Canada has a rich history of innovation, but in the next few decades, powerful technological forces will transform the global economy. Large multinational companies have jumped out to a headstart in the race to succeed, and Canada runs the risk of falling behind. At stake is nothing less than our prosperity and economic well-being. The Financial Post set out explore what is needed for businesses to flourish and grow. You can find all of our coverage here.
But economies that are overly reliant on risk-averse banks to finance growth and productivity gains start to fall behind when intangibles — ideas, talent, data — become the drivers of wealth. Furthermore, Kruszewski’s newest venture, which uses powerful algorithms to process and analyze video of human motion, is profitable and growing, with the number of employees doubling in size last year to about 30. And Wrnch is already playing in the Big Leagues: it has a contract with Intel Corp. to help the second-biggest maker of silicon chips track and analyze athletes’ performances with three-dimensional imagery at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.
“Things are getting better, but we’re not there,” National’s vice-president of venture capital said. “The alarm has rung, but we are reacting as Canadians react, slowly.” Homegrown venture capitalists participated in 610 deals worth about $3.7 billion last year, little changed from 2017, but a 76-per-cent increase from 2014, when firms completed 438 deals worth about $2.1 billion, according to the Canadian Venture Capital Private Equity Association.
“There is plenty of capital available,” Ari Himmel, founder and chief executive officer of Faimdata, a Montreal-based startup that uses AI to study customer behaviour for retailers, said. “The question is, do they understand what we are trying to do?” “Until you are a $1-million company, there is very little bank financing available,” said Raymond Luk, founder and chief executive of Hockeystick.co Inc., a digital platform that gathers and analyzes data on private companies and investors. “Banks won’t take my entrepreneurial track record as collateral.”
Over at Bank of Montreal, Devon Dayton leads a team of a half a dozen bankers exclusively on tech focused as managing director of Technology & Innovation Banking. Like at National, the group works with an expanded list of lending benchmarks that includes recurring revenue and contracts.
Most of Canada's banks are so backward and technically inept it's terrifying. I'm with scotiabank and TangerineBank and I think they may be the best bet for being bleeding edge while being very attentive to consumer safety.