Funding overview: Figment, FIX4 Capital, Highstreet, Appili Therapeutics, Viridis Terra

Five Canadian-born tech companies recently secured new funding to fuel their growth. Here are the details on who raised the money, how much, from whom and what they plan to spend the new capital on.

Figment secures $ 50 million to build PoS infrastructure

Toronto-based blockchain infrastructure and services startup Figment has raised $ 50 million in Series B funding, in what the company claims to be the largest funding round to date for a digital asset staking provider.

The round was co-led by Senator Investment Group and Liberty City Ventures, and saw participation from Galaxy Digital, Anchorage, Declaration Partner, Bonfire Ventures, GSR, GFT VC, JPK Capital, 40 North, Finality Capital Partners and Hard Yaka . According to Bloomberg, the round gives Figment a valuation of $ 500 million.

Figment, which was founded in 2018, offers staking, middleware, and application layer solutions for cryptocurrency token holders and developers. The company’s Series B follows its $ 2.5 million fundraiser last October. The startup plans to use the new capital to increase its workforce and expand the scope of services it provides “from the top to the bottom of the Web 3 stack.” Figment said the funding would help him develop the back-end systems and infrastructure that deliver a return on digital tokens and other assets.

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Figment aims to strengthen the use of Proof of Stake (PoS) blockchains, which it says give users better control over their data, more privacy and better financial inclusion. “Staking is an extremely important and essential part of the mission of the blockchain ecosystem and Figment is at the forefront of this technology,” said Emil Woods, partner at Liberty City Ventures.

Last month, Figment received an $ 80 million GRT grant over five years to join The Graph, a blockchain infrastructure project. Graph Tokens, or “GRT,” are Ethereum tokens native to The Graph that are worth around $ 0.93 each. Another Canadian blockchain startup, StreamingFast (formerly known as Dfuse), also recently joined The Graph as lead developer in June, after landing a C $ 73.5 million grant.

FIX4 Capital raises $ 7.2 million to expand auto repair loan service

Montreal-based FinTech start-up FIX4 Capital, which offers affordable and flexible auto repair loans, has raised $ 7.2 million in seed funding to fuel its expansion efforts.

The company’s tour de table saw the participation of venture capital firm Tactico, investment advisory firm Keira Capital Partners and a group of angel investors, including Martin Lavigne, former chairman of NBF Wealth Management. of the National Bank.

Founded in 2020, FIX4 rolled out its app and quick loan service earlier this year. The company offers open financing of up to $ 10,000 over terms of 12, 24 or 36 months, with an interest rate of 19.9%, granting approval based on the value of the vehicle (based on the make, model, year and mileage) rather than on the credit score. .

FIX4, which does not require a reference, history or credit check, offers these loans through its online loan approval system, claiming that it can approve clients in under five minutes. Rick Ness, Managing Director of Tactico, said the company invested in FIX4 because its management team “has the right mix of industry experience, customer focus and technological know-how.”

Since its launch, the startup claims to have helped hundreds of drivers access auto repairs. “The need for fair funding in the auto repair industry is greater than we could ever have imagined,” said Tave Della Porta, co-founder and CEO of FIX4. “The response we received from our repair partners and existing dealers confirms what we suspected: a percentage of consumers are either unable to repair their vehicles or fall into the arms of predatory lenders. “

Highstreet Secures $ 5 Million For Virtual Reality-Based DeFi Marketplace

Highstreet, a Los Angeles-based virtual reality (VR) startup, has secured $ 5 million in new funding to fuel the development of its virtual reality-based decentralized finance (DeFi) market.

The round was led by a group of traditional venture capital and crypto firms including Mechanism Capital, NGC Ventures, Palm Drive Capital, Cherubic Ventures, Jump Trading, GBV, Panony, and Shima Capital. It has also seen participation from community builders and influencers like Encrypt Club, Mr. Block, and Miss Bitcoin.

Founded in 2015, Highstreet aims to combine e-commerce, virtual reality and non-fungible tokens (NFT). The startup describes itself as “the world’s first trade-centric metaverse with a decentralized financial marketplace for limited edition products.” Highstreet has two subsidiaries, LumiereVR Studio and Retinad Analytics, backed by Sundance, which it acquired in 2018. The company’s VR world consists of exploreable islands with residential areas, a virtual marketplace, and digital assets linked to real world products that are sold as NFTs. .

The startup plans to use the capital to expand its Unity-focused engineering team and accelerate the launch of its mobile and browser companion apps. According to Travis Wu, CEO and co-founder of Highstreet, the company plans to launch a new retail experience in its VR world.

“Retail consumers have shown increasing attention to digital native products, but most brands have not been able to tap this interest,” said Andrew Kang, Managing Partner of Highstreet Mechanism Capital . “Highstreet offers retail brands the opportunity to engage their customers in innovative ways through NFTs. “

According to the Vancouver Tech Journal, Highstreet currently has around 40 employees based in Canada and around the world, including nearly 15 in Vancouver.

Appili closes $ 3.5 million to advance COVID-19 treatment

Appili Therapeutics of Halifax, a biopharmaceutical company focused on drug development for infectious diseases, has entered into a $ 3.5 million convertible safety funding agreement.

As part of the deal, Appili received net proceeds of $ 3.4 million from Lind Global Fund II, LP, an investment entity managed by New York-based institutional fund manager The Lind Partners. Founded in 2015, Appili went public on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) in February 2020, raising C $ 10.25 million. The company currently trades on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol “APLI”.

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As part of a global consortium, Appili is currently sponsoring advanced-stage clinical trials evaluating an antiviral tablet designed to treat and prevent COVID-19, after obtaining FDA approval to test it last August. The company is also developing a line of anti-infectives, including a broad-spectrum antifungal, a vaccine candidate designed to eliminate a serious bioweapon threat, and two new antibiotic programs. Appili intends to use fresh capital to support these efforts.

“Appili is working on drug development for some of the most pressing health issues facing the world today,” said Armand Balboni, CEO of Appili. “This funding from Lind will help us advance our pipeline to address these important public health threats, as well as provide Appili with greater operational flexibility.”

Viridis Terra obtains $ 3.25 million to develop technology and expand its team

Quebec-based environmental services company Viridis Terra has raised C $ 3.25 million in seed funding to develop its TreesOfLives offering and support projects to restore more degraded land.

The round was supported by a group of angel investors, including lead investor Bruce McKean, Gestion ChaMarin, NEL-i, Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) and Quebec City.

Launched in February, TreesOfLives is an impact investment fund integrated with an artificial intelligence-based platform that helps finance, optimize the management of operations and facilitate the sale of sustainable products from forest landscape restoration projects. . The startup’s offer allows investors to follow the progress of Viridis Terra restoration projects, the return on investment and the impact of their contribution in terms of carbon and biodiversity.

“With TreesOfLives, we can transform a cost of restoration, reforestation and carbon offsetting into an impact investment that generates sustainable returns at all levels: financial, social, environmental and economic,” said Martin Beaudoin-Nadeau, founder by Viridis Terra. Beaudoin-Nadeau called the cycle a “key step in the commercialization and expansion of Viridis Terra’s international operations,” adding that the startup plans to use the capital to add IT, marketing and sales professionals. and further develop its technology.

Viridis Terra, which was founded in 2015, initially focused on the restoration of industrial sites in the mining sector. The company opened a subsidiary in 2019 to diversify its activities and initiate large-scale sustainable forest landscape restoration projects. By the end of next year, Viridis Terra plans to have restored up to 3,000 hectares as part of the first phase of its Peruvian operations, which it plans to use to replicate in other Latin American countries.

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