Prabh Paul, co-founder of Tracecost.

A signature event of Calgary Innovation Week, Launch Party is one of the largest startup-focused showcases of the year. More than 150 companies have been highlighted at Launch Party since 2010, including SkipTheDishes, StellarAlgo, Orpyx, Virtual Gurus and Red Iron Labs.

🤝 Funding and Deals

  • Alberta and the federal government are investing more than $2.6 million to connect more than 300 Indigenous households to high-speed Internet in the Tsuut’ina Nation. MobileSyrup

  • The University of Calgary and the University of Alberta received a combined $6.6 million for projects that support Canada’s goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. UCalgary received the bulk of the funding ($6.06M) for projects focused on carbon dioxide removal technologies and methane emissions measurement. UAlberta's funding will go to transportation decarbonization pathways. Details.

  • Symend, a fintech company that's grown 4,366 percent over the past three years, raised $56 million in Series C growth funding to invest in market expansion. Calgary Herald.

  • Attabotics raised USD $71 million to grow its vertical robotic warehouse solution. Techcrunch.

  • Alberta Enterprise has invested USD $10 million into Relay Ventures Fund V to support early-stage tech companies innovating in finance, real estate, sports, gaming, and urban life. Fintech Global.

📰 News To Know

  • Alberta IoT, IncluCity, and Accelerate Fund were among the 10 2022 Start Alberta Tech Awards winners, which recognize the achievements of Alberta’s tech companies. Details.

  • Bobbie Racette, Virtual Gurus and DJ Shub were recognized at the 2nd Annual Indigenous Entrepreneurship Awards, co-presented by RBC, Shopify, Meta and Mastercard. Continue.

  • Racette has also been selected for the prestigious Ernst & Young (EY US) 2022 Entrepreneurial Winning Women program. Calgary Citizen.

  • KPMG opened its Calgary innovation lab featuring a unique AI-informed art display at the Platform Innovation Centre. Continue.

📊 By The Numbers

  • 75 - The number of venture capital deals YTD Q3 in Alberta.

  • $509 million - The total value of venture capital invested YTD Q3 in Alberta.

  • Both numbers exceed the province's total for 2020 and are on pace to beat 2021's record year, according to the Canadian Venture Capital & Private Equity Association.

💡 POV: Ideas and Insights

📸 Photo Of The Week

👇 Before you go...

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