Good News Ventures LLC
At Good News Ventures, we invest in early stage technology companies founded by true grit entrepreneurs. We back passionate and determined founders as they develop their impressive ideas into prominent businesses. We admire those who embrace the risk and uncertainty and aren’t afraid to break with convention.
We invest in all sectors including AI, IoT, big data, B2B, cloud/SaaS, mobile, marketplaces, finance, healthcare, applications, infrastructure, networking, security, space technology, storage.
Our partners provide significant value in strategic advice and networking. We have put together exceptional roster of advisors who have various background and can help entrepreneurs take ideas from a concept to a business through mentorships and guidance.
We focus on providing exceptional value for the founders and remarkable returns for investors. We evaluate risk vs rewards and ensure potential returns are in line with our investment philosophy.
The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark—Michelangelo
45 past transactions
CoinChange
Seed Round in 2021
Coinchange is an innovative financial services company helping people and companies navigate the new digital asset economy. It offer secure transactions, streamlined verification, fast settlement, and no deposit, withdraw and other annoying fees.
FleetOps
Seed Round in 2016
FleetOps develops an application, which helps to connect freight from brokers and shippers. The company provides tailored analytics and KPI's specific to carrier trucking operations. FleetOps was founded in 2014 and is based in Toronto, Canada.
Dashlabs.ai
Seed Round in 2021
Dashlabs.ai accelerates access to healthcare by providing DIY lab software that automates tests and simplifies lab management processes.
Via Delivery
Seed Round in 2022
Via.Delivery is a platform to make offline retail pick points for eCommerce using logistics, warehouses, and personnel of retail. The company helps eCommerce stores solve their last-mile solution through retail chains. It organizes the delivery process from online sellers to offline chains of stores, increasing clients' traffic for retailer partners, and making the collection process easier for the final customer.
Stayflexi Inc
Seed Round in 2021
Stayflexi Inc. is the world's first flexible hospitality company based out of Silicon Valley, California. Our unique model, Flexible Slot based bookings provides WIN WIN for hotel bookers and hoteliers. We provide both B2C and B2B solutions in hospitality space. On our B2C space, we offer flexible bookings portal and biddings on last minute hotel rooms for great discounts. On our B2B space, we provide a disruptive All-In-One SaaS platform for Hotels and BnBs. A fully managed cloud with add-ons to capture the demand around Flexible Stays and drive direct customer conversions by offering not just a room but also cross sell value added services directly through the platform.
More about our business segment offerings: business.stayflexi.com
Stayflexi is now officially advised by US federal and California State initiative Tech Futures Group. https://www.techfuturesgroup.org/client-profiles/2020/1/6/stayflexi
Stayflexi partners with NotOnMap on joint initiative called NotOnMart. A portal that connects Rural India to end consumers on Responsible Travel and e-Commerce objectives.
Rally
Equity Crowdfunding in 2019
Rally is a web app where users can manage their contracts and company’s legal documents in a frictionless manner and entirely on the cloud.
Hockeystick.co Inc.
Venture Round in 2018
Smart companies understand that investors want to know what's going on in your business. It's a key part of the venture investing model and the best investors are expecting more data and more discipline around sharing it.
But it's not all about them. You benefit when your investors (and advisors) are better informed. It lets them jump in and help, whether it's opening that door or leading the next financing round.
Quantum bridge technologies
Pre Seed Round in 2021
QBT is building the next generation of the internet by overlaying their proprietary software and quantum repeater hardware in order to allow quantum communication between any two parties around the globe.
FleetOps
Seed Round in 2016
FleetOps develops an application, which helps to connect freight from brokers and shippers. The company provides tailored analytics and KPI's specific to carrier trucking operations. FleetOps was founded in 2014 and is based in Toronto, Canada.
Stayflexi Inc
Seed Round in 2021
Stayflexi Inc. is the world's first flexible hospitality company based out of Silicon Valley, California. Our unique model, Flexible Slot based bookings provides WIN WIN for hotel bookers and hoteliers. We provide both B2C and B2B solutions in hospitality space. On our B2C space, we offer flexible bookings portal and biddings on last minute hotel rooms for great discounts. On our B2B space, we provide a disruptive All-In-One SaaS platform for Hotels and BnBs. A fully managed cloud with add-ons to capture the demand around Flexible Stays and drive direct customer conversions by offering not just a room but also cross sell value added services directly through the platform.
More about our business segment offerings: business.stayflexi.com
Stayflexi is now officially advised by US federal and California State initiative Tech Futures Group. https://www.techfuturesgroup.org/client-profiles/2020/1/6/stayflexi
Stayflexi partners with NotOnMap on joint initiative called NotOnMart. A portal that connects Rural India to end consumers on Responsible Travel and e-Commerce objectives.
Hockeystick.co Inc.
Venture Round in 2018
Smart companies understand that investors want to know what's going on in your business. It's a key part of the venture investing model and the best investors are expecting more data and more discipline around sharing it.
But it's not all about them. You benefit when your investors (and advisors) are better informed. It lets them jump in and help, whether it's opening that door or leading the next financing round.
