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New user visits to the site grew by more than 50%.

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Applications from startups for funding increased by 15%.

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News shared to 10 community partners boosted audience reach.

What we did:

  • New website & startup stories
  • Blog content and topic plan
  • PR: press releases & media relations
  • Social media communications
  • Advertisements

Alongside our relationships in the tech community, strong marketing with Material Insight helps us to attract applications for funding from promising startups in Alberta. Our website and ongoing news stories keep us on the radar of ambitious local entrepreneurs and helps create awareness of how the technology startup community is growing here in Alberta. I’m pleased to recommend MI to technology businesses seeking to grow their market presence and brand.

Arden Tse, Investment Manager Accelerate Fund II and III, Yaletown Partners


The challenge:
Stand out as a funder.

Accelerate Fund aims to discover and invest in Alberta’s top performing startup teams to support the growth of local startups on a global stage and yield the best possible financial returns for the province. As more investment flows into Alberta, startup CEOs have more choice.

Accelerate Fund enlisted MI help to enhance their reputation as a top early-stage funding partner, complementing the continuous work the partners do to actively network in the community.


The solution.

MI reviewed current site analytics and talked with the partners managing Accelerate Fund to understand what promising CEOs in Alberta care about in a funding partner, and what influences them.

The analytics and conversations revealed that word-of-mouth between admired CEOs is a major driver. We redesigned the Accelerate Fund website anchored around testimonials and stories from successful startup CEOs, and shared those stories with tech community leaders with large social followings.


New website helps attract startups.

Focused on having startup CEOs express the value of an Accelerate Fund investment, the website aims to draw in other ambitious Alberta entrepreneurs to apply for funding.


Startup stories draw in peers.

Stories about Alberta startups funded by Accelerate Fund share how they scaled locally and how capital and the fund’s advisor network helped them to grow.


PR: media relations extends audience reach.

While it’s become increasingly difficult to get news on small tech companies into mainstream media, MI helped to gain profile for the startups in tech and investment publications.


Social media news sharing.

Alberta has a vibrant tech community with lively hubs in Calgary and Edmonton. We posts news on companies earning investment and their growth milestones and ask tech community partners to re-share those tweets to grow our influence. 


The result: Funding application volume & quality is up.

After launching a new Accelerate Fund website to candidly and confidently appeal to discerning Alberta startup CEO’s considering early funding options, and working to get news out to growing tech community partners, the Accelerate Fund partners have seen an increase in both quantity and quality of applications to the fund.

The storytelling approach of having Alberta tech CEOs share how the Accelerate Fund is helping them to grow, is proving to help build the credibility and appeal of the fund as Alberta’s startup community grows.


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New user visits to the site grew by more than 50%.

+0%

Applications from startups for funding increased by 15%.

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News shared to 10 community partners boosted audience reach.

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