I N V E S TME N T ACT I V I T Y I N 2 0 2 0 Spo t l i ght on At l ant i c Canada
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earlier. (That’s after Verafin and its 600 employees were removed from the Entrevestor Databank because it exited.) On a weighted average, companies grew headcount by about 25%. Companies sharing rev- enue data with Entrevestor reported revenue growth of about 72% – the fourth year in a row that revenue growth was in a band of 70 to 75%. In 2020, the region launched 102 new startups, down 38% from the previous year. It is worth noting that the campuses of Dalhousie Uni- versity and the University of New Brunswick, both of which have ac- tive entrepreneurship programs,
19, Kraken Robotics at No. 36 and Proposify at No. 45. Aside from in- dividual companies’ accomplish- ments, the startup community re- corded some impressive metrics – doubly impressive when we con- sider the world was shut down due to the pandemic. The region’s innovation-driven com- panies raised $206.2 million in cap- ital (including $65 million raised by publicly listed companies). In con- trast to the previous year, it was dis- tributed among a range of startups. Entrevestor reported that Atlantic Canadian startups employed about 7,200 people, 800 more than a year
the region, so this funding is not a sign of Atlantic Canadian angels backing Atlantic Canadian compa- nies. Overall, the highlight of the year was St. John’s-based anti-fin- crime software company Verafin ex- iting to Nasdaq for US$2.75 billion. Other bright spots included Halifax sportstech company Kinduct sell- ing for more than $70 million and Halifax-based CarbonCure Tech- nologies attracting investment from the likes of Amazon, Microsoft and Breakthrough Energy Ventures. For the first time, three Atlantic Ca- nadian companies made the De- loitte Tech Fast50: Introhive at No.
202 1 ANNUAL REPORT ON ANGEL I NVEST I NG I N CANADA The Chang i ng Landscape
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