Voiceflow
Funding Round in 2018
Voiceflow Inc. develops a platform that allows content owners/creators to create and monetize voice content. The company focuses on helping users to design, prototype, create, and distribute voice applications for smart speakers’ content (Alexa, Google Assistant, etc.). Voiceflow Inc. was formerly known as Storyflow, Inc. and changed its name to Voiceflow Inc. in November 2018. The company was incorporated in 2018 and is based in Toronto, Canada.
DarwinAI
Convertible Note in 2019
DarwinAI is the next evolution in A.I. development. Based on distinguished scholarship by an award-winning team led by a Canada Research Chair in A.I., DarwinAI takes the guesswork out of building better A.I.
Through our patented Generative Synthesis™ A.I.-building A.I., DarwinAI enables A.I. to work in the real world by making deep learning faster, portable, scalable, and understandable.
Making A.I. work for anyone, anywhere, anytime.
Funnelytics
Seed Round in 2020
Funnelytics Inc. develops a funnel mapping and analytics tool for marketers. The company’s software is used to design, track, and analyze marketing funnels. Funnelytics Inc. was founded in 2017 and is based in Toronto, Canada.
Datafold
Seed Round in 2020
Datafold builds tools for automating analytical data quality management. It helps companies extract more value from their analytical data by automating Data Engineering workflows like data quality monitoring. It also simplifies data QA by enabling instant table comparison and profiling.
paid
Convertible Note in 2018
Learn more about #paid’s creator media platform at www.hashtagpaid.com/product
Rallynow
Venture Round in 2019
Rally is a web app where users can manage their contracts and company’s legal documents in a frictionless manner and entirely on the cloud. Rally gives its users an extensive library of contract and corporate templates and provides an innovative customization process that makes generating documents easier than ever. On Rally you create, customize, and collaborate with your team on documents, as well as negotiate your deals with counterparties before e-signing them and storing them in an active repository that tracks important actions and obligations from both parties.
Stay22
Seed Round in 2019
Over half the total spend on hotels and short-term rentals – $295B each year – comes from event accommodations for conferences, concerts, festivals, and sporting events. This is an incredibly underserved market. Event organizers typically view attendee accommodations as a non-revenue-producing activity and spend countless hours reserving blocks of rooms for $0 in return. Stay22 turns this into a HUGE new source of revenue for the event organizers who partner with us
Zoom.ai
Seed Round in 2018
Zoom.ai Inc. develops an artificial intelligence based automated virtual assistant. The software ties into a user’s data, learns the user’s preferences, and assists with meeting scheduling and briefings, warm introductions, reminders, unified search, building corporate FAQ , and logistics scheduling. The product respond to users through messaging platforms, such as slack, skype, facebook messenger, google hangouts, sms/text, and group me. The company was founded in 2016 and is based in Toronto, Canada.
ACTO
Seed Round in 2018
ACTO is an omnichannel education and engagement platform for life sciences companies. They use AI-powered mobile experiences and agency partnerships to educate and engage field reps, physicians and patients, while giving senior commercial and clinical leaders real-time insights.
ACTO is a one-stop-shop sales, marketing, and training platform designed to help life sciences companies effectively communicate their clinical evidence story, increase sales, and gather field intelligence.
Battlesnake
Pre Seed Round in 2020
Battlesnake is a platform that allows people who wanted to know and try programming in a fun way.
Battlesnake is used to learn new technologies, improve their skills, and have fun with friends and colleagues.
iRestify
Seed Round in 2018
iRestify Inc. provides cleaning, disinfecting and maintenance services to property managers in Canada. The company was founded in 2015 and is based in Toronto, Canada.
Envoi
Pre Seed Round in 2018
Envoi Technologies Inc. provides a mobile application and web-based technology platform. Its platform connects consumers and retail stores with independent contractor couriers to facilitate same day-demand delivery services. The company was founded in 2017 and is based in Waterloo, Canada.
Brüha
Seed Round in 2017
Brüha is an online event marketplace. We provide event organizers various tools and services to help them manage their events and sell tickets.
Event organizers list and sell event tickets directly through the Brüha platform. They have an opportunity to hire Promoters on Brüha, who are vetted individuals and groups that sell tickets for a commission on the sale.
FleetRover
Seed Round in 2017
FleetRover is a trucking company that specializes in the fields of delivery, GPS, and information technology. It features a mobile-based application platform that allows its users to track their fleets and delivery in real-time.
The company was founded in 2015 and headquartered in Ontario, Canada.
ACTO
Seed Round in 2017
ACTO is an omnichannel education and engagement platform for life sciences companies. They use AI-powered mobile experiences and agency partnerships to educate and engage field reps, physicians and patients, while giving senior commercial and clinical leaders real-time insights.
ACTO is a one-stop-shop sales, marketing, and training platform designed to help life sciences companies effectively communicate their clinical evidence story, increase sales, and gather field intelligence.
HTBASE
Seed Round in 2016
HTBASE delivers a unique Composable IT infrastructure solution to medium and large enterprises with its software-defined platform. Their goal is to enable organizations to transform their operations and deliver technology solutions on an efficient way. Through innovative product and services, HTBASE accelerates the journey to cloud computing in a more agile, trusted and cost-efficient way.
