Building a company is a marathon, not a sprint. I’m excited to share that Pique Fund portfolio company ePACT Network, led by Christine Sommers and Kirsten Koppang Telford, has raised a $4.5M Series A round of investment to fund its growth. Pique Fund, an early-stage fund managed by Vancouver-based firm Pique Ventures, has been an investor in ePACT since 2015 and I’m so happy that we could continue to support this innovative company and make an additional investment as part of their Series A round.
I first met Christine Sommers in May 2014 at the Mayor of Vancouver’s Economic Roundtable on Social Innovation and Entrepreneurship. That was when I learned about ePACT Network – 2 years into building it at that time – and the technology she and her team were building to ensure people were connected to critical information and each other during times of crisis and emergencies.
Five months later, Pique Fund launched and we started investing. After investing in our third portfolio company Beanworks, CEO Catherine Dahl reconnected me with Christine Sommers, CEO of ePACT. Christine and her co-founder and COO Kirsten Koppang Telford were inspired after their friend was separated from her children during the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Fukushima Japan. They felt a technology like ePACT could have helped her friend and many others stay connected more quickly and efficiently, having a huge impact on their sense of safety and connection during emergencies. In 2015, ePACT was raising additional seed capital to realize that vision. Pique Fund made its first investment in the venture then and continued to support its development with follow-on capital, advice, and connections.
“Bonnie has provided […] a wide range of support including business advice, strategic guidance on critical aspects of our growth, introductions to key contacts, opportunities to network and present at a range of industry events, and recommendations to investors and business connections that contributed to my and my company’s advancement,” said Christine.
I’m excited to see Yaletown Partners, an investor in ePACT since 2013, continue to support ePACT by co-leading the Series A investment. New to the ePACT community of investors is Disruption Ventures, a venture fund focused on women-led ventures which launched in 2018.
About Pique Ventures
Pique Ventures is an impact investment and management company. Pique Ventures enables a diverse community of investors to pursue integrated investing. Integrated Investing is a proprietary investment decision-making methodology that we use to help create a better world and was developed specifically to evaluate impact and early-stage ventures.
