Summer: The season of growth, heat, and constant change. Seeds have sprouted, seed rounds usually take off, and internship season is in full swing. Just as the world around us experiences such rapid growth, our companies have been doing the same! Now, poetic metaphors aside, let’s get into just a few pieces of what’s new with our community.
At the end of the article we take a look at the Co.Labs companies that are currently hiring. Feel free to share this article with anyone who may be interested in opportunities within the Saskatchewan tech space.
JUNE
June is one of the busiest months of the year and built on the momentum of the record-breaking month of May for the SK tech ecosystem! On June 17th, Ag-Tech trailblazers Croptimistic graduated from the Co.Labs program after a staggering series A raise of $5.2 million, the largest raise by a Co.Labs company in history. Their graduation is Co.Labs’ 4th official graduation and was celebrated with the highly esteemed bell-ringing ceremony, accompanied by only the finest of themed desserts from Darkside Donuts.
Environmental Material Sciences (EMS)
Jumping over to Clean-Tech, Environmental Material Sciences (EMS) was one of 11 Canadian Clean-Tech companies to announce funding from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), receiving $4.1 million to assist in enhancing their soil remediation solution.
June also saw EMS announce their exciting development and procurement contract with fellow Co.Labs residents Rivercity Innovations (RCI). This multi-year partnership will hugely benefit both companies’ growth as well as the environment, boosting the effectiveness of EMS’ proprietary soil remediation tech while ushering RCI into a new opportunity space in Clean-Tech.
June was an impressive month for TeamLinkt and sign-ups for their service, logging 27,000 sign ups in June alone, compared to 85,000 sign-ups in Q1. They are now on track to hit a remarkable growth rate of roughly 340,000 users per year.
Speaking of growth: Autumn expanded their reach into new provinces and a few different new locations in Saskatchewan, in addition to collecting their first subscription payment—their first ever recurring revenue to hit the books.
Over in the Sports-Tech world, Athlete Era’s first product rollout in the softball market garnered 3,000 mobile users during spring softball programs in Saskatchewan. This marks the first time the product has been implemented in youth sport leagues outside of football.
Let’s Camp enjoyed their most successful summer to date, growing the number of campgrounds on their platform by 20% and setting a new monthly revenue record in June!
Hiring Updates from June
- Omnee took on new Director of Sales, Derek Kadis
- Immigrate hired a team of developers and designers, bringing their overall team to 25
- Simpleset brought on their first employee, Haley Barr, through Venture for Canada summer internship program
- SkillShark hired Logan Olfert as a Developer.
- Solusguard hired Mike Klein as Director of Marketing, closely following the addition of Stephen Thiessen as Director of Sales in May
JULY
In addition to some incredibly hot weather here in Saskatchewan, July also brought some hot company updates.
On July 15th, Prairie Robotics closed an astounding $690K seed round—a win for not only founders Sam Dietrich and Stevan Mikha, but also the SK tech ecosystem and the future of recyclable materials and smart cities. This cash infusion will accelerate Prairie Robotics’ mission to change the way large city centres ensure the integrity of their recyclable materials.
Offstreet experienced exponential growth this summer. Highlights include their software being used to manage parking at the Calgary Stampede through a partnership with Reef Parking, in addition to closing deals with three BC universities—all going live this fall semester to set the stage for new partnerships with universities across Canada.
Omnee experienced a few exciting and pivotal “firsts'' this summer. Not only did they hire their first Director of Sales, but they raised their first investment round after emerging as a finalist for StartupTNT’s Investment Summit. Adding to the momentum, they began generating revenue for the first time after witnessing some promising interest in their product from the home renovation community in both the US and Canada.
SafetyTek launched its Toolbox Talks pilot, a content-as-a-service solution to relieve safety professionals from building and delivering a daily safety meeting while complying to OHS requirements. They are also releasing an API that essentially centralizes workplace operational processes with workplace safety processes.Three of SafetyTek’s top clients will pilot the API by integrating these tools into their already existing packages.
AUGUST
As August winds to a close, Co.Labs companies are now preparing for the busy fall season.
Salonscale recently announced the completion of a seed extension round, adding Twitter's Head of Data Science Max Schmieser to the cap table. This capital infusion will fuel the launch of some exciting new partnerships—look out for those huge announcements this fall!
