Earlier this week Techvibes reported that Vancouver's HootSuite was on the verge of closing a massive finanacing round. Today it was confirmed.
OMERS Ventures is buying a $20 million ownership stake in Vancouver-based HootSuite via a secondary purchase from the company’s existing shareholders. Word on the street is that the financing pegs that valuation of HootSuite at over $200 million.
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Raising money for startups is about to become easier in the United States thanks to a new bill that was backed last week by the US House of Representatives.
While sites like Kickstarter have made crowdfunding a popular way for individuals and small companies to secure philanthropic funding of projects, the new Jumpstart Our Business Startups Act (Jobs) will do the same for startups.
The Jobs Act will allow small-scale investors to invest up to $10,000 (or 10 percent of their annual income, whichever is less) in companies they back.
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MaRS Discovery District in Toronto has launched Canada's "first dedicated early-stage cleantech venture fund." Called the MaRS Cleantech Fund LP, it "ushers in a new model in early-stage technology investing by leveraging the strength of a non-exclusive, but strategic relationship between MaRS Discovery District and the private sector," according to a statement released by the organization.
HootSuite CEO Ryan Holmes has stated publicly that he wants to grow the social media dashboard into a $1 Billion company.
But how do you do that?
Step one: Raise a massive Series B financing round that gives your company a nine digit valuation and you're well on your way.
Word on the street in Vancouver is that HootSuite is in the process of closing a funding round that will do just that.
But this news shouldn't come as much of a surprise to Techvibes readers.
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Ten months ago, Vancouver welcomed Silicon Valley style accelerator program GrowLab to the startup community. And it conveniently filled the void left by Bootup Labs, when Bootup unceremoniously closed its doors in late 2010.
Founded by Boris Wertz of W Media Ventures, Debbie Landa of Dealmaker Media, Jason Bailey of Eastside Games, and Leonard Brody of Clarity Digital, GrowLab hit the ground running with an influx of company applications and money from investors including BDC, iNovia Capital, and the BlackBerry Partners Fund, along with Rho Canada, Mohr Davidow Ventures, Growthworks, Yaletown Venture Partners, Chris Albinson, and Mike Edwards.
GrowLab Executive Director Michael Tippett was hired in time to announce the inaugural five startups in August 2011. And after completing the four-month accelerator program the class graduated at November's Demo Day event. Word on the street is that two of the five startups have received follow-on financing that is close to being finalized.
While applications for the 2012 Spring Program closed last week, GrowLab continues to blossom.
Techvibes reported last month that Tippet is no longer the Executive Director. And now we know who his replacement will be.
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Most social media management platforms like Pinerly or CoTweet focus on the management of a single social media platform. But Adobe Social, part of the Adobe Digital Marketing Suite, will allow you to manage multiple social media platforms and do so much more.
Vancouver-based HootSuite, a social media dashboard, hasn't been shy to include Adobe in their efforts. They've entered in a partnership to help quantify social media ROI.
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Startup Canada, an organization dedicated to helping and promoting entrepreneurship across Canada, officially kicked off their national tour in Halifax on Monday. Over the next six months, the tour will stop for 30 town hall events across Canada.
To give you a scale as to exactly how large the tour will be, there are 100 fringe events planned in coordination with the town hall stops, 180 people make up 12 steering committees to plan and execute the events, and there are over 250 volunteers helping to make it a reality.
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The Bell-Astral $3.38 billion dollar proposed merger dominated headlines last week and I was even asked to appear on CBC Radio. However, it's an extremely complicated deal- so complicated that the producers at CBC decided to speak with lawyers instead on whether or not the deal should be approved by the CRTC!
Regardless, the proposed merger also includes Astral Advertising which brings into question whether Bell Media would now be able to compete with part of Google's strategy in mobile advertising known as synchronized cross-media advertising.
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The Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario (FedDev Ontario), today announced a contribution of up to $5 million for the Research Innovation Commercialization Centre that will provide graduates in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) with the skills and support they need to start their own businesses.
With this funding, the Research Innovation Commercialization Centre will provide mentoring and financial support for 160 innovative new start-up businesses in southern Ontario.
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According to several media sources including the Toronto Star, Bell Canada Enterprises has acquired Astral Media for $3.38 billion. The deal is pending CRTC approval, but has some observers worried about the potential monopoly that Bell will control when the deal is completed in six months.
Astral owns The Movie Network, has the rights for HBO in Canada, and the deal will allow Bell ownership of a couple dozen Canadian specialty channels. This comes at a time when Bell recently announced their entry into Mobile TV.
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