BC Business
ePACT Network Ltd. | BCBusiness
Another GrowLab grad is seeing some serious success fresh out of the program.
ePact, an online emergency preparedness startup, is one of the most recent grads from the Winter 2012 cohort of GrowLab’s accelerator program. Founded in the wake of the Japan earthquake and tsunami in 2011, the North Vancouver startup gives schools and businesses a repository for emergency contact information. The site has attracted interest in the U.S. and Canada from school boards, travel companies, insurance companies and care homes. Founders Christine Sommers and Kirsten Kopang Telford started with $825,000 in seed funding, then received $150,000 from BDC Venture Capital in February. Sommers and Kopang Telford hope to raise a total of $3-4 million in Series A funding through the spring. The site, which allows schools, daycares and workplaces to store emergency contact lists digitally, is currently in closed beta testing. “We’re pushing to have the system open before the summer, as we believe September 2013 is going to be a key month for new users,” says Sommers. ePACT was also selected in early March for a slot in the federal government’s Canadian Technology Accelerator program. ePACT will get office space and gain access to resources and mentors in San Francisco as part of the Canadian Trade Commission’s annual initiative to help Canadian startups grow in Silicon Valley.