BC Business
Here are the companies that have our attention this week.
Optimi Health Corp.‘s Princeton facility
We take a sometimes weekly and always tongue-in-cheek look at some B.C. companies making noise with big-money raises. Don’t take this too seriously. Unless you make money off it—then we want some.
Optimi Health Corp. hit the Canadian Stock Exchange today with an oversubscribed $20.7-million initial public offering. The Princeton-based company, founded by a group of high-school friends, hopes to become Canada’s first large-scale cultivator of psychedelic mushrooms. As your uncle has told you many times, microdosing is becoming a thing.
Optimi has some heavy hitters in its midst. Kit + Ace co-founder J.J. Wilson is chair of the board, and you may have heard of his dad, Chip, who’s serving as an adviser.
Optimi opened at 80 cents a share on the CSX and more or less held steady there. Is it tempting to make “Well, I guess that explains the whole erections thing ” jokes? Yes, yes it is.
It’s also tempting to laugh at the irony of the guy telling people to get off his lawn now investing in magic mushrooms. I mean, has there even been a more Vancouver storyline than that?
But if the Wilsons can do for ‘shrooms what they did for athleisure, you might want to get in on the fun. Also, if that happens, Vancouver might get a lot more fun, too.
One of dating site Plenty of Fish’s first employees, Kim Kaplan, has created Snack, an app dubbed as a cross between Tinder and TikTok.
If you weren’t already sure that Gen Z is taking over the world, Snack’s US$3.5-million raise, led by Kindred Ventures and Coelius Capital, should more or less confirm that.
So yeah, no more conflating your dating profile with high-angle shots and group pictures. Just you on video. That sound you hear is millions of people sighing in relief that they aren’t single.
Last but literally not least, Vancouver-based Fraction Technologies raised a massive $289 million for its mortgage platform, which lets homeowners to unlock up to $1.5 million in equity by giving over a percentage of their property’s appreciation while staying put.
The company’s website features shots of older couples looking at their options and being enticed by smart young people, and that’s just good marketing.
Instead of complaining about not owning a home, millennial founders Josh Baker and Hayden James decided they would try to get in on other people’s.
And hey, that’s much less devious than becoming friends with your elderly neighbour so you can be named on the deed for that beautiful colonial.
Have a raise we should cover? Email ncaddell@canadawide.com