The 2017 Fundica Roadshow took the West Coast of Canada in one neat sweep! They kicked off the Roadshow with the Vancouver event presented by Elevator Ventures at the SFU Harbour Centre on April 28. Only a few days later on May 2, they hosted the Victoria Roadshow at VIATEC and finished off with Calgary at The Commons on May 4.

Each event reflected the vibrant Canadian startup ecosystem with eager pitchers and attendees. New ideas were sparked and great connections were made throughout each city stop. 

Here are a few highlights that transpired across all the events:

· The Fundica Roadshow went viral in Calgary, trending with the brand hashtag #fundicaroadshow

· Calgary presented an all-female Fireside Chat about the city’s current startup ecosystem

· Steve Wandler presented an exceptional talk about “Getting to Series A” in Victoria 

· Rebecca Kirstein of Raise a Dream provided key advice for young entrepreneurs during her intimate interview (look forward to the highlights on social media!)

· CANARIE’s representative, Randy Jones, captivated the crowd with his talk in Vancouver

· The Vancouver audience posed many interesting questions during Sunny Handa’s (Blakes) “Legal Tips for Tech Startups”

As for the pitching startups, each city brought on a wave of eloquent pitches and innovative ideas. Although the competition was tough, one clear winner took home the trophy for each stop.

The startups were judged by a panel composed of angels, VCs, banks and government organizations from First Stone Venture Partners, Vantec, VanFounders, BDC, 500 Startups Canada, Mad Ventures, FrontFundr, Spring, NACO, Escape Code Ventures, Community Micro Lending, Espresso Capital, Mitacs, Northmark Ventures, and others. The pitching startups were graded based on market potential, solution, team, pitch and readiness for the $1,000,000 FSVP Investment Award.  

In addition to an opportunity to receive the $1,000,000 Investment Award, each Fundica Roadshow city stop winner receives 3 months of free office space at WeWork, a cloud hosting package from CANARIE and free accounting services from Intuit QuickBooks. 

The Fundica Roadshow city stop winners were (drum roll, please) as follows: thisopenspace in Vancouver, Certn in Victoria and Nobal Technologies in Calgary.

Join the Roadshow for their last two stops in Toronto at DMZ on May 24 and Montreal at Sid Lee on June 2.