Victoria's SalonMonster is an OKGN Angel Summit quarter-finalist

Welcome to this week’s Sunday Digest. In this issue, there’s AI concerns in secondary education, and at the post-secondary level, there's been a big local gift. But first, let’s meet the sole local company moving on in a Western Canadian pitch competition.

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I used to think monsters were only under my bed. Now they are in the quarter-final.

Back in December, we teased the fifth-annual OKGN Angel Summit. It's a pitch program that guides Okanagan-based investors and startups from across Western Canada – including Alberta, B.C., Manitoba, and Northwest Territories – through the capital-raising process as part of a Dragons’ Den-style selection process, culminating in a public grand finale. On March 16, the last company standing will be awarded an investment of up to $225,000.

Since then, 43 angel investors have been meeting week-over-week to review over 45 applications. They've narrowed it down to the top 24 companies that will deliver their first three-minute pitch at the quarter finals in hopes of continuing their journey toward the six-figure investment. There is some Victoria flavour present, thanks to SalonMonster.

SalonMonster could be coined a SaaStS company: Software as a Service to Stylists. The outfit develops a business management toolkit for the sector created by salon industry professionals, for salon industry professionals. The team is jointly based in Vancouver and Victoria, with CEO Stephen Parslow hailing from Saanich.

Learn more about the 23 other quarter-finalists.

📰 More Victoria innovation news

🤖 Uh oh: AI and machine learning tools raise concerns over academic integrity in Victoria's educational systems, writes Capital Daily's Micheal John Lo. Read the full piece.

🌊 Hmmmm: Open Ocean Robotics’ co-founder Julie Angus writing in The Hill: How a ‘digital ocean’ can unlock climate fighting potential

🏆 Woop woop: Vecima Networks, the local software company that came up clutch during the most recent World Cup, just hit a major sales milestone. Learn more.

🔐 Cha-ching: A gift from philanthropist Marmi Hess is supporting graduate and post-doctoral researchers at UVic across the sciences. The gift created a $2 million endowment to fund a pair of graduate student awards, with the remaining $500,000 funding research grants for post-doctoral fellows. Read on.

🕴️ Tech jobs of the week

Find your next career:

• Events Coordinator at South Island Prosperity Partnership

• Applications Software Developer at Polaris Motion

• Software Developer, Custom Implementations & Managed Services at VertiGIS

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