Metiquity was formed to unlock growth potential for innovative founders on the cusp of commercialization and pioneering investors who invest capital alongside them. But for us, unlocking growth potential goes beyond money and creating wealth for founders and investors.

As Canadian early-stage investors, we have a responsibility – through our investment activity – to improve to our
communities:

• Increasing societal wealth through job creation and economic growth
• Advancing societal well-being by encouraging sustainable development
• Encouraging the investment of local innovation capital is essential to the future of our communities

We have a responsibility to act as teachers and coaches to founders and investors:

• Education and knowledge bring empowerment and growth to investors and business people
• More informed investors are much more trusting and more confident in making investments
• Knowledgeable and confident founders and investors are critical to the investment of local innovation capital

Vision

Metiquity’s vision is to become Western Canada’s leading early-stage growth capital investor and partner of choice for ambitious entrepreneurs striving to reach their full potential.

Mission

To provide transformative capital and strategic counsel to early-stage Canadian businesses while fostering community innovation and earning above-market investment returns.

We are looking for accredited investors and welcome you to contact us to explore the fit!

It’s an exciting time for a fund, firm, current investors, companies and potential investors.

Please contact us here

Our region is prime for growth and success; it is the entrepreneurial founders and investors — together — who will achieve incredible things.

… there is no secret sauce.

We don’t keep insider secrets about our investment strategy or reactively invest in trends. Those invested in our fund can rely on tried and true investment strategies and diversification of portfolio methodology.

It’s part of our mission to transparently educate our investors and share information, helping investors become more confident and empowered so that they can be the catalysts to confidently continue investing in the region for years to come.

We aim to be lead investors, and with our approach, start-ups are better positioned to gain additional capital. A steady hand and vision, managing private funds with care while unlocking the potential for entrepreneurs on the cusp of world-changing technology breakthroughs and the pioneering investors who invest alongside them through:

• Critical pre-revenue funding
• Investment guidance
• Sophisticated, data-driven, and meticulous approach to portfolio building and management
• Offering a level of technological expertise and business strategy that most private firms do not when it comes to advising founders and portfolio companies

We’re humans, not sharks

We arrive with transparency and consistency in every interaction and refuse to distinguish how we treat investors and founders regardless of their stage of growth. We are not elitist; we put people first and respect at the helm because we know that when we work together and strategize long-term, amazing things can and will be accomplished.

Our founders and directors, the Board as well as our advisors support our portfolio founders in their full strategic growth, through mentorship and advisory, sitting on their boards, advising on deal structuring and helping our companies scale to increased investment rounds.

Simply put, we don’t fund and run. Financial support is not the only important bucket of capital investors bring to the table. Sharing our experience is an expectation we have for ourselves, our founders’ value, and our investors can trust.

Our region is prime for growth and success; it is the entrepreneurial founders and investors — together — who will achieve incredible things.

More than just investors: we strategize with enterprises to gain the right mix of private investors and growth guidance.

Metiquity’s investment process relies on a professional, meticulous level of due diligence. This is rooted in our years of investment experience and founding director Bryan Slauko’s training as a CFA charter holder / Chartered Financial Analyst (The CFA charter is widely considered to be the gold standard in the field of investment analysis). This process allows us to effectively identify, evaluate, measure and mitigate risk factors across a business, team and industry.

We regularly use our investment analysis to attract and secure additional investors into the ecosystem and the portfolio companies Metiquity invests in. In sharing our knowledge, we are an important ecosystem partner and driver for venture capital and other investors who are eager to invest in the tech sector.

This commitment means better outcomes for everyone, including founders, investors, and those who work and live in the community.

Metiquity adheres to the CFA Institute’s Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct. The Code of Ethics maintains that we must:

• Place the integrity of the profession and the interests of clients above our own interests
• Act with integrity, competence, and respect
• Maintain and develop our professional competence

Review the full Code of Ethics and Standard of Professional Conduct.

Metiquity also recognizes the Kauffman Fellows Stewardship Pledge for the Innovation Investor. This pledge provides further governance over Metiquity’s activities and our responsibilities to our investors and community members.

In furtherance of our purpose to unlock capital and growth potential, Metiquity is committed to:

• Providing the high level of transparency required to help educate and build knowledge for our founders and investors.
• Increasing accessibility to capital by communicating in a way that speaks the language founders and investors are familiar with.
• Committing to a highly professional investment approach where the best interests of investors are always placed first.
• Always working hard to earn and maintain the trust of our stakeholders.

Our commitment to our companies, investors and community is also captured in our recognition of the Kauffman Fellows Stewardship Pledge for the Innovation Investor.

Companies and founders who are rapidly decreasing technology costs while combining technologies, such as:

• Software
• Artificial Intelligence (AI)
• Big Data and Analytics
• Cloud Computing and the Internet of Things
• Machine Learning
• Environmental tech
• Financial technology (Fintech)

Entrepreneurs and startups who are disrupting existing business and operating models with the ideas and technological advances
that provide a wide range of integral industries with opportunity for significant value creation and enable unprecedented access to
global markets.

Emerging markets are those technology ecosystems that are less developed compared to more mature markets such as Toronto, Waterloo, New York and Silicon Valley. They have less companies, a smaller number of high profile exits, and an investment community that is less experienced with investing in technology. But they have lots of fundamentals in place and are showing positive signs of growth and momentum. We believe these markets present strong investment opportunities at very reasonable valuations, and therefore the potential for strong investment returns.

While we invest in the above, Metiquity is also supporting new investors and the experienced Limited Partners (LPs) who are part of
the Metiquity fund — private investors who are equally eager to fuel the region’s emerging market tech sector.

Tech and “startup” investment shouldn’t be synonymous with extreme risk or lack of governance. 

We’ve all heard the stories of Silicon Valley horror stories such as those of Theranos, WeWork and Diliveroo. Venture capital and tech investing can feel simply not worth the squeeze for those not embedded in the sector. It’s these nightmare stories that dissuade potential investors and family firms from wading into so-called angel investment.  

Metiquity firmly believes that there is not enough focus on good governance across the asset class. The Prairies and Western Canada are solid emerging markets, and our narrative and story are and should be told differently and accurately. 

Disruption, innovation, and tech-founder-friendly investment should not be words synonymous with emotional-based investment or gut instinct choices. 

The regional ecosystem needs a sustainable foundation of investment funds delivered through: 

• proper valuation
• effective deal structuring
• proper foundational documents including everything from shareholder agreements to employment agreements
• Focus on long-term business models that can lead to profitable investment

Poor governance also increases the chances that social and environmental risks will be poorly managed. We follow the CFA Institutes’ code of ethics and standards of professional conduct for investment funds. Screening and evaluation include a combination of approval steps and processes from initial investment screen, and due diligence assessment to closing and portfolio agreement. 

Metiquity vets our potential companies based on their technology focus, geographic focus, development structure, fit in the sector, management and founder team track record and experience level in the field and business and their own personal and economic investment in their company. 

We are looking for founders with partnership mindsets and strategic business and exit strategies. We strive to help businesses focused on financing rounds, monetization of effective go-to-market strategies, and development of market growth. 

Ultimately, our goal is to support a diverse portfolio of founders and companies. We maintain a healthy collaboration and transparent information sharing with the region’s technology and innovation sector. Nurturing relationships with accelerators, government and other VC groups, Limited Partner organizations and ecosystem partners.  

While traditional angel investment often means taking major risks on smaller portfolios or single startups at a time; Metiquity focuses on building a solid and diverse portfolio, while supporting companies and investors through the same due-diligence processes that topnotch professional investment firms follow. 

We are on a mission to unlock growth potential for budding entrepreneurs, tech companies and the next generation of entrepreneurs who are changing society for the better while solving industry challenges with sought-after tech innovations in the areas of digital innovation. Commitment to our founders and investors is our number one priority. We are focused on fundamentals (not hype), we are in it for the long haul, and we don’t hope for unicorns to appear magically. 

This is an investment in companies and founders that are either pre-revenue but have a minimum viable product built, or are in the market with their product but still under the million-dollar revenue stage. They are looking to raise $250,000 to $1 million in investment.

All private investment comes with risk. Where Metiquity differs, is in how we build our portfolio. We know how critical it is to build a large, diversified and  strategic pool of portfolio companies, and to be there to help founders avoid mistakes. 

There’s a difference between low startup cost and low experience or potential return. Technology has changed the way startups are getting to the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) stage. 

The founders Metiquity invests in are vetted on experience, amongst other measurable benchmarks. They are not part of the portfolio unless they have done the work on business strategy and foundational growth. 

Today, the average startup must raise about $250,000 to $750,000 to launch with a prototype or MVP and demonstrate traction. This is in stark comparison to even a decade ago when companies were looking to raise at $5 million to launch. 

Technology, cloud computing and web services have vastly changed the way recently-founded businesses are able to begin.

According to sources such as StartAlberta & Alberta Enterprise Corporation’s 2021 Alberta Technology Deal Flow Study:

• There are upwards of 2,000 verified technology companies in Alberta
• 56% of all technology companies in Alberta are identified as seed stage (less than 10 employees and having raised less than $1 million)
• This equates to more than 1,000 Alberta technology companies. These companies are critical to the future success of our economy as well as job and wealth creation in the province

Yet these companies and founders are struggling to access the capital they need when they need it the most.

• 48% of companies have between $0 and $500,000 in revenue
• 52% of companies have raised less than $1 million in funding to date and are seeking funding
• 83% of companies founded in 2021 indicate lack of access to capital as their biggest challenge
• These companies represent at least 50% of the entire Alberta ecosystem
• They desperately need access to $50,000 to $250,000 in “Angel” rounds
• and they are starving for access to $250,000 to $1 million pre-seed rounds to refine their product, launch sales and take advantage of demand in their markets

Metiquity’s home province has a goal for our technology sector to generate $5 billion more in annual revenue by 2030 through things such as expanding the talent pool, attracting more capital, commercialization support and promoting us as a tech destination for the rest of the world to invest in. 

To accomplish these goals, the Province has put a vast amount of resources and supports in place to support founders along their journey. This has changed significantly over even just the last 5 years. This provides an additional layer of risk mitigation.

The combination of vastly reduced startup costs and significantly higher founder support systems has dramatically shifted the risk profile of the emerging tech ecosystems targeted by Metiquity or investment today.

Emerging market growth. The Prairies are considered emerging technology markets within Canada. This is an amazing time and opportunity for investors and founders alike to invest while valuations are very favorable. 

We are committed to working with our new technology and digital disrupting entrepreneurs and founders. Startups, scaleups and companies that show high potential for growth. And we are active investors, meaning we don’t fund and run. Metiquity’s founding directors and founding board members are proud Western Canadians who make our lives in this region. We are excited about the growth potential for our community, founders, investors and all who we impact.

We Invest in people, not transactions.  

Metiquity forms a partnership with those we believe in. Our primary objective is to add value. When considering any seed capital, we ask ourselves, “How can our investment help change the world?” Helping founders make this mission real is about much more than just the dollars. 

We put mentoring where the fund money is, as we firmly believe in the active investing model — one in which we support and guide start-ups as they best leverage their new funding to achieve goals that will solve pain points for industry, communities and everyone. 

Simply put, we’re people-centric. We fuel the emerging market and that means our team must emerge from the corner office and into the community.

It’s people who leverage modern technology to achieve our most pressing human needs as a society. Money and data are only tools in our journey to transform industries — and the world — by empowering the mission-driven startups and founders poised to shake things up.

Our funds go to supporting portfolio companies focused on capital efficiency, not vanity metrics or office space. We are in the field and meeting with our founders and investors to understand their challenges and successes and help fuel positive results. 

Diversification of a portfolio is as important as diversification of people. 

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and Diversity are part of our values. 

Unlocking growth potential goes beyond money and creating wealth for founders and investors. We have a responsibility — through our investment activity — to improve our communities via fostering innovation, creating jobs and equitable wealth and working towards vibrant and evolving Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) practices. 

Metiquity benchmark our practices by following the UN’s sustainable development goals and the CFA’s EGS guidelines.

We are proud to say out of our first companies, half are either founded or co-founded by women. Metiquity was formed to unlock growth potential for innovative founders on the cusp of commercialization and pioneering investors who invest capital alongside them. This means actively seeking out the most diverse teams, founders and ideas possible – this is part of good governance, and successful portfolio building. 

It’s also the right thing to do and important for our region to put ESG, as well as diverse founders and teams, first. More diverse teams, ecosystems and business models equal more diverse perspectives and ideas at the table and ultimately better innovations, as well as bottom-line results across the board.