In the last three months, Vancouver’s Clio, Montreal’s Element AI, and Quebec City’s Coveo have raised over US$500 million combined.
This week Toronto got into the action.
1Password has raised a $200 million Series A funding round led by Accel that also included Slack Fund, WndrCo and Atlassian founders Scott Farquhar and Mike Cannon-Brookes.
This is the first external round of financing for the under-the-radar, bootstrapped company that you most likely didn’t know was Canadian.
1Password started in Toronto in 2005 and was born out of a recognized need – the struggle of keeping up with passwords.
Unlike other tech startups, 1Password didn’t worry about impressing early employees with an amazing office. They did exactly the opposite and encouraged employees to work remotely, allowing them to choose the location, environment, schedule, and approach that works best.
While this flexible work environment is becoming more and more common, 1Password was a trailblazer.
The 174-person totally-remote company has doubled its headcount over the past 18 months and conducts its annual company retreat on a cruise. They may need to find a bigger boat.