Ontopical Secures $3.3 Million to Attract Quality Service Providers to Public Works Contracts and Create More Transparency

CALGARY, AB, Sept. 14, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Ontopical, the most trusted data and intelligence platform to help businesses discover and win government work, announced today a $3.3 million Seed Extension round co-led by Rhino Ventures and Graphite Ventures and supported by Accelerate Fund III. The round also incorporates a grant from Alberta Innovates. To date, Ontopical has raised over $6 million in funding. 

At a time of increasing public demand for government organisations to provide higher transparency in how contracts are awarded, Ontopical provides equitable access to government opportunities for qualified businesses. Ontopical's AI-driven data and intelligence platform makes it possible for the private sector to detect early signals from public sector data about upcoming contract opportunities and policy updates to help them efficiently win more business.

Ontopical will use the funds to further develop its AI-driven intelligence platform and expand its business further across North America. The company also plans to triple their team over the next two years, hiring data engineers, data scientists, AI/ML specialists and new members to its sales and marketing teams. The majority of roles will be based in Calgary.

"This funding represents a major milestone for Ontopical and expedites our ability to improve the efficiency of how public sector markets work for private sector clients," said Clayton Feick, CEO of Ontopical. "We are effectively applying an AI-layer on top of an ever-growing pool of credible public data to attract the most qualified private sector teams to public works contracts."

With Ontopical's AI-driven platform, businesses of all sizes are equipped to discover and compete for government work. The platform mines millions of unstructured and multi-format public sector data sources including agendas, minutes, budgets and videos within cities, counties and school districts to identify and consolidate intelligence to help businesses efficiently apply for new contracts. Ontopical's customers include some of North America's largest telecom players, major architectural, engineering and construction firms, energy and utilities providers, health services, software, IoT and technology companies. More than half of its customers are in the U.S.

"The procurement process for municipal governments remains incredibly antiquated, heavily favouring long standing incumbent relationships," said Dave Hogarth, Partner at Rhino Ventures. "Ontopical provides not only a platform for more scalable growth to their customers, but improves outcomes for the constituents of local governments by allowing the best government service providers access to bid on a far wider range of projects."

"We're really pleased to join Clayton, Derrick and the Ontopical team as we've tracked them for the last year and are impressed with their data-focused approach to solving procurement problems in the public and private sectors," said Craig Leonard, General Partner with Graphite Ventures. "They're a great example of a company that uses AI in a meaningful way and of the strong companies emerging out of the Alberta ecosystem."

About Ontopical
Ontopical is the most trusted data and intelligence platform to help businesses discover and win government work. Its AI-driven data platform enables business development leaders in engineering and construction, telecommunications, technology, health services and other industries to efficiently identify and win new opportunities. Users gain access to credible, organised insights on government plans, policies and activities mined from publicly available data, updated daily across millions of council and committee agendas, minutes, budgets, and plans, including over 125,000 video hours of government meetings. Ontopical is headquartered in Calgary with remote employees across North America. Find out more at Ontopical.com.

About Graphite Ventures
Graphite Ventures is an early-stage seeding-for-scale venture capital firm that invests in early-stage B2B SaaS, fintech, proptech, digital health and capital-efficient hardware companies. Graphite is one of Canada's most active and consistent VC firms, and the team has invested in more than 200 companies over the past decade. Graphite launched the $110M Graphite Fund IV in 2021 with a focus on Seed and Series A opportunities across Canada. For more information, visit www.graphitevc.com.

About Rhino Ventures
Rhino Ventures leads financing for early-stage businesses in Canada. With over $200M under management, they've invested in several iconic Canadian companies including Article, Aspect Biosystems, FISPAN, and Klue. Rhino Ventures is led by partners Fraser Hall, Jay Rhind and David Hogarth and is based in Vancouver, BC. For more information, visit www.rhinovc.com.

About Accelerate Fund
Accelerate Fund III is an early-stage angel co-investment fund in Alberta. Managed by Yaletown Partners with the support of The A100, Accelerate Fund III invests in private Alberta companies in knowledge-based industries including: information and communications technology, energy technology, life sciences, agtech and biotech. Alberta Enterprise Corporation is Accelerate Fund III's lead limited partner with support from other investors including Opportunity Calgary Investment Fund.  Find out more at AccelerateFund.ca.

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SOURCE Ontopical