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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Is angel financing the preferred path to exit for Canadian companies? If you're in Vancouver you can find out on Wednesday, May 16.
The Association for Corporate Growth will be hosting a luncheon that will shed light on the topic. Mark Longo of the Technology and Corporate Finance Group at Clark Wilson LLP will be moderating a panel that includes BC Angels of the Year Mike Volker (2010) and Boris Wertz (2011) and Early Exits author Basil Peters.
The panel titled Angel Financing: The Preferred Path to Exit for Canadian Companies will cover the state of angel investing in Canada and answer some of the following questions.
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We just recently covered the end of Allerta's Kickstarter campaign, which saw the Canadian-born startup raise more than $10 million from over 66,000 backers in the span of one month. Back in Vancouver, coworking community HiVE is hoping to raise a modest $35,000 in crowdfunding money using the Indiegogo platform, which we earlier today suggested as one of 12 ideal sites to use in Canada.
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Crowdfunding platforms raised $1.5 billion and successfully funded more than one million campaigns in 2011. Those numbers are forecast to double in 2012. The biggest player is Kickstarter.
TechCrunch suggests that with the US JOBS Act becoming law, the tech industry (and the economy at large) are headed for some big changes. Namely, the legalization of crowdfunding in startups for non-accredited investors has come to pass. In terms of its compound annual growth rate (CAGR), the North American crowdfunding industry is growing at a rate of 63% in terms of the total amount of funds raised.
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Etsy, the online marketplace for handmade and vintage goods, announced yesterday that it has raised $40 million from its existing VC investors.
This Series F round is on top of $51 million in funding to date and now pegs the company's value at more than $600 million.
What are they going to do with all that money?
Etsy’s chief executive, Chad Dickerson, told the New York Times that the new financing isn't needed to cover operational costs (they've been profitable since 2009) but rather to expand internationally.
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Last year Vancouver's RewardLoop won the Most Promising Startup Award at the BCTIA Technology Impact Awards and made the Top 10 in the BCIC-New Ventures Competition.
Today they announced that they have raised $1 million in Series A funding to build out their transaction-based mobile loyalty offering for merchants. Seattle's Madrona Venture Group led the round.
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Crowdfunding platforms around the world raised roughly $1.5 billion combined last year, Massolution says. An industry report released by the research group says that there were 350 crowdfunding platforms at the end of 2011, up 50% from the start of the year.
Massolution says that approximately one million campaigns were hosted by these platforms, for an average of nearly 2,900 campaigns per platform. The average amount of money that a single campaign raises is less than $700, however. Although we all know the story of Pebble, which is on pace to raise $10 million from Kickstarter.
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Mark your calendar.
Wednesday, May 23 is shaping up to be a big day for the Montreal tech startup scene. A trifecta of events are descending on the city with FounderFuel's Spring 2102 Demo Day, the C100's AccelerateMTL event, and the CVCA's Annual Conference stirring up excitement.
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It's been revealed that the Government of Canada is giving nearly $800,000 to The Next 36, a nonprofit organization located in Toronto that "strives to launch the careers of Canada's most promising and innovative undergraduates." Wladyslaw Lizon, Member of Parliament for Mississauga East-Cooksville, on behalf of the Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of State for the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario, today announced a contribution of up to $787,500 for The Next 36 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.
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