Nationally growing Vancouver startup ToolBelt raises $3M
Summary
Vancouver-based ToolBelt is set to start 2024 with a fresh round of capital after securing $3.2 million from new and existing investors.The funding adds to the momentum the company has already seen this year. Sign-up for The Beat delivered to your inbox twice weeklyToolBelt makes a construction employment app to connect general contractors and homebuilders to subcontractors and tradespeople. For his part, Engelbrecht sees Mynavi as a strategic partner to help the startups national rollout.Another new investor in the round is Collab Capital, a firm out of Atlanta that is focused on HR tech, infrastructure and backing Black and other underrepresented founders. The startup also landed investment from this years Bend Venture Conference which was included in this round.Other local backers are Rogue Venture Partners, Portland Seed Fund, Cascade Seed Fund and Elevate Capital.In a year that has been more challenging for fundraising, Engelbrecht said he is proud his team achieved an up round, meaning the valuation before the investment was higher than previous rounds. For us, once we got to April and May and were beating (projections), you become attractive to a lot of people, he said, adding that raising money for growth is different than raising just to stay in business.ToolBelt isnt profitable yet, but expects to hit that goal next year.Engelbrecht opted to resume fundraising and pursue investors over bootstrapping in order to find partners to help the company grow.I wanted to find partners who are experts in what I dont know so they can help see around corners, he said.Engelbrecht has three goals for this funding: invest in sales and marketing including making a couple strategic hires; invest in the product roadmap and new features; and grow the brand and brand awareness.