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Entrepreneurship fits Nic Beique like a glove, and his determination to continue along his own path has paid off in a big way at least twice now.
In 2007, when he was 23 years old, Beique (a member of Avenue’s Top 40 Under 40 class of 2019) founded Helcim, a payments-processing company that caters to small and medium sized businesses. He was successfully bootstrapping the company while bringing in millions of revenue, until he realized the opportunity for growth required outside help. He relaunched Helcim in 2020 and, in 2022, completed a Series A financing round, raising $16 million.
Beique says part of the reason he found success with investors stems from those years where he and his team had to learn business lessons on their own. “I think that, ultimately, was a bonus for the investors that came in,” says Beique. “Because they said, ‘Okay, this group of executives has seen a decent amount of ups and downs and failures and learned some life lessons.”
Two years later, almost to the day, Beique has raised $27 million in a Series B financing round, led by Headline, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm and including Vesey Ventures, ClockTower Ventures, SilverCircle with follow-on investments from Helcim’s existing partners like Information Venture Partners, Aquiline and the Alberta Accelerate Fund.
All of this, while continuing to call Calgary home.
“What we need out of this city and this province is a diversity of wonderful industries that our young folks, when they graduate, have a reason to join and stay here so we don’t experience a brain drain, and instead, really build the places that can be stepping on boards for amazing careers right here in this province,” Beique says.