These Canadian (and at least one Canadian-born) companies from all over the map managed to raise big in the past week. Here’s the latest on who raised how much, and from whom.
Bridgit raises $2.2 million CAD to expand to the US
Since winning Google’s Demo Day back in December, Bridgit has been building up its construction project management platform — including the hiring of a new CTO.
Today, the company announced that it raised $2.2 million CAD ($1.7 million USD) in a seed round led by Hyde Park Venture Partners with participation from Vanedge Capital. The funding will be used to hire new engineers and salespeople and acquire more customers in the United States.
“The construction industry has been slow to adopt to new technology, but as we talk to residential and commercial builders, it’s clear they are hungry for technology that lowers cost, simplifies processes and make it easier to get their jobs done,” said Mallorie Brodie, CEO and co-founder of Bridgit. “We’re excited to partner with Hyde Park and Vanedge so we can put Bridgit’s solutions into the hands of more people who need them.”
To date, Bridgit has been used by more than 100 contractors and has consistently achieved double-digit month-over-month revenue growth.
“We believe that this type of innovation is sorely needed in the construction industry and that Bridgit has the ideal team to deliver it,” said Greg Barnes, principal of Hyde Park Venture Partners. “We can’t wait to see Mallorie, Lauren and their growing corps of experts build upon their solid foundation in the U.S. market.”
PrecisionHawk raises $22 million CAD Series C
PrecisionHawk, which provides data collection and safety platforms for drones, raised $22 million CAD ($18 million USD) in Series C funding, according to a report from TechCrunch.
Existing investors Intel Capital, Millennium Technology Value Partners, and the Innovate Indiana Fund participated in the round. Verizon Ventures, insurance giants USAA, NTT Docomo Ventures, and Yamaha Motor Ventures also joined the round as new investors. The funding will be used to expand within the commercial agriculture business, as well as branch into different sectors including like oil and gas, mining and geology, and insurance.
The company has an office in Toronto and was originally founded in Canada, with its headquarters now based in Raleigh, North Carolina. As drones gain more mainstream popularity, the company is hoping to stay ahead of eventual regulation by providing data and safety services services for commercial drones. The company is also known for developing the Lancaster, a data-collecting drone designed specifically for agriculture, energy and mining, and emergency response situations.
“Building and selling planes will arguably be the smallest part of our business,” PrecisionHawk CEO Bob Young told TechCrunch. “Our biggest opportunity and the faster growing part of our business is the platform we built for aerial data services.”
Some of the platforms that PrecisionHawk offers include DataMapper, which allows drone users to upload data they’ve gathered to be stored and analyzed on the DataMapper platform, and LATAS, which allows drone operators basically get clearance to fly, track, and verify their own flight operations.
Fiddlehead Technology raises $1.8 million in seed funding
Moncton-based Fiddlehead Technology, a company dedicated to predictive forecasting for the food and beverage industry, announced $1.8 million in seed funding. The round was led by Build Ventures and the New Brunswick Innovation Foundation.
The company’s flagship product, Forecast Guardian, mines data points per product to provide recommendations on improving forecast performance while also predicting the financial impact on the business. Its technology was developed in partnership with McCain Foods.
“Forecasting has often been more art than science. But with our prescriptive analytics we can go beyond simply measuring forecast accuracy to offer data-driven recommendations to improve performance,” said David Baxter, president and co-founder of Fiddlehead. “That leads directly to more accurate demand forecasts, allowing companies to lower inventory, improve service levels and boost margins.“
The company will use the funding to add data science and development staff, as well as increase its sales and marketing efforts throughout North America.