Vancouver-born startup Summify will shut down permanently on June 22, the company has revealed. After that date, you will no longer get your precious Summify email digests.
The Canadian web company, which started in 2010, was acquired by Twitter in January. Twitter later leveraged its technology to develop and launch its own Weekly Email Digests.
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The organizers of the GROW Conference have announced something new for 2012.
Day one of the three-day conference has now been labelled GROWtalks and will be focused on how startups can create simple, actionable metrics, and use them to make better product and marketing decisions for long-term growth.
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Celtic House Venture Partners has reached a first close of Celtic House Venture Partners Fund IV LP at $105 million.
Investors in the fund include Ontario Venture Capital Fund, Teralys Capital, Export Development Canada and BDC Venture Capital.
Fund IV will focus on early‐stage investment opportunities in Media Communications Technology (MCT), partnering with teams that have outstanding records of innovation and entrepreneurial success.
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In the first quarter of 2012, Canadian buyout and private equity market activity maintained a "steady course," with "moderate" year-over-year growth in deal-making. But Canadian venture capital investment began the year at a much slower pace, according to a new report by Canada's Venture Capital & Private Equity Association.
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Rakuten Inc. announced today that it is leading a $100 million investment in Pinterest, with participation from existing investors Andreessen Horowitz, Bessemer Venture Partners, and FirstMark Capital, as well as a number of angel investors.
Last November Rakuten bought Canadian-made Kobofor a total of $315 million in cash. At the time Mikitani called the company "entrepreneurial, fast, and strong" and said the two companies have a "shared vision.
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Two months ago, Techvibes reported that Vancouver's newest superangel, Mike Edwards, would be taking over the helm of Vancouver accelerator GrowLab. We warned Vancouver's startup community to buckle their seatbelts and prepare for "massive action" with Edwards in the Executive Director role.
Techvibes sat down with Edwards this morning to learn more about his first big GrowLab announcement—the cohort selected for their Spring 2012 program which kicks off next week.
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Toronto-based accelerator (not an incubator, like some misinformed people suggest) Extreme Startups has selected five companies for the inaugurual round of its program.
The organization saw applications from companies in 18 countries spanning five continents, according to TechCrunch—but ultimately settled with an all-Canadian lineup. Three startups are based in Extreme's hometown of Toronto, while one is from Edmonton and one is from Ottawa.
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Today, Toronto-based startup Wave Accounting, a free cloud-based accounting software platform designed specifically for small businesses and solo entrepreneurs, announced that they have secured $12 million (USD) in Series B funding from the Social+Capital Partnership, a Palo Alto-based investor group aimed at turning venture capital into a socially progressive and constructive force that creates progress on a global scale, with participation from existing investors Charles River Ventures and OMERS Ventures.
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At Facebook's original $28 to $35 per share, the social networking giant was pegged at a valuation of roughly $94 billion, just under earlier predictions of the $100 billion mark. But due to "strong demand," Mark Zuckerberg's company has just upped the IPO range to a high of $38, which hikes the valuation of Facebook to a mind-boggling $104 billion.
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Late last year, IBM acquired Q1 Labs for a reported $500 Million.
The provider of security intelligence software was founded by employees of the University of New Brunswick and their research and development centre is in Fredericton. Shaun McConnon, former Chairman and CEO of Q1 Labs, is flying up to Vancouver next week to speak at the Vancouver Enterprise Forum's May event.
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