A Victoria company that automated doing background checks on prospective new hires continues to attract venture capital, despite a general venture capital funding drought and bear market for high-tech companies.
To date, Certn has raised US$114 million in venture capital, including US$80 million in Series B funding.
This week, Deloitte Ventures, which was part of last year’s Series B financing, announced it was upping its initial investment with follow-on funding, but did not disclose how much the follow-on funding is worth.
“We invested in the Series B and we have followed on and increased,” said Talia Abramowitz, managing partner at Deloitte Ventures.
Export Development Canada in April also added $40 million in follow-on funding to the Series B round.
Certn is one of four Canadian companies and two other funds that Deloitte Ventures is investing in with its new $150 million fund, established one year ago. The fund is tailored to specific areas of technology: fintech, healthtech, worktech, data and AI, cybersecurity and climate-sustainability.
Certn is an AI-driven platform that speeds up the background check process from days to hours.
It is one of the companies bucking a trend that has seen venture capital funding drying up and a general bear market for high-tech companies. Canadian venture capital investment in the first quarter of this year was down 82 per cent compared to the first quarter of 2022, according to briefed.in.
Despite that general drought, there are certain sectors still drawing venture capital investment, however, Abramowitz said.
“AI and generative AI are pretty hot right now,” Abramowitz said. “And climate and sustainability, and clean-tech, is a very, very hot category that is still attracting a lot of dollars.”
(This story has been updated to correct the total funding Certn has raised to date.)