Rivercity Innovations closed a deal with Orange and Synox, both based in Montpellier, France. This deal will open up LoRa network access in all of continental Europe, providing RCI access to 60+ million people in France alone. Love to see more Co.Labs companies going abroad!
Cadence team just landed two tech superstars, bringing on Krystian Olszanski as CTO and Jory Cooper as Senior Software Engineer. This addition rounds out Cadence’s leadership team and sets the stage for a major product launch and limitless scalability.
On the heels of closing a deal with Saskatoon Police Headquarters in June, August saw ArcticShelf surpass 500 ordered meals on their platform, sell out of their Series 1 fridge, and began prototyping of their Series 2 unit.
Clevr (formerly ClevrML) has been on a tear since winning Co.Launch Cohort 7, now gearing up for a pivotal launch with the release of the long-awaited “Clevr Platform”. The platform has garnered worldwide pre-sign ups since June, landing Clevr in every continent except South America.
We can’t wait to see what the fall looks like after this monumental summer.
Thanks to our sponsors:
Co.Labs is grateful for the strategic support of our Founding Partners, PrairiesCAN (formerly Western Economic Diversification Canada) and Innovation Saskatchewan which enables the work we do here.
Other Saskatchewan startup news:
- The third iteration of the Uniting the Prairies conference took place, with panelists spanning from Silicon Valley to Toronto and everywhere in between.
- Regina-based Precision AI raised $20M to scale up operations in the world of Ag-Tech.
- 54e Dev Studios closed a second $1.7M raise to expand their empire of minigolf-playing robots.
- Conexus Credit Union announced a $45M first close of their new venture fund, Emmertech, that has committed to investing $15M into Saskatchewan Ag-Tech startups.
- The Federal Government launched a new Prairie Regional Development Agency, PrairiesCAN, that will connect the Prairies more directly to Federal support in order to facilitate economic development.
WHO’S HIRING:
That's right, folks—we're hiring! Take your marketing career to the next level working in a fast-paced & highly visible role.
Seeking: Marketing Content Specialist
Contact: hello@co-labs.ca
Apply: https://www.co-labs.ca/career/marketing-content-specialist
A comprehensive platform that safely connects those in need of home care services to providers. FindHomeCare.ca provides peace of mind to care-seekers by verifying care-givers credentials & providing secure methods of payment.
Seeking: Partnerships and Business Development Representative
Contact: hadi.taherian@homecarebydoctors.com
An IoT-enabled asset tracking hardware paired with a mobile app to create a virtual neighbourhood watch system with real-time alerts.
Seeking:
- 2 experienced Full Stack Developers
- 1 Computer Engineering/Hardware Developer
Contact/Apply: jeff@rivercityinnovations.ca
The simplest way to manage your sports team, creating a better experience and season for everyone.
Seeking:
- Sports Tech Web Developer
- Digital Marketing Specialist
Contact: jay@teamlinkt.com
Apply:
- https://ca.indeed.com/job/web-developer-d7430c2e99c3d193
- https://ca.indeed.com/job/digital-marketing-specialist-3272bb6686a7998e
Immigrate makes help available for employers and anyone in the world wanting to make Canada their home.
Seeking:
- Business Development Representative
- Sales Development Representative
- Lead Developer
Contact: contact@immigrate.biz
Apply:
- https://canadalmia.ca/job/inbound-demand-generation-expert/
- https://canadalmia.ca/job/sales-development-representative/
- https://canadalmia.ca/job/business-development-manager-2/
- https://canadalmia.ca/job/technical-solution-architect/
SkillShark
A platform that allows coaches to effectively evaluate athletes in various team sports and run reports to get full information, ratings, and rankings on players.
Seeking:
- UI/UX Designer/Lead
- Marketing Assistant
Contact/Apply: neil@skillshark.ca
Hyon
There are two groups of people in this world: you're either someone who will do the work to sell your used items or you can't be bothered. Hyon connects these two groups.
Seeking: Web Developer
Contact: kristy@hyon.ca
Apply: https://www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/2685907369/?refId=WfwC%2BqMlQv%2BcUJxq4idj3A%3D%3D