AXIS Labs
Convertible Note in 2017
AXIS has the vision to make any 'existing thing' smart - starting first with window shades. The company's first product, Gear, motorizes and automates existing window shades in minutes. Named as the 2017 Motorized Product of the Year by the Consumer Technology Association, Gear is compatible with a variety of window shades and allows you to control and schedule your shades from the comfort of your phone.
Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, with offices in New York City, USA, and Shenzhen, China, AXIS is on a mission to transform the window shade industry with smart and simple technology.
Lending Loop
Seed Round in 2018
Lending Loop is Canada's first peer-to-peer lending marketplace. Our core focus is providing businesses with accessible capital at fair interest rates through a simple online process. We do this by cutting out the costly intermediaries, such as banks, allowing Canadian businesses and lenders to prosper together. Lending Loop gives all Canadians access to simple and attractive returns by supporting the growth of local Canadian businesses.
ClaimCompass
Seed Round in 2019
ClaimCompass, Inc. provides air passenger services. It helps air passengers to get their deserved compensation for various situations, such as cancelled flight, delayed flight, and refused boarding due to an overbooking, as well as due to change of the time of the flight shortly before departure. The company was founded in 2015 and is based in Mountain View, California.
Cuboh
Seed Round in 2020
Cuboh is a developer of an application intended to automate online food orders for restaurants. The company's platform helps to use several delivery platforms like Doordash, Postmates, UberEats and more by bringing them all to one system and integrating it with POS systems, enabling restaurants to manage all online orders on just one easy-to-use interface, easily add new apps and expand to new markets.
Sampler
Seed Round in 2016
At Sampler, we help consumer packaged good brands of all sizes and categories deliver physical samples to digitally targeted consumers. Our turnkey solution helps brands gather consumer feedback and demographic insights that will increase successful trial and in-turn conversion rates. Using Sampler, brands no longer need to hand out samples at random, and can get product into the right hands. We call it Direct to Consumer Product Sampling.
GoWrench Auto
Seed Round in 2018
GoWrench Inc. offers mobile automotive maintenance services. The company allows the customer to request the service through an online booking platform and provides mechanics after receiving a quote. The company was incorporated in 2015 and is based in Hamilton, Canada.
Intelocate
Pre Seed Round in 2017
Intelocate develops cloud based communication and execution platform which enables retailers configure a network of brand, vendor and sales associates to optimize execution in the retail channel. The company was founded in 2015 and is based in Toronto, Canada.
Funnelytics
Seed Round in 2020
Funnelytics Inc. develops a funnel mapping and analytics tool for marketers. The company’s software is used to design, track, and analyze marketing funnels. Funnelytics Inc. was founded in 2017 and is based in Toronto, Canada.
Zoom.ai
Seed Round in 2017
Zoom.ai Inc. develops an artificial intelligence based automated virtual assistant. The software ties into a user’s data, learns the user’s preferences, and assists with meeting scheduling and briefings, warm introductions, reminders, unified search, building corporate FAQ , and logistics scheduling. The product respond to users through messaging platforms, such as slack, skype, facebook messenger, google hangouts, sms/text, and group me. The company was founded in 2016 and is based in Toronto, Canada.
KitchenMate
Convertible Note in 2017
Reshaping your food experience with the only automated restaurant for your workplace. Stay safe, stay on-site with real food, cooked anytime powered by our plug-&-play Smart Cooking System.
LayerCI
Seed Round in 2020
Traditional CI approaches need you to mix Dockerfiles with a big YAML file to define pipelines.
Layer turns this pattern on its head - we've extended the Dockerfile to make it specifically for testing:
- It's only one file, so you can write CI configurations without looking at docs
- Our runners are fully featured VMs, and we take memory snapshots instead of just the filesystem so you can restore a configured Redis instance from a previous pipeline.
## Benefits
- Get a unique link to share the frontend changes for every commit - we'll spin up the environment whenever it's requested, so you don't have to pay to keep them up
- CI runs significantly faster because you can set up your environment (e.g., `docker-compose up -d`) once, and rewind to that snapshot for every following pipeline.
- It's easier to onboard team members because they just have to read the single Layerfile to understand the whole CI process (incl. how to install everything)
- Debugging is easier because you can enter a web console into the last snapshot up to a week after a test passed or failed.
Eleven-X Inc.
Seed Round in 2017
Eleven-X Inc. manufactures wireless networking equipment to enable wireless connectivity and real time data collection for smart cities, campuses, buildings, and industries. The company’s cloud-based LoRaWAN network addresses Internet of things (IoT) use cases, such as water monitoring, parking, lighting, asset tracking, waste monitoring, and metering in cities; sub-metering, environmental monitoring, water monitoring, occupancy, and light levels in building and campuses; and preventive maintenance, tank monitoring, and asset tracking in industries. It also serves utilities, agriculture, environment, and transportation and logistics sectors. The company was founded in 2014 and is based in Waterloo, Canada.
