Ottawa-based ecommerce software startup Shopify today announced the winner of its “Build-A-Business Competition.” Over 3,000 entrepreneurs created online stores last year in an effort to seize the vast opportunities of e-commerce—and compete for $500,000 in cash and prizes.
Rookie Dragons' Den investor Bruce Croxon is ready to invest in Canada's digital startups and announced today that he is bringing other investors on board his new $100 Million fund.
Croxon co-founded online dating service Lavalife in 1988 — well before social networking took hold. After the company is sold for $170 Million, he built Vida, a chain of holistic spas on the West Coast and started venture capital firm Round 13.
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As a former CMO, executive speaker and organizer of events in the technology and healthcare sectors, Peter Evans, co-founder and CEO of Toronto startup Speakerfile knew that there must be a better way to connect corporate speakers to the $106 billion events industry. He was fascinated by the inefficiencies of the event organizer and speaker matchmaking process.
Together with co-founder Robert Carter, Evans developed an online platform that could help event organizers and media around the world connect better with an ever-expanding ecosystem of speakers and experts.
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Toronto's TeamBuy.ca announced this morning that they have closed a $5 Million financing round from existing shareholders and will be using the funding to expand newly launched Kids & Baby and Home categories.
In July of 2011 TeamBuy raised $7 Million from an undisclosed institutional investor.
“We’ve re-imagined the daily deal business model to fit a customer who is demanding more comprehensive and customized shopping,” says Ghassan Halazon, CEO, TeamBuy.ca. “Our current vertical offerings already account for nearly 35 per cent of our business and with the launch of the new Kids & Baby and Home sections on TeamBuy, we anticipate that this will rise to at least half of our overall product mix in the year ahead.”
Venture capital and private equity in Canada grew again last year, up for the third year in a row, says Canada’s Venture Capital & Private Equity Association and research partner Thomson Reuters. But while the volume of activity—235—was the highest ever, the dollar value still came up short of pre-recession levels.
2011 may have been out 2007's 229 transactions, but in that year, over $26 billion was invested. Last year, that number was only $11.5 billion. Still, it's up from 2009 and 2010, when the recession limited transactions to just $5.2 and $6.2 billion respectively.
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Oracle has agreed to buy Taleo Corp. for $1.9 Billion to add talent management software to its cloud computing strategy. According to today's announcement holders of Taleo will get $46 a share - that’s 18 percent higher than Taleo’s closing share price yesterday.
While any Billion dollar acquisition is big news, Techvibes tends to focus on Canadian news. So why are we covering the acquisition of Taleo?
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Akamai Technologies announced today that it is acquiring Ottawa's Blaze Software for an undisclosed sum.
The Cambridge, Mass.-based Akamai said the purchase will complement its technology to optimize the speed that web pages are rendered, regardless of the device.
From Blaze's blog this morning:
This is obviously big news for Blaze, and we’re thoroughly excited about it. Beyond that, we see this as a big moment for the field of Front-End Optimization (FEO), and for the goal of making the web faster. Having Akamai provide an automated FEO solution will make this technology easily available to thousands of the top websites in the world, and make a real impact on the web.
Blaze was founded in 2010 with a mission to help clients deliver better performing Web businesses by making their sites faster.
Applications are now being accepted for the Rick Hansen Institute Emerging Company Showcase, scheduled to take place at Interdependence 2012 Global Conference and Exhibition, May 15-18, 2012 in Vancouver.
The Rick Hansen Institute is providing emerging companies, seeking financing for an innovation related to accelerating progress to a cure for paralysis after spinal cord injury or innovations that will improve the lives of those living with SCI, the opportunity to pitch their company and innovation to the delegation at Interdependence 2012.
Five companies will be selected by an external panel and have the opportunity to present directly to various experts and key opinion leaders from across the continuum of spinal cord injury research and care, including investors with experience in the life sciences and healthcare sectors.
Learn more about application criteria and important dates online.
Today on Silicon Valley Watcher Tom Foremski writes about The Dirty Little Secret of Silicon Valley's Startup Boom.
Thousands of startups are being launched with dreams of making a difference in the world. Yet Angels and VCs are selling them off to the big corporations in what are essentially engineering talent acquisitions.
Foremski's article seems to have been prompted by the Amazon acquisiton of Seattle's TeachStreet earlier this week. The e-commerce giant purchased the 5-year-old online marketplace that matches students and teachers and will be shutting it down the service in less than two weeks.
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Telus Health Solutions announced this morning that they have acquired Wolf Medical Systems. The acquisition will create a new line of business within Telus Health Solutions called Physician Solutions. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Wolf Medical Systems is Canada’s largest and fastest-growing cloud-based EMR provider. Since 2010, over 11 million patient visits have been documented by physicians using Wolf EMR.
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