Last Thursday we started a new tradition! Ramp and Tech Thursday are brewing a beer for every founder in the room who raises a big round, and Daniel Fipke got the very first one for Kanin Energyâs US$100M raise. The official brew drops soon. Close a big round and the next one could be yours. đș
That was Episode 3 of Tech Thursday Live!, recorded October 8th in front of a live audience. This one was about the infrastructure behind AI: satellites, gas turbines, and the capital it takes to build them
Mark Le Dain and I went through two weeks of space and energy news: SpaceX launching Googleâs test of data centres in orbit, Cenovus buying Athabasca Oil, Emera and Canadian Utilities combining in a $72B deal, and the leaked numbers behind Anthropicâs IPO.
We also sat down with:
Kurtis Broda, COO & Co-Founder at Wyvern, on spotting dark ships from orbit and why Canada needs its own satellites
Eva Kiefer, President and CFO at Northbase, on financing power equipment that now takes three years to arrive
Daniel Fipke, CDO & Co-Founder at Kanin Energy, on Kaninâs US$100M raise and why industry is building its own power
đș You can watch the full episode on Youtube here. Or listen on Spotify, or Apple Podcasts. If you enjoy the episode, please subscribe and review.
Episode 3, by the numbersđ
Kurtis expects cheap rideshare launches for space startups to get hard to find by 2028 and estimates that about 20% of the worldâs oil is moving on dark vessels.
Eva has seen lead times for behind-the-meter power equipment stretch from about one year to three.
Daniel hears from industrial customers who are being told theyâre 10 years away from a new grid connection.
1 founder has earned the beer so far.
Hereâs what stuck with me.
1. Getting to orbit is about to get harder.
On October 1st, SpaceXâs Transporter-18 put 130 satellites into orbit, including Googleâs Project Suncatcher, a test of whether data centres can run in space. Mark has gone from bearish to bullish on the idea: if building on the ground means years of approvals, orbit gives you:
âCertainty of project completion without community pushback.â
Kurtis and the Wyvern team build hyperspectral satellites that can tell what something is made of from orbit. Their new product, SeaDrake, identifies ships by their paint and structure, so a tanker canât hide by changing its name or switching off its beacon. Wyvern was also just selected for NASAâs Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition program, the first pre-Series A company to get in.
The catch is getting up there. Kurtis says SpaceX is winding down its Transporter rideshare missions, the cheap seats startups have relied on. After 2028, you may need a dedicated launch. He said:
âNo matter how good your allies are, theyâre always gonna prioritize their own issues. So having Canadian satellites that can monitor the Arctic or monitor Canadian interests is becoming much more important.â
Donât miss our AgTech episode of Tech Thursday Live! on October 22nd
We're digging into what's next for Canadian innovation and opportunity in agriculture.
We have:
Mark Hlady, CEO & Founder, SimpleHedge
Wilson Acton, Managing Partner, Tall Grass Ventures
2. The money is there. The equipment isnât.
Cenovus is buying Athabasca Oil, and Emera and Canadian Utilities are combining in a $72B deal. Markâs read on both: there are more good projects than capital to build them.
That gap is where Eva works. Northbase finances the long-life equipment behind energy projects, and just closed a revolving credit facility with Oaktree for up to US$300M. She spotted the gap during her time at Pipestone, and her rule is simple: âmatching the right capital to the right asset.â
The problem now is time. Behind-the-meter generation equipment that used to take about a year to arrive takes three. Mark named the trap: buyers wonât sign a power purchase agreement until you have the equipment, and banks wonât lend until you have the PPA. Northbase lends against the equipment itself. With its partner Compass Energy, it put deposits on engines before customers were lined up, and every one has since been deployed.
Her warning for everyone piling into AI power:
âAn announced project doesnât always equal a financeable project.â
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3. The grid canât keep up, so bring your own.
Founders like Daniel, and the work theyâre doing, are exactly who that beer is for. Kanin just closed a US$100M equity round, led by S2G Investments with Canada Growth Fund.
Kanin turns industrial waste heat into electricity. The idea came from an early customer:
âI just wanna produce molecules and focus on that. Can you focus on electrons?â
That job is getting bigger. One of the largest US grid operators paused new connections, and ERCOT in Texas just announced a data centre moratorium. Kaninâs customers keep hearing theyâre 10 years away from a new connection, so they put generation on site. Alberta is heading the same way with its bring-your-own-generation policy, which Daniel calls pragmatic.
His ask for a room full of tech people: âI encourage folks to think about infrastructure.â
Surprise of the Week đ
Our new closing segment. Someone asked Claude for a route up a mountain called Widowmaker and had to be helicoptered out. Markâs advice to AllTrails: put it in your ads.
Tech Jobs Available đ»
A few roles worth knowing about across Calgaryâs startup and tech ecosystem:
Kanin Energy - Hiring across project engineering, business development and finance
CruxOCM - Hiring across engineering, product and sales
Validere - Hiring across software engineering and growth
Ultimarii - Hiring across regulatory solutions and sales
Helcim - Hiring across software engineering, data, design and sales
Benevity - Hiring across software engineering, data, AI/ML and marketing
Enverus - Hiring across power markets research, AI infrastructure and product
Pason - Hiring across drilling optimization engineering, data science and electrical design
Hiring? đ§ If you have a role youâd like to share to the Calgary Tech Thursday community, please fill out this form.
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