Kibooco is a Vancouver digital media start-up developing an interactive platform for children to design and create their own books. As a start-up, the team behind the Kibooco vision had to develop a strategy to finance their project, and looked to a number of government incentive programs.
After being rejected for the BC Film and Media/BC Arts Council Interactive Fund, Kibooco found its first funding success in the Development phase of the Canada Media Fund’s Experimental Stream, which encourages the development of leading-edge, interactive, digital media content and software applications, receiving a $275,000 advance from the program. Cofounder Molly Schneeberg notes that after a few proposal passes, they were able to better articulate how the product was innovative, and how they were going to achieve what they proposed, as well as include a detailed competitive analysis of the market.
After climbing the funding learning curve, Kibooco turned back to the B.C. fund and was able to secure $50,000 from the program. Comments Schneeberg, “You learn that they want you to answer the questions they ask.” Kibooco was able to round out funding with a contribution from the NRC-IRAP program and Mitacs.
It was also recently announced that five high-growth tech start-ups in the Kitchener-Waterloo area will receive a combined $4.4 million investment through FedDev’s Investing in Business Innovation program.
Government funding is one of the best ways to finance a development or expansion project, and can provide competitive advantage in both a domestic and international marketplace – but navigating the government funding system requires finesse to set out a tactful and successful approach to positioning your project and leveraging multiple programs.
NorthBridge recently held a webinar on funding for the digital media industry in Canada, and discussed strategies for combining direct and indirect funding models to maximize your financing opportunity. To view the free webinar, send us an email.
