AVAC’s new IVAC initiative invests $5.7M in Alberta High-Tech companies

I sat beside Jacques LaPointe last week at a CCAT luncheon in Calgary … Jacques is a Senior Investment Manager at AVAC and we quickly got to talking about the high-tech community in Alberta. I had heard of AVAC before; essentially investing in “agrivalue” in Alberta. In the last year or so, however, they’ve expanded their mandate to provide investment and other assistance to Alberta business in the ICT, life sciences and other industrial technology sectors. AVAC is a private, not-for-profit agency … which seems like an oxymoron at first blush. However, the way it works is that it receives funding from the Alberta government, and then invests in private organizations, who can be expected to match the funding for as little as dollar-for-dollar (and also repay funds dispersed). As far as I can tell, that’s an interest-free loan, and it’s a great alternate source of funding that should be investigated by high-tech companies in Alberta. The IVAC initiative has two parts, the $10M Capacity Builder Program and the $20M Early Stage Venture Fund. Funds are dispersed based on companies achieving important milestones and business hurdles. IVAC has announced $5.675M of investment within the last month or so going to the following companies: Antibe Therapeutics Inc., Calgary. A development stage pharmaceutical company developing novel drugs for the treatment of Inflammatory Bowel Disease and analgesics with reduced gastrointestinal side effects. Investment: $300,000 Calgary Scientific Inc., Calgary. An early commercial stage diagnostic imaging company with advanced 3-D imaging software for diagnosis and treatment planning. Investment: $1,000,000 DataGardens Inc, Edmonton. An early stage pioneer in wide area virtual resource sharing for datacenters within the multiple offices or branch locations. Investment: $1,000,000 Intelliview Technologies Inc., Calgary. An emerging video analytics software company focusing on the security industry. Investment: $1,000,000 SciMed Technologies Inc., Edmonton. An early commercial stage analytical company launching easy-to-use kits for analyzing vitamin A & D levels in milk. Investment: $375,000 Userful Corp., Calgary. A green computing company that enables up to ten people to share the resources of a single computer. Investment: $1,000,000 Aksys Networks, Calgary. An innovative office telephone system using VOIP that allows small business to have a virtual (and easily configureable) internet PBX vs. the old school hardware big panel in the back room. Investment: $1,000,000 Contact Jacques LaPointe at jlapointe@avacltd.com. P.S. On a related marketing note for companies wishing to have a better internet presence … make sure you have a standalone corporate logo / image somewhere on your site so bloggers like us can link to it easily and display it in our posts (see above!)