No doubt, there has been a seismic shift in the growth of tech in Saskatchewan. It’s sometimes hard to describe in words, but every person you talk to in our ecosystem can feel the collective buzz and excitement.
That said, there are moments that we can mark that growth and advertise to the world “look at the crazy s**t that is happening here!” Moments like 7shifts' recent announcement of a $13M in new funding, Pivot Subscriptions hiring close to 100 employees in 9 short months, or even more recently Vendasta’s $40M private capital raise; these moments remind us how we have turned our potential into results.
Now - for some more big news - today the Federal Government announced additional investments into our Saskatchewan tech sector that will spur the next stage of innovation. This represents growing confidence that Saskatchewan is turning our potential into even greater results.
So...six major announcements were made today that included 3 of our Board Members’ companies, 1 mentor company, our first Alumni company, and Co.Labs itself. Drumroll...
1. Co.Labs has received $250k over 3 years to create a new Youth Tech Entrepreneurship Program. This program will help teach the fundamentals of starting a tech company to anyone between the ages of 15-29 in our Province, helping to usher in the next era of tech startups in Saskatchewan. Did we mention we will need to hire someone to do exactly that? Applications open now :)
2. Funding through the WINN program was announced today into 3 Co.Labs Board Member companies: 7shifts ($3,000,000), Coconut Software ($3,500,000), and Bitstrata ($1,130,865). As well, Co.Labs mentors from Viamo received government support ($875,000)
3. Funding through WINN program was announced today in our first Alumni company, BikTrix ($250,000)
This is just the start to even more growth in #sktech!
Side note: have a tech startup/idea and want to get involved? Sign up for our mailing list and keep an eye out for the next intake of Co.Launch!