Hi everyone,
This week’s briefing sits at the intersection of ambition and friction. On one hand, B.C. is clearly looking outward—toward global markets, climate solutions, and category-defining tech. On the other, founders and operators are still running headlong into structural barriers that slow hiring, delay growth, and push talent elsewhere. That tension is front and centre in VanHack CEO Ilya Brotzky’s sharp critique of provincial red tape—and it echoes through several of the stories below.
We also see what momentum looks like when things do move. From Chunks’ Product Hunt debut and CURA’s push to decarbonize cement, to Fresh Prep’s national expansion and Simuhealth’s early traction in healthcare training, there’s no shortage of execution happening on the ground. At the same time, General Fusion’s quiet $51.5M raise and Clio’s courtroom battle underscore how high the stakes have become as Vancouver companies scale into global relevance.
Here’s what happened this week.
From The Journal
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Funding, Deals, and More
CURA lands pre-seed backing to decarbonize cement: Calgary-based CURA says it closed a pre-seed round led by Amplify Capital and Zacua Ventures to advance an electrochemical process that can cut cement emissions by up to 85%, with plans to build a 100-tonne-per-year pilot.
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Read more → *General Fusion quietly raises $51.5M as IPO pressure builds: Richmond-based General Fusion quietly raised $51.5M CAD via a securities filing, with most of the financing structured as SAFEs—amid reporting that investors want the company to move toward public markets as fusion momentum heats up.
Read more →Simuhealth raises $2.6M pre-seed to modernize healthcare training: Vancouver’s Simuhealth closed a $2.6M CAD pre-seed round to scale its platform for managing healthcare simulation, training, and compliance—expanding across hospitals and academic institutions in Canada and the US.
Read more →Feds fund an energy research project in Delta: A federally funded project in Delta aims to increase the proportion of hydrogen used in combustion, alongside machine-learning work intended to improve performance in vehicle applications.
Read more →Clio takes Alexi to court over a legal research database: Burnaby-based Clio (via Fastcase) is suing Toronto’s Alexi over alleged misuse of licensed legal research data—data tied to Clio’s recently completed vLex deal—while Alexi denies wrongdoing.
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In Other News
Can Zymeworks’ momentum revive Vancouver biotech?: BIV looks at how Zymeworks’ latest progress—framed as a major Phase 3 breakthrough—could ripple through Vancouver’s life sciences ecosystem, from confidence to capital to talent.
Read more →Fresh Prep’s national expansion (and its zero-waste bet): BCBusiness profiles Fresh Prep’s rise from a Chinatown basement to a national meal-kit brand, including its Zero Waste Kit push and expansion across multiple provinces.
Read more →She tried to build “Vancouver’s Y Combinator”—then left for San Francisco: BetaKit follows Mai Trinh’s journey from building Vancouver community energy (Red Thread Club) to relocating to San Francisco to build Internet Backyard, which has now raised $4.5M USD pre-seed for a data-centre financing platform.
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