City invests in fund designed to help accelerate growth of tech and innovation sector

Opportunity Calgary is investing in Thin Air Labs Fund 1 to accelerate the growth of the local tech and innovation sector.

The City of Calgary's Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund (OCIF) is investing $4M into Thin Air Labs Fund 1. 

Thin Air Labs Fund I has already raised nearly $20M, and aims to raise $100M.

In an article in the online magazine Betakit, which covers Canadian startups and innovation, Thin Air managing partner James Lochrie told reporter Megan Simpson that Alberta's innovation economy is surging.

 “It’s just become obvious now [to invest in Alberta tech], whereas five years ago, this was not an obvious play,” Lochrie said. “But today it is.”

According to Betakit, Alberta startups have raised $205.6 million in the first quarter of 2022, a 212 per cent increase from the last quarter of 2021 and 26 per cent increase over 2021.

“Over the past number of years, there has been growing momentum in the Calgary ecosystem related to seed funding and it continues to accelerate,” Lochrie said. “As those companies are maturing, we are starting to see a number of them hit scale and raise more significant investment rounds.”

The city's involvement is part of its strategy to diversify the economy. About $63 million has been allocated to projects to date, and has brought in hundreds of millions of dollars in investment commitments.