Kickstarter opening Canadian office following recent acquisition of Huzza

Through the acquisition of livestreaming video media startup Huzza, Kickstarter has opened its first office in Canada.

Huzza was founded by South African hailing Justin Womersley and Nick Smit, who moved their startup from Silicon Valley to Canada in 2016 as part of the Citizen and Immigration Department’s Startup Visa Program. 

The Startup Visa program began a five-year trial in 2013, and has since resulted in 170 new Canadian residents and the arrival of 48 companies primarily located in British Columbia and Ontario.

It’s important to note that this number is still far off from the program’s 2,750 allocated Visas. While the program brought the duo to Canada with the intention of joining the North American market, it was a concert given by Amanda Palmer who put Huzza on Kickstarter’s radar.

She mentioned during the show that the concert was being livestreamed by a company in her home town. Perry Chan, co-founder of Kickstarter was sitting in the audience and was interested in finding out more about them.

Kickstarter used Huzza’s technology to set up the Kickstarter Interactive Live Portal, which launched in late 2016. A large factor in opening a Vancouver office was that Womersley and Smit have no desire to move again.

The Vancouver office will mark Kickstarter’s first international location outside the United States.

[source]Globe and Mail[/source]