Calgary Seen As Leading Canadian Venture Capital Market

[Azure]

Lengthy article talking about Calgary and its position in the 'tech' world, including investment from venture capital firms and work being done to transition the city into the digital age. Thought it was interesting.

SAIT's recent announcement about the creation of a $30-million School for Advanced Digital Technology downtown might be seen by some as a game changer in the transformation of Calgary from an oil-and-gas hub into a tech hub. But transforming the city into a tech hub is more complicated than just one building.

A tech hub is defined as a group of buildings in close proximity to various amenities that encourage networking and collaboration, resulting in numerous small technological startups growing into midsize (50 to 200 employees) and large (200-plus employee) companies, much like downtown Calgary has been a hub for the creation and growth of junior oil companies over the past 40 years.

Calgary Economic Development, the University of Calgary and various tech partners are working very hard to make Calgary an attractive destination for tech workers by fostering the development of three tech hubs in the city — in the downtown, the East Village and the University of Calgary campus.

Calgary's economic and educational leaders learned from the failed Amazon headquarters bid in 2017 that, while Calgary is a highly educated city, we lack the trained software engineers, data scientists, coders and programmers needed to convince medium to large tech firms to relocate here.

.....

The good news is Calgary is continuing to attract record levels of venture capital — over $200 million by the end of August 2020, which exceeded the $136 million raised during all of 2019, and places Calgary as one of the leading venture capital markets in Canada.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calga...-hub-1.5804193

[Ozy_Flame]

Great article, although the primary conclusion I draw from this article much more highlights the potential for being a tech hub than a venture capital market.

[peter12]

If Calgary's economy picked up again, especially around knowledge and tech work, I would apply for a transfer to my firm's office there. No question.

[boogerz]

This probably isn't going to work if UofC doesn't beef up its computer science program too

[JohnnyB]

Originally Posted by Ozy_Flame

Great article, although the primary conclusion I draw from this article much more highlights the potential for being a tech hub than a venture capital market.

One goes with the other.

[Ozy_Flame]

Originally Posted by JohnnyB

One goes with the other.

Meh. Venture capital tends to follow tech around and vice versa. But it's not a science. Plenty of startups (basically the general term now for "new business" of any kind) didn't need any Series A/B/C/late-stage funding in the manner that venture capital provides.