B.C. tech star Photonic makes splash at Web Summit in time for provincial sales pitch

B.C. Premier David Eby speaks at Web Summit Vancouver on May 12. Photo by Government of B.C.

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Coquitlam-headquartered quantum computing firm Photonic Inc. landed a major investment Tuesday that was a keynote to B.C.’s sales pitch at the international tech conference Web Summit happening this week in Vancouver.

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Photonic, one of B.C.’s more prominent tech stars to emerge in recent years, unveiled the US$200 million investment, raised by U.K. equity firm Planet First Partners, and includes the Business Development Bank and Export Development Canada, before the day’s events at Web Summit.

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By 11:30 a.m., Jobs and Economic Growth Minister Ravi Kahlon was touting Photonic on Web Summit’s media theatre stage as the type of company the government wants to attract as part of its Look West strategy to lure high-tech industry to the province.

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Photonic “will be a household name, in my belief, within a