BC Business
The performance tech startup's funding round was oversubscribed.
It wasn’t long ago that it was generally accepted that Josh Blair was going to eventually take over the reins of the Telus kingdom from longtime CEO Darren Entwistle. Instead, the former Telus group president left in December 2019 after almost 25 years.
It was close to a year later that he, along with Opher Brayer and Maya Liberman, officially launched his new venture, Impro.AI. Going headfirst into a startup can be risky, especially when you’re leaving a cushy job at one of the province’s biggest companies.
But so far, it seems to be paying off for Blair and Impro.AI. The team announced today at Collision in Toronto that it has raised CAD $2.25 million in seed funding for its one-on-one coaching platform.
READ MORE: The 2019 Top 100 All-Stars: Telus Corp.
The round was led by VC firms Panache Ventures, Good New Ventures and EEI, and was supported by a handful of angel investors, including a ton of notable B.C. names, like Esplanade Ventures chairman Sheldon Elman and Jason Smith, CEO of Klue.
“The successful and full closing of our seed round, in a challenging fundraising environment, is a testament to the commercial traction that our Impro team has achieved to date as well as our compelling vision for the future,” said Blair in a release.
Added Patrick Lor, managing partner at Panache Ventures: “We have been very impressed by the level of professional and personal growth that managers and employees experience through the Impro platform. They see rapid improvements via just a few minutes of daily interaction with Impro, and companies benefit from increased overall team engagement and performance.”
The Impro team pledges to use the funds to expand its global customer base and amplify R&D.
See the full release here.