👋 Funding is flowing in Vancouver this week with two companies securing a large Series A: Moment Energy, which received a USD $15 million cheque, and Gumloop, which secured $17 million (before saying it would move to Silicon Valley — read more below.)
Plus, we’re digging further into what the volatile political landscape means for Vancouver by interrogating the issues keeping founders up at night, the problems facing the city’s industrial lands (and therefore your tech and e-commerce business), and a retrospective on how Azure Dynamics’ 2012 financial failure highlights the trend of Canadians inventing products that other countries commercialize. Oh, and in the middle of all that, Vancouver-founded tech educational giant Lighthouse Labs sold for an undisclosed amount.
And remember: we’re giving away a free ticket to TechExit conference in Vancouver, on February 25 (worth $895)! It’s the go-to event for tech founders and industry players who want to understand the ins and outs of selling companies. Want to win? Everyone who becomes a VTJ member during the month of January will be entered into a draw for the ticket. Want to buy your own ticket? VTJ readers get 20% off with code VTJ20.
-Kate Wilson, managing editor
🗞️ FROM VTJ
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🤝 FUNDING & DEALS
Gumloop, which was founded in a Vancouver bedroom, has raised a $17 million Series A. Now it’s secured that money, it’s moving to Silicon Valley.
The company connects relevant integrations like Google Sheets, Slack, YouTube, websites, emails, and more into a drag-and-drop style, no-code interface. Users can provide the platform instructions to take data from one and integrate it into another, like identifying PDFs in an email inbox and extracting invoice information into a Google Sheet.
The two founders raised the money without any other full-time employees, having only two interns and two contractors. The Gumloop team now consists of founders Max Brodeur-Urbas and Rahul Behal, and one employee who will be relocating to San Francisco with them, as they target hiring new talent that Brodeur-Urbas believes can be found in the Valley (and presumably not in Vancouver.)
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IN OTHER NEWS
Just how far away are we from viable quantum computing? The story of Vancouver company D-Wave’s stock this week might hold some clues.
On January 10, D-Wave — which claims to be the world's first company to sell computers that exploit quantum effects — announced that its fiscal year 2024 bookings will exceed $23 million: an increase of approximately 120 percent over fiscal year 2023 bookings. Such a release would typically cause a bump in the publicly traded company’s stock price — but that’s not the case here.
That might be due in part thanks to Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg saying last week that “very useful” and “practical” quantum computing would be decades away.
Not everyone is so bearish, though. Alphabet’s Google reached a milestone in December when it unveiled its Willow quantum chip, where researchers achieved an exponential reduction in the error rate as they tested increasingly large grids of qubits, leading the company to say that “useful, very large quantum computers can indeed be built.” Plus, IBM has pledged to “demonstrate the first quantum-centric supercomputer” in 2025. Add to that the fact that D-Wave’s stock came close to its all-time high in November after a prolonged slump, and the tech might be closer to being adoption-ready than you think.
🚨 VTJ members got 11 more stories like these in their Morning Report newsletter. If you’re not already a member, fix that now.
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💡 IDEAS & INSIGHTS
Canada’s backwards banking system came under fire this week from Vancouver-based Urbanlogiq’s co-founder Herman Chandi.
Chandi received a cheque from a U.S. client of his business, which builds AI-powered data platforms for governments. That client was a repeat customer with a flawless payment history.
“When I went to deposit it at RBC, the bank slapped a 15-business-day hold on it. Fifteen days!” he wrote in a LinkedIn post. “This is a client we’ve worked with before, and I’ve deposited cheques from them in the past without issue. [They gave me] arbitrary explanations around fraud risk, thresholds, factors, and blanket policy by the branches. This isn’t just a minor inconvenience. It directly impacts our ability to pay vendors, and our growth trajectory. Add to that the slow, business-hours-only wire transfers, and it feels like we’re operating in the banking equivalent of the stone age. “
The experience, he said, made him realize how Canada’s rigid banking sector is holding businesses back, and that it’s impossible to foster innovation and productivity when basic financial transactions are treated like high-risk endeavours.
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👀 CAN’T MISS
January 27 | 🎟️ #VTJTalks: 2025 Outlook for Vancouver’s Innovation Economy: As we transition into 2025, Vancouver’s tech community faces an exciting yet challenging landscape shaped by global uncertainty and local opportunity. Startups and investors are navigating a rapidly shifting economic environment, marked by cautious capital flows, recalibrated valuations, and a growing need for resilient strategies. This event will dive deep into what lies ahead for the city’s tech sector, offering key insights into how founders, investors, and industry leaders can chart a course for success in the year ahead.
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🚨 Remember: VTJ members get early access and 50% off all our events as well as exclusive gatherings. Don’t miss out — if you’re not already a member, fix that now.
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