Deal Flow Study

Alberta Enterprise Corporation (AEC) periodically produces an Alberta Deal Flow Study. The objective is to provide stakeholders with a shared understanding on the strength and make-up of technology deal flow across sectors and regions in Alberta.
 
Deal flow is the stream of business proposals, pitches and investment offers that Venture Capital, angel and private equity investors identify and engage with on a daily basis. Strong deal flow is an indicator of a thriving ecosystem, strong economy and healthy capital markets.

2023 Alberta Technology Deal Flow Study

Alberta Enterprise Corporation’s 2023 Deal Flow Study uncovered some interesting facts about the makeup, evolution and distribution of technology in the province. While Alberta’s tech sector is still considered in its early stages of development, the data shows it is maturing significantly.

Full 2023 Deal Flow Study

Alberta tech operates across diverse industries

Founders and Employees

Operations

Resources

2023 Deal Flow Study Highlights

The Deal Flow Study provides the leading benchmark for measuring the health, growth and composition of the Alberta technology and innovation sector. The study would not be possible without the collective support and contributions from tech firms and numerous organizations that make up the Alberta ecosystem.

Findings depict a growing ecosystem with companies responsive to the changing times with 69% of surveyed companies developing a software solution, more than any year prior. Furthermore, as Artificial intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) applications become household names, Alberta companies are developing these solutions into their product offerings at a rapid pace, shown by a significant increase in the number of companies integrating these technologies from 36% in 2021, to 46% in 2023.

Alberta continues to raise the bar in terms of female participation as founders and co-founders, with 37% of surveyed companies saying they have one or more female founders, up from 30% in 2021; and well ahead of the global average of 31% as identified in Startup Genomes 2022 survey of nearly 5,500 companies across 67 global ecosystems[2]. It was also found that companies that achieved profitability within three years had a higher incidence of female founders 1.

1 Crunchbase EoY 2019: Funding to Female Founders, Crunchbase, https://about.crunchbase.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Funding-To-Female-Founders_Report.pdf, January 21, 2020.

Among other key findings:

  • 53% of Startups, 79% of Scaleups and 93% of Mature companies generated greater than $1M in revenues in their most recent fiscal year.
  • 62% of companies indicated they have raised funding in Calgary and 33% in Edmonton;
    • 35% have raised in other parts of Canada;
    • Nearly 37% have raised in San Francisco / Silicon Valley or other parts of the USA.
  • 84% of survey respondents identified business-to-business (B2B) as their primary business model.
  • 72% of companies are producing products or services that impact cost savings, and 68% impact business productivity.
  • The average age of founders is 42, and more than 55% of all founders are older than 40.
  • Companies less than 2 years old are 20% more likely to have revenues in 2023 vs 2021, and they are 17% more likely to have moved from validating to scaling, as based on the Startup Commons Development Phases1.

1 Phases were obtained from startup commons; www.startupcommons.org/startup-development-phases.html