1 Atlantic Canadian Startup Community
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Atlantic Canadian Startup Community Data Report 2019 1 Executive Summary In the spring of 2007, one of the kings of private equity flew into y The life sciences sector continued to grow, attracting $80.3 Halifax to proclaim a golden age for his industry. Henry Kravis, million in funding – more than four times the 2018 figure. Co-Founder of the powerful New York- private equity house Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, was the keynote speaker of the Ca- y Rural innovation is increasing, especially in Nova Scotia, nadian Venture Capital and Private Equity Association annual with more structured collaboration between rural entrepre- conference in Halifax that year. With interest rates low and the neurs and urban support organizations. economy cooking, he told an enraptured audience that the global environment was perfect for investment funds like his. y Springboard Atlantic and Lab2Market are enhancing “Private equity is in its golden era right now,” he said. entrepreneurial programing for applied researchers, which Of course, a little more than a year later, the rose-coloured should improve the quality of new companies in the future. glasses came off as that Goldilocks economy was ruined by the Great Recession. y Some 14 percent of the companies are led by female CEOs or Co-CEOs, and these companies raised 12.5 A study of the Atlantic Canadian startup community in 2019 percent of the funding in 2019 (excluding the Verafin deal). brings Kravis’ speech to mind. It’s not just the hubris. It’s that in When we previously looked into female CEOs in 2014, we 2019 the startup community saw the perfect environment for found they made up 8 percent of the community at the time This report would not have been possible without the support of numerous growth, just as Kravis saw it in 2007. and received 8 percent of the funding. organizations, and we would like to thank the following for all their help: Atlantic Canada – so often ignored in national economic anal- The greatest area of concern is that angel funding in 2019 fell ysis – recorded the biggest growth capital funding round in more than 25 percent to $21.9 million – its worst performance Canadian history in 2019 when Verafin raised $515 million in eq- in three years. Platinum Partners uity and debt. Introhive placed No. 10 in the Deloitte Fast50, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency first Atlantic Canadian company to crack the top 10. Sequence This report was written in the depths of the pandemic, and Innovacorp Bio and CoLab Software became the first Atlantic Canadian it’s impossible to predict what the recovery will look like. But companies accepted into the Y Combinator accelerator in this report is a testament to the growth potential of innova- Gold Partners Silicon Valley. tion-driven companies, and is evidence that they will be critical to Atlantic Canada’s recovery in 2021 and 2022 and its long- Build Ventures Entrevestor’s research, detailed in this report, shows what a term prospects. Charcoal Marketing stellar year 2019 was: Global Affairs Canada Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency President Francis Government of Nova Scotia y Atlantic Canadian startups employed about 6,500 peo- McGuire alluded to the economic power of startups in a July ple, 1,000 more than a year earlier. Overall, companies grew Halifax Innovation District 2019 interview with Entrevestor. He said his agency believes their staffs by about 23 percent. startups are a pillar of the region’s youth attraction strategy. Ignite Fredericton He estimated 5,000 to 6,000 young people work at startups, Island Capital Partners y The region’s startups raised $651.5 million in capital earning $50,000 or more within a few years. That means they Memorial University of Newfoundland (excluding money raised on the stock market), which was are paying significant taxes, which helps the region’s gov- New Brunswick Innovation Foundation more than three times more than any previous year. The ernments provide services. “It’s the type of people they tend only weakness in fundraising was a lack of critical $5 million ONSIDE to employ,” said McGuire, referring to employees’ technical to $20 million deals. capabilities and also their entrepreneurial attitudes. Propel The capacity of startups to generate well-paid jobs will be Springboard Atlantic y Companies sharing revenue data with Entrevestor re- needed more than ever as the region’s economy recovers ported revenue growth of about 70 percent – the third year from COVID-19. in a row of 70 percent growth or higher. y Atlantic Canada launched 164 new startups – the first time the figure exceeded 115. About Entrevestor y Appili Therapeutics listed publicly in mid-2019 and Meta- Entrevestor was founded in 2011 by Nova Scotia-based material Technologies followed suit in early 2020. Atlantic writers Peter and Carol Moreira as a portal to unite and Canada now has an interesting portfolio of publicly listed inform the startup community in Atlantic Canada. It posts innovation companies. daily news on Atlantic Canadian startups on its website, www.entrevestor.com. Part I – Background .......................................................... 1 1.1 Macro-Economic Background .....................................................................1 Part I – Table of 1.2 Recap of our 2018 Report ............................................................................ 4 Background 1.1 Macro-Economic Background Part 2 – The Atlantic Canadian Startup Community ......... 5 One important note on our terminology: Atlantic Canada has lagged the rest of the country in economic growth for a genera- Contents 2.1 Established Companies ................................................................................7 Entrevestor uses the term “startup” to tion or more, but there were several bright spots in its economic performance in 2019. 2.2 New Companies ............................................................................................ 8 refer to high-growth innovation-driven There was certainly nothing to suggest the region (much less the world) was on the 2.3 Elite Companies ............................................................................................12 companies. The age of the company cusp of the cataclysmic downturn we witnessed in the first half of 2020. 2.4 Scaling Companies .....................................................................................14 is irrelevant in considering what con- 2.5 Zombies and Failures ................................................................................. 16 stitutes a startup. To us, the company Data secured from Statistics Canada shows population increased and unemployment must meet three criteria: It must be fell. Three of the four provinces showed fiscal surpluses. And most important for the Part 3 – Company Metrics ................................................ 18 locally owned, commercializing tech- startup community, there were indications that Atlantic Canada’s unenviable perfor- 3.1 Employment ................................................................................................... 18 nology, and producing a product for the mance in research and development was improving. global market. “High-growth innova- 3.2 Revenue .........................................................................................................20 tion-driven company” is a clunky term, The first thing to improve in Atlantic Canada was population growth. The region has 3.3 Funding .......................................................................................................... 22 so for the sake of brevity we refer to been bleeding humans for a generation or two, but that seemed to have been re- 3.4 Stock Market ................................................................................................26 them as “startups”. versed, at least in the Maritime provinces, as can be seen in this chart: 3.5 Companies Led by Women .......................................................................28 Part 4 – Sectors ............................................................... 30 4.1 Information Technology ................................................................................31 Chart 1.1 - Atlantic Canada’s Population, 2014-19 (,000) 4.2 Life Sciences .................................................................................................31 4.3 CleanTech ...................................................................................................... 33 The increases in population had a 4.4 Advanced Manufacturing .........................................................................34 Province 4Q’14 4Q’19 Growth direct impact on the labour force data in the region. Obviously, Newfoundland 4.5 Ocean Technology ......................................................................................35 Nova Scotia 942 977 3.7% and Labrador still showed a decline in Part 5 – Exits and Transactions ....................................... 38 population, which impacted its overall New Brunswick 755 780 3.3% economic performance. But the other Part 6 – Rural Innovation .................................................. 39 three provinces showed healthy trends in falling unemployment. And throughout Newfoundland and Labrador 528 522 -1.1% Part 7 – Provincial Data .................................................... 40 2019, Nova Scotia and P.E.I. increased their labour forces. 7.1 Nova Scotia ....................................................................................................41 Prince