This week the Honourable Harjit S. Sajjan, Minister of International Development and Minister responsible for the Pacific Economic Development Agency of Canada, announced a combined $11 million in funding to four companies in British Columbia.
Nearly half the investment will go to Kardium, which was 2021’s medical technology company of the year according to Life Sciences BC, and also where Minister Sajjan made the announcement.
“These investments … will allow these innovative companies to scale up their businesses, providing jobs and helping create a stronger B.C. economy,” stated Sajjan.
The $5 million Business Scale-up and Productivity investment is anticipated to result in the creation of 350 new jobs from the Burnaby-based company, which was founded in 2007. Kardium received more than $100 million in funding last year from private investors.
“We plan to grow our team to manufacture the Globe Systems that will be used in our pivotal clinical study and worldwide commercial launch,” said Kevin Chaplin, CEO of Kardium. The Globe System is an all-in-one solution for treating atrial fibrillation, affecting more than 59 million people worldwide and 200,000 in Canada.
Another $5 million will go to North Vancouver’s HTEC, which builds and operates hydrogen fuel supply solutions to support the deployment of hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles. HTEC plans to build a green hydrogen production plant in Burnaby, creating 60 new roles.
“This green-hydrogen production facility will enable the deployment of more than 2,000 hydrogen electric cars in BC and will lead to more than 70,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions reduction over a ten-year period,” said Colin Armstrong, President of HTEC. His company raised over $200 million last year.
Kobalt Security, which provides cyber security programs for small and medium enterprises, is receiving $530,000.
After raising a seed round in 2019 with capital from Boris Wertz’ Version One Ventures, Kobalt became a BC Startup to Watch in 2020 and was officially ready to rocket by 2021. The Vancouver company expects to create 60 jobs through an ambitious expansion plan.
And $650,000 will go to Vancouver’s Symvivo Corporation, a clinical-stage biotechnology company. With the BSP funding, the company says it will purchase and install new equipment, acquire laboratory materials, and hire 20 additional staff to expand in-house bio-manufacturing capacity at its current facility in Burnaby.
