In August, Calgary.tech reported that, through the first half of 2024, the province of Alberta surpassed BC—for the first time—in terms of investment dollars attracted, drawing a total of $383 million across 41 deals.
“The second quarter of 2024 continued the momentum we saw earlier in the year, with steady venture capital investment,” stated Kim Furlong, chief executive of CVCA, at the time. “This performance is driven by investors doubling down on companies with proven track records and strong fundamentals, as they continue to navigate the environment cautiously.”
Alberta’s success was largely powered by energy technology company ClearSky Global, who provided a major boost to the province’s numbers thanks to a raise of more than $200M in June from an undisclosed group of investors.
That kind of capital raise “doesn’t happen every quarter,” we wrote at the time—or does it?
Reinforcing signs that Calgary is increasingly a magnet for investment, the rapidly growing Neo Financial recently secured a $360 million Series D fundraising round consisting of $110 million of equity and $250 million of debt (among other 2024 achievements).
The sizeable round included investments from multiple Canadian entrepreneurs such as Shopify founder Tobi Lütke, Slack founder Stewart Butterfield, Roblox’s David Baszucki, and PointClickCare founder Mike Wessinger, as well as existing investors Valar Ventures, Golden Ventures, Afore Capital, Thomvest Ventures, and Vancouver’s Version One Ventures.
Below, a look at some other funding rounds since CVCA’s August report.
atVenu
Calgary-born atVenu announced a $179 million equity investment from Sixth Street Growth in October.
Founded in 2012 by Derek Ball, Ben Brannen, and James Seigel, atVenu offers a specialized platform for live events, serving major touring artists, merchandisers, record labels, venue operators, festival promoters, and food and beverage providers.
During events, atVenu simplifies the management of multiple locations, inventory, and point-of-sale hardware, while providing real-time data to improve the event experience. Unlike traditional retail platforms, atVenu is designed to maximize revenue during the brief window of an event.
The new partnership with Sixth Street is set to boost atVenu’s growth into sports and food and beverage markets while strengthening its position as a leader in music merchandise.
Handling over $1.6 billion in annual merchandise and food and beverage sales, atVenu is used at more than 125,000 events each year, from small clubs to the world’s largest stadiums, venues, festivals, and sporting events.
Lightstrike
Calgary-based Lightstrike, a startup specializing in application dependency management, raised its first external funding round, comprising $1.1 million in seed capital, earlier this month.
Led by Sprout Fund II, the investment was supported by a US-based angel syndicate, including a founding member of Robinhood, Alberta family offices, and Weave VC.
Lightstrike, which operates at the intersection of artificial intelligence and enterprise risk management, helps companies uncover hidden risks within and between their applications. By providing insights into complex dependencies, Lightstrike enables businesses to prevent cascading failures that could otherwise disrupt operations.
With growing traction among leading enterprises, Lightstrike plans to use the new funding to expand its presence across North America and onboard new large-scale customers.
CruxOCM
Calgary’s CruxOCM secured a USD $17 million Series A funding round led by M12, Microsoft’s Venture Fund, in August. This funding brings CruxOCM’ s total capital raised to $27 million.
A leader in co-pilot technology for control room operators, CruxOCM offers scalable software to automate the execution of procedures checklists, and rules of thumb for control room operators.
With the successful completion of this Series A round, CruxOCM is poised to accelerate its growth and implement co-pilot technology for control room operators across the midstream and broader energy sector.
In addition to M12, the round included participation from new investors, including ONEOK, Raven Indigenous Capital Partners and EIC Rose Rock Fund and continued support from existing investors Angular Ventures, Bullpen Capital, Root Ventures, Industry Ventures, Cendana Capital, Pipeline Capital Partners, and Golden Ventures.
OraqQ
Calgary-based healthtech startup OraQ announced the closure of a $2.6 million seed funding round, led by AngelMD, an Alberta-based angel physician group, earlier this month.
Founded by dentists-turned-tech entrepreneurs Dr. Amreesh Khanna, Dr. Mike Parchewsky, and Wayne Madhlangobe, OraQ’s mission is to empower forward-thinking dental professionals to make the best decisions for their patients and their practices.
The investment aims to commercialize OraQ’s clinical decision support platform, which utilizes artificial intelligence to analyze dental and medical records, assisting dentists in assessing patient risk more effectively. The funding will enable OraQ to expand its reach, refine its technology, and bring its clinical decision support platform to more dental professionals across North America.
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