Several Calgary-based tech companies are planning to hire more people and expand their office space as hundreds of millions of dollars flow into the sector.
Through the first half of the year, Alberta has attracted nearly $500 million in investment, according to briefed.in.
“We’re growing very, very quickly,” said Nic Beique, the founder of Calgary-based Helcim, which offers online payment services for small businesses across Canada and the United States.
The company recently received $16 million in venture capital funding from investors in Toronto and New York.
“We’ve doubled our business in the past six months alone, so our investors are already quite happy with that progress,” Beique said from the company’s headquarters in Eau Claire.
Nic Beique is the founder and CEO of Helcim, a Calgary-based fintech company that offers payment solutions for businesses. The company recently received $16 million in venture capital funding. (Bryan Labby/CBC)
Beique says the company has grown by 400 per cent in the past year. It’s gone from 80 employees late last year to 145 today. He plans to hire 100 more people by the end of next year.
“My long-term goal is to build an anchor tenant in the Calgary tech scene. So when people think about Calgary, they think about Helcim … the way Shopify was able to do that with Ottawa, where they really kind of put them on the map for tech. I want to do that in Calgary as well.”
According to briefed.in, Alberta’s tech sector recorded $268.6 million in venture funding in the second quarter alone — in the same quarter a year ago, only $16 million was raised.
Hirings, office expansion
Another rising star in the city’s tech scene is Virtual Gurus, which provides companies with virtual assistants to carry out a range of administrative duties for businesses in Canada and the States.
Two years ago, the company had five employees. It now has 40 and plans to double that number by the end of the year, which will require more office space.
“We’re looking at expanding upstairs in order to facilitate that growth,” said Margaret Glover-Campbell, the company’s chief operating officer.
Margaret Glover-Campbell, chief operating officer of Virtual Gurus, is looking to more than double its number of employees in downtown Calgary by the end of the year. (Bryan Labby/CBC)
Virtual Gurus, which aims to hire more people from minority groups, including people with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ community, recently received $10 million in funding from several venture funds. The money will be used to help the company grow and launch a new app in the coming months.
New funding sources
Calgary-based startup ZayZoon, which previously relied on individual, private investors, recently raised $25.5 million in funding to help it expand. ZayZoon offers people early access to their earned wages and has partnered with approximately 3,000 businesses in the U.S. The company has 70 employees but plans to hire 15 more by the end of the year.
One of its investors is Alberta government-owned ATB Financial, which is providing a $13-million debt pool for the company to use when clients seek an advance on their earnings.
Darcy Tuer, left, Tate Hackert, middle, and Jamie Ha are the founders of Calgary-based startup ZayZoon, which provides clients with early access to their earned wages. (Tate Hackert/ZayZoon)
Tate Hackert, one of the company’s founders, says ATB’s support is a boost for his company and the city.
“It’s just such a great story for Calgary,” he said.
“It just shows that there is more to invest in here than oil and gas, and we’re really looking forward to being part of that success story, right?”
Finding employees a challenge
An ongoing challenge for most tech firms is finding employees to support their expansion plans.
“We’re absolutely hiring as many people as we can. It’s a really tough market in Calgary because we do have so many tech companies here that are trying to hire people,” said Glover-Campbell.
Helcim says it takes a unique approach to hiring and provides greater opportunities for recent graduates of post-secondary schools. It aims to hire young professionals right out of school and provide on-the-job training and mentorship.
Employees of Helcim in downtown Calgary. The company plans to add 100 more employees by the end of 2023. (Bryan Labby/CBC)
“Our focus is on giving these young professionals the ability to start their career at Helcim instead of fighting for senior talent,” said Beique.
He also says recent cooling off in the sector could help level out the demand for talent and help his company attract and retain staff.
Calgary has a lot going for it, Beique says, including an affordable cost of living and a good quality of life. He says 20 per cent of the companies’ recent hires are coming from outside the city.
Bryan Labby is an enterprise reporter with CBC Calgary. If you have a good story idea or tip, you can reach him at bryan.labby@cbc.ca or on Twitter at @CBCBryan.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was higher in late-morning trading, helped by strength in energy stocks, while U.S. stock markets also moved up.
The S&P/TSX composite index was up 34.91 points at 23,736.98.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 178.05 points at 41,800.13. The S&P 500 index was up 28.38 points at 5,661.47, while the Nasdaq composite was up 133.17 points at 17,725.30.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.56 cents US compared with 73.57 cents US on Monday.
The November crude oil contract was up 68 cents at US$69.70 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was up three cents at US$2.40 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was down US$7.80 at US$2,601.10 an ounce and the December copper contract was up a penny at US$4.28 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.
TORONTO – Strength in the base metal and technology sectors helped Canada’s main stock index gain almost 100 points on Friday, while U.S. stock markets climbed to their best week of the year.
“It’s been almost a complete opposite or retracement of what we saw last week,” said Philip Petursson, chief investment strategist at IG Wealth Management.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 297.01 points at 41,393.78. The S&P 500 index was up 30.26 points at 5,626.02, while the Nasdaq composite was up 114.30 points at 17,683.98.
The S&P/TSX composite index closed up 93.51 points at 23,568.65.
While last week saw a “healthy” pullback on weaker economic data, this week investors appeared to be buying the dip and hoping the central bank “comes to the rescue,” said Petursson.
Next week, the U.S. Federal Reserve is widely expected to cut its key interest rate for the first time in several years after it significantly hiked it to fight inflation.
But the magnitude of that first cut has been the subject of debate, and the market appears split on whether the cut will be a quarter of a percentage point or a larger half-point reduction.
Petursson thinks it’s clear the smaller cut is coming. Economic data recently hasn’t been great, but it hasn’t been that bad either, he said — and inflation may have come down significantly, but it’s not defeated just yet.
“I think they’re going to be very steady,” he said, with one small cut at each of their three decisions scheduled for the rest of 2024, and more into 2025.
“I don’t think there’s a sense of urgency on the part of the Fed that they have to do something immediately.
A larger cut could also send the wrong message to the markets, added Petursson: that the Fed made a mistake in waiting this long to cut, or that it’s seeing concerning signs in the economy.
It would also be “counter to what they’ve signaled,” he said.
More important than the cut — other than the new tone it sets — will be what Fed chair Jerome Powell has to say, according to Petursson.
“That’s going to be more important than the size of the cut itself,” he said.
In Canada, where the central bank has already cut three times, Petursson expects two more before the year is through.
“Here, the labour situation is worse than what we see in the United States,” he said.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.61 cents US compared with 73.58 cents US on Thursday.
The October crude oil contract was down 32 cents at US$68.65 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was down five cents at US$2.31 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was up US$30.10 at US$2,610.70 an ounce and the December copper contract was up four cents US$4.24 a pound.
— With files from The Associated Press
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
TORONTO – Canada’s main stock index was down more than 200 points in late-morning trading, weighed down by losses in the technology, base metal and energy sectors, while U.S. stock markets also fell.
The S&P/TSX composite index was down 239.24 points at 22,749.04.
In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 312.36 points at 40,443.39. The S&P 500 index was down 80.94 points at 5,422.47, while the Nasdaq composite was down 380.17 points at 16,747.49.
The Canadian dollar traded for 73.80 cents US compared with 74.00 cents US on Thursday.
The October crude oil contract was down US$1.07 at US$68.08 per barrel and the October natural gas contract was up less than a penny at US$2.26 per mmBTU.
The December gold contract was down US$2.10 at US$2,541.00 an ounce and the December copper contract was down four cents at US$4.10 a pound.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2024.
