3 Ways Investors Can Use the Start Alberta Deal Flow Database

From angel investors to venture capitalists, investors are using the Start Alberta database to discover new companies, keep track of businesses they care about and find ideal co-investors. 

With more than 1,500 verified Alberta startups and scaleups in our database, Start Alberta hosts the most current data on Alberta tech businesses and deal flow. 

“We are able to better source and monitor early-stage startups through Start Alberta than other databases, with the added benefit of local market comparisons and curated content. The platform ranges in value from deal flow to financing information to being an on-the-go resource for the tech community,” explains Yasmine Al-Hussein, Investment Associate at Yaletown Partners / Accelerate Fund II & III. 

If you’re an investor who is not yet using Start Alberta, here are 3 practical ways to use the database. 

1. Discover and track promising companies

If you’re an investor with a specific thesis or area of focus, use the database to search for specific types of companies. 

For example, you can narrow down your search by Industry (eg. health, energy, enterprise software), by Sub-industry (eg. medical devices, clean energy, agritech) or by Technologies (eg. AI, IoT, mobile app). You can also filter by keywords (eg. emissions, oncology, delivery).

Say you’re looking for health tech startups that are using AI. Go to the “Startups & Scaleups” tab. Use the Advanced filter and select “health” for Industry and “artificial intelligence” in Technologies. Click apply and review the list. 

You can also take advantage of Dealroom’s predictive algorithms to see their take on promising investment opportunities in Alberta tech.  

In the Start Alberta dashboard, scroll down to the Predictive Signals section to see lists of top-ranked startups, rising stars and fast-growing startups. You can also filter by pre-seed, series A or more, or breakout opportunities. These curated lists refresh daily.

Keep track of the companies you’re interested in by adding them to a saved list. 

Create new lists or add new companies to an existing list. You can choose to make your list private or share it with your team. You can also export a list as an Excel file.

2. Find ideal co-investors for your next round

Look for potential co-investors searching our Alberta Investor database to see who you’d want to go in on for deals. 

From VC firms to angel investors, our database includes more than 500 investors interested in Alberta tech. You can narrow your search by preferred investment stage (eg. Seed, Series A, Series B), portfolio size and industry or technology experience (eg. AI, energy, fintech). 

For example, you might be looking for a seed-stage co-investor in Alberta with experience in clean energy and more than 10 investments in their portfolio. Go to the “Investors” tab in the database and use the “Advanced Filter” to narrow down your search by:

• Stage: seed
• Portfolio size: 11-50, >50
• Industry experience: Clean energy

Explore the latest Alberta tech funding rounds and the active investors backing them. 

In this example, you may be looking to find investors that funded medical devices in Alberta in the last 5 years. Go to the “Funding Rounds” tab and use the ‘Advanced Filter’ to narrow down your search by:

• Sub-industry: medical devices
• Date: 2020-2024

Click apply to view your list. Then click on the investor name to review their profile.

3. Identify investment trends 

See what industries and sub-industries are getting funded right now. 

Use the database’s investment heatmaps to see investments by industry, subindustry and business models over time. 

In this example, we’ll look for the top industries funded in Alberta tech over the past decade. Go to the “Investment Heatmap” tab and adjust the data parameters for 2014 to 2024. See the top funded industries by year and click on the amount to see the underlying funding rounds. 

Find your next deal or co-investor with Start Alberta

Start exploring the investment opportunities available in Alberta tech with Start Alberta. If you haven’t created a free account yet, it only takes a few minutes. 

• Step 1: Go to ecosystem.startalberta.ca and click on the ‘signup’ button in the top right corner.
• Step 2: Enter your business email address and set a password. A verification email will be sent to your registered email address. Open the verification email and click on the link. 
• Step 3: Complete your profile data including social links, location, education and more.

If you have any questions or need help navigating the database, reach out to our team info@startalberta.ca. We’re always happy to help!

And don’t forget to follow Start Alberta on LinkedIn and Instagram as we profile the latest insights and spotlight promising companies in Alberta tech.