Welcome to this week’s Midweek Memo. In this issue, read about how an almost $1 billion investment from BDC Capital could support local tech businesses, what the South Island Prosperity Partnership (SIPP) is doing to help businesses like yours grow, and thoughts from SIPP’s deputy director Dallas Gislason on why Victoria’s low tariff exposure rating is misleading.

Now on to today’s briefing. It’s 833 words: a three-minute read.

-Emily, [email protected]

By the way, if you're not already subscribed, you can fix that here.

Hullo Ferries celebrates growth and reliability rating

Hullo, the fast-ferry service connecting downtown Vancouver and Nanaimo, announced that it’s hit a number of successful milestones.

According to the company, Hullo’s ferries maintained a 99 percent reliability rate throughout January, meaning that it successfully completed nearly all scheduled sailings between the mainland and Vancouver Island.

"Since our inaugural sailing in August 2023, we've proudly transported over 650,000 guests," said Alastair Caddick, CEO of Hullo. "Our service has become instrumental in keeping communities connected — whether it's reuniting families, facilitating business travel, or enabling access to Vancouver's vibrant event scene."

Looking ahead, Hullo wants to team up with Vancouver-based events to give Island residents easier access to the mainland.

"We're proud to support major events like Taylor Swift's Eras Tour, Cirque Du Soleil’s ECHO, and Dine Out Vancouver Festival by making it easier for Islanders to experience world-class entertainment and return home safely the same day," said Caddick.

📰 More Victoria innovation news

💪 Put in work: Last week, Aaron Stone, CEO of the South Island Prosperity Partnership, joined the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce’s podcast to discuss how SIPP is working to drive business and sector growth on the Island.

💵 Big numbers, big numbers: The Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) announced that it will commit an additional $500-million to its Growth Venture Fund (GVF) and $450-million to its Growth Equity Partners program. BDC highlighted Victoria’s Certn as a business already receiving support from the GVF.

👀 Keep your eyes open: Dallas Gislason, deputy director of SIPP, put pen to paper on why Victoria’s rating as a lower-risk economy for tariff impacts is misleading.

🕴️ Tech jobs of the week

Find your next career:

• Senior application developer, DevOps at Advanced Solutions

• Delivery lead at BC Pension Corporation

• Software developer (ocean engineering) at DSA Ocean

Hiring in Victoria? Reply to this email and let us know!

📅 Upcoming events

February 24-25 | 9th Annual BC Communications Forum

Join the BC Communications Forum, the premier gathering for communication professionals across the province. This is your opportunity to connect with industry leaders, exchange ideas with peers, and dive into the latest insights that can transform your day-to-day work.

March 4-6 | Rising Economy Conference

Now in its fifth year, the Rising Economy conference is a highly anticipated “business conference for business insiders.” Rising Economy features a curated selection of in-person and online events designed to guide businesses and other organizations to meet the challenges and pursue the opportunities of the 21st century. With an A-list of exciting keynote speakers and panelists, Rising Economy explores topics critical to Greater Victoria, British Columbia, and the world around us.

March 7 | Know Your Faults — Earthquake Hazards of the Cascadia Subduction Zone

Vancouver Island owes much of its physical beauty to its location along a major plate boundary, the Cascadia subduction zone. Unfortunately, this comes at a price: the ever-present threat posed by earthquakes and secondary hazards like tsunamis, landslides, and liquefaction. This lecture will introduce what we know about the Cascadia megathrust fault, responsible for great earthquakes (up to magnitude 9) every few hundred years, but also deep earthquakes in the subducting Juan de Fuca plate and shallow earthquakes in the overriding North American crust, which though smaller in magnitude are both more frequent and potentially very damaging locally.

Have an upcoming event? Reply to let us know.

🙋 I need a…

We at Victoria Tech Journal know you, our community, pretty well. Are you searching for someone in your field to have coffee with, a hiring hookup, a lead on local investors, or suggestion for a great Victoria tech tool? Whatever you’re hunting for, let us know. We’ll post it in this section and make it happen.

Email your requests to [email protected].

Have something or someone we should know about?

Reply or email [email protected] so we can work together to spotlight the lesser-known stories of Victoria's tech ecosystem.