New funding is available for early-stage Vancouver companies

Up to $100M, to be exact. This is your Sunday Briefing.

Is it just me, or do short weeks somehow feel longer than those with the full five working days? Anyway. Fall is right around the corner, which means that although the weather is cooling down, tech news is going to be heating up.

Get a head start by checking out some of our top stories this week. There’s our staff writer James Matthews’ article about Vancouver’s Vida Carbon teaming up with Lewis Hamilton to sponsor a racing team (one for the Drive to Survive fans), plus William Johnson’s take on local company Curatio’s international merger, and a brand new fund for early-stage founders.

Now onto today’s briefing. It’s 774 words, a 3 minute read.

-Kate Wilson, @KateWilsonSays

P.S. Catch you at these upcoming events?

Panache Ventures announces $100M Fund II to double down on early-stage founders

The firm has already made a dozen investments from the new fund in areas as diverse as blockchain, digital coaching, and artificial intelligence. Get the full story »

Vancouver’s Vida Carbon named title partner of Lewis Hamilton's Extreme E team

The winningest driver in Formula 1 history is teaming up with a local investment firm. Start reading »

Health social network Curatio merges with Australia’s RxMx to form patient experience giant

The new company has customers in over 100 countries and is available in 15 languages. Start reading »

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🤝 Funding and deals

  • BBTV entered into an agreement with Harlem Globetrotters and is set to provide content management for the global brand. Continue »

  • PayByPhone announced a partnership with TransLink Park and Ride Lots across Metro Vancouver to enable cashless consumer payments. Continue »

  • Zamba Technologies, Audette Analytics, and five other firms secure $5 million in combined investment from the province’s CleanBC Building Innovation Fund. Continue »

  • BuildDirect Technologies has signed a $3 million non-brokered private placement and appointed Matthew Alexander as interim to replace Ethan Rudin. The Market Herald »

  • The federal and provincial governments are investing $1.9 million to bring high-speed internet access to 663 rural B.C. households. Continue »

🗞️ In other news

  • VanHack’s Ukraine initiative has already placed 22 developers from the war-torn country into Canadian businesses, and counting. Vancouver Tech Journal »

  • Deloitte Canada’s new office downtown, the Deloitte Summit, will be home to what they’re calling a “Greenhouse”: a hub for tech companies to collaborate. BCBusiness »

  • Tracy Leparulo founded Canada's largest blockchain event, the Blockchain Futurist Conference, and helped to launch Ethereum. Read her interview with Vancouver Tech Journal contributor Erin Gee in d3crypto »

  • CubicFarms is featured in Farming up: the future of vertical farms in the Fraser Valley. Fraser Valley Current »

  • Jeff Ward, the CEO of Animikii, a local Indigenous-owned tech company, reflected on his experiences at Toronto’s Collision Conference. Continue »

  • Austin Nairn, vice president at Greater Vancouver Board of Trade, is leaving to join BDC. LinkedIn »

  • Meet Sphere, an artificial intelligence system that’s meant to automate events between friends based on their interests and availabilities. Vancouver Is Awesome »

  • ICYMI: Last week, accounting fintech Bench tapped Jean-Philippe Durrios as its new CEO to replace founder Ian Crosby, who now works at Shopify. Continue »

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