Burnaby-based legal-technology developer Clio announced Thursday that it is giving $3 million to the University of British Columbia's (UBC) Sauder School of Business to help the university build what it calls its Powerhouse Project.
That project is a new building set to be next to current facilities on the site of the former UBC Power House, which was originally built in 1925. The new space is intended to improve students' experiences, expand enrolments and make space for what the university calls "the transformative future of business education."
Essentially, the gift is set to bolster innovation and entrepreneurship, according to Clio.
"UBC Sauder is a catalyst for world-class talent, shaping the leaders who will define the next wave of transformation,” said Clio's CEO, Jack Newton, in a statement.
"We are incredibly proud to support the Powerhouse Project—a space that will connect ambitious students, entrepreneurs and industry leaders, sparking game-changing ideas with the discipline and rigour needed to transform industries for generations."
The new UBC space will serve as the formal home of its Creative Destruction Lab - Vancouver. CDL-V is a nonprofit organization that provides mentorship for people at scalable, seed-stage science and technology companies across sectors such as clean tech, biomedical engineering and computing.
“It’s not just about fostering ideas," said Darrell Kopke, executive director of CDL-V and a lecturer in the university's Entrepreneurship, Sustainability and Innovation Group, in a statement.
"By bringing together students, faculty and industry leaders, we’re creating an environment that empowers startups to scale and creating opportunities for both students and entrepreneurs to address the challenges that matter to our communities.”
Clio’s co-founders, Jack Newton and Rian Gauvreau, both say much of their success stems from mentorship they received in their early days.
Clio, also known as Themis Solutions Inc., has been flush with cash since at least last July, when it scored what is likely the largest-ever venture-capital investment in a Canadian technology company: US$900 million.
That capital raise valued the privately held company at about US$3 billion, which Clio claimed at the time to be the most in the world for a cloud-based legal-technology company.
Clio’s previous market valuation was US$1.6 billion in April 2021, when it closed a US$110-million funding round.
That capital provides the company with enough of a marketing budget to have signed a multi-year partnership with the National Hockey League's Vancouver Canucks to be the team's official away-jersey partner, and for its brand to be on those jerseys.
