10 Vancouver companies that should have made the 'LinkedIn Top Startups 2018' list
Earlier this month, LinkedIn published their LinkedIn Top Startups List for Canada. Many of us on the West Coast were curious to find not a single company from our region represented — specifically, those of us in Vancouver.
Let’s break down the list of companies that made the list, geographically:
- Eastern Canada: 100%
- Ontario: 84%
- Toronto: 72%
- Montreal: 16%
Now don’t get me wrong, there were some amazing companies on that list. Many of which I had never heard of and was happy to discover (shout out to Dialogue for identifying a key pain in our health care system and providing an easy to use solution).
With that said, I rounded up a list of over 40 prospective companies, headquartered in Vancouver, for the LinkedIn Top Startups 2018 list. I narrowed the list down for eligible contenders using LinkedIn’s own criteria:
To be eligible, companies must be independent and privately held, have 50 or more employees, be 7 years old or younger and be headquartered in the country on whose list they appear. We exclude all staffing firms, think tanks, nonprofits, accelerators and government-owned entities.
This brought 40 down to 12 and I still had to dig a bit deeper to meet more of the criteria. However, I made a decision to stop at the point of “eligibility” and challenge LinkedIn to re-run the analysis against the companies I propose and to be transparent as to where they fell short or amend the list.
Here is a list of 10 companies, headquartered in Vancouver, that have been identified as top contenders for the “LinkedIn Top Startups 2018: The 25 most sought-after startups in Canada”( list in alphabetical order).
Archiact – Computer games
Archiact is a premium virtual and augmented reality studio. They are committed to creating immersive, entertaining, and memorable experiences that tap the full potential of VR & AR. Outside of their Vancouver headquarters, Archiact has an additional office located in Shanghai.
Founded: 2013
Headcount:88
Article – Furniture
Article delivers original modern furniture, with outstanding attention to detail, at fair prices. Article was recently named number one on the Growth 500 Canada’s Fastest Growing Companies list and expects to double its sales this year, to $200 million.
Founded: 2011
Headcount:129
Apply Digital – Internet
Apply is a Digital Product Studio. They partner with the world’s greatest companies to create smart software-enabled products and services that provide utility to end users. Apply has worked with notable companies such as Nike, Disney, Pantone, and Dell EMC.
Founded: 2016
Headcount: 53
Bench – Accounting
Bench is the largest bookkeeping service in America for small businesses. They organize the financials of small businesses, independent contractors, and entrepreneurs. Bench has raised $53M to date and is hiring 100 more people to add to its already impressive headcount.
Founded: 2012
Headcount:256
Finn AI – Computer software
Finn AI is an award-winning, AI-powered virtual assistant built for personal banking and finance. Recently, Finn AI announced a strategic collaboration with Visa Canada to enable new capabilities in conversational banking chatbots and artificial intelligence (AI), powered by the Visa Developer Platform.
Founded: 2014
Headcount:58
IT Glue – Computer software
IT Glue is a documentation platform that allows for efficient storage and retrieval of all the documentation you need to help your MSP run better. With offices in Canada and England, IT Glue is used by over 4000 MSPs in 30 countries and has won over 30 productivity and innovation awards since 2016.
Founded: 2013
Headcount:101
Procurify – Computer software
Procurify is a spend management software that empowers your team to make better more informed decisions when it comes to company spending. Their mission is to give organizations the tools to build proactive spend cultures. Procurify has raised just over 12M to date.
Founded: 2012
Headcount:94
RED Academy – Educational institution
RED Academy is a leading-edge technology school for the designers, creators, developers, and digital marketers of tomorrow. RED Academy has three global campuses, Vancouver, Toronto and London, and 1,368 alumni listed on LinkedIn.
Founded: 2015
Headcount:140
Thinkific – Information technology and services
Thinkific is a software platform that enables entrepreneurs to create, market, sell, and deliver their own online courses. Thinkific has 164 countries represented on their platform and is tipping the scale in the direction of 55% representation in female leadership.
Founded: 2012
Headcount:73
Trulioo – Internet
Trulioo offers the most robust and comprehensive global identity verification solution in the market. Trulioo enables websites and mobile applications to verify 4 billion people in over 60 countries, validate over 2 billion cyber identities, and perform frictionless, on-demand identity verification.
Founded: 2011
Headcount:95
That does it for the top 10 from my mini-analysis of companies headquartered in Vancouver. These companies may have not made LinkedIn’s list, but I am very proud to have them on mine.
I did my best to dig up eligible Vancouver companies with the help of as many people as I could find to contribute to my list. If you feel I’ve missed an eligible company, please send it my way. I’d love to do a follow-up list to get this number up to 25 — I think we can do it!
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