Yaletown Venture Partners Invests in GrowLab Graduate ePACT

Yaletown Venture Partners has invested in ePACT Network, a Vancouver-based startup that is gaining momentum fast.

Described as a “LinkedIn for emergency networks,” the startup joined Growab’s winter cohort last November. It graduated from the accelerator’s program in February, and BDC Venture Capital promptly invested $150,000 into the Canadian company.

The investment firm explains the startup’s backstory:

After speaking with survivors of the March 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami, Christine Sommers and Kirsten Koppang Telford founded ePACT. They realized that in North America and beyond, there were little-to-no support systems in place for families and organizations in case of emergency or disaster. The majority of schools, daycares, sports teams and care homes across North America were (and are) using paper-based systems to track individuals’ information and contacts.

“Competitors are not doing what we are doing yet—a few are putting some pieces together, but we haven’t seen an apples-to-apples comparison. We remain ahead of the competitive landscape,” says Sommers, the company’s CEO.

Yaletown did not disclose how much it invested in ePACT, which remains in closed beta until later this spring.