PacifiCan and PrairiesCan commit $17.7 million to companies in Western Canada

Western Canada’s federally-funded economic development agencies, PacifiCan and PrairiesCan, committed a collective $17.7 million CAD to help companies in Richmond, BC and Calgary develop and commercialize their technologies last week. 

The British Columbia-focused PacifiCan provided a repayable $4.7 million CAD across two Richmond-based companies, Ideon Technologies and Lucid Vision Labs, while PrairiesCan dispersed $13 million CAD across eight Calgary businesses, including WaitWell and Avanti Software. 

Mining technology startup Ideon received $2.7 million CAD from PacifiCan to commercialize its subsurface intelligence system. The system uses proprietary detectors and imaging systems to help mining exploration companies identify, map, and monitor geological features beneath the Earth’s surface like mineral deposits. Founded in 2014, Ideon last secured a $21 million CAD Series A round in September 2022 to expand its production capacity and commercialize its technology. A project led by Ideon also recently received $16 million from DIGITAL, Canada’s federally funded Global Innovation Cluster for digital technologies. 

PacifiCan sent the remaining $2 million CAD to Lucid Vision Labs so the machine learning camera startup could increase its sales and manufacturing capacity. Founded in 2017, Lucid provides a variety of camera models that can be used to monitor and automate manufacturing and agricultural environments. 

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Meanwhile, PrairiesCan provided between $180,000 to nearly $4 million CAD to help eight Calgary-area companies access new markets. TEKTELIC Communications received $3.98 million, the most funding of the batch, to develop, test, certify, manufacture, and launch more of its digital health-focused Internet of Things (IoT) products. Some of TEKTELIC’s healthcare offerings include asset tracking, indoor air quality monitoring, and remote vital signs detection. 

Payroll and human resources company Avanti Software also received $3 million CAD to aid its scale-up efforts. Founded in 1980, Avanti was acquired in 2016 with the intention to transform the established business into a cloud-only tech company. Avanti later secured $25 million CAD in 2022 to boost its tech-enabled transition. Its software is used by Canadian companies like Home Hardware, Princess Auto, and Porter Airlines.

Queue management and service-delivery software startup WaitWell received $1 million CAD to develop new capabilities for its current offering and expand into more Canadian and American markets. WaitWell had a notable 2023, having secured a $1.5 million CAD seed round last July before being recognized as the “one to watch” at the Start Alberta Tech Awards. Its co-founder and chief marketing officer, Shannon Vander Meulen, also took home the Woman in Tech Award.

PrairiesCan also provided funding to Aligned Outcomes, Global Analyzer Systems, Morweb, PK Sound, and Surface Medical. 

Feature image courtesy PacifiCan via LinkedIn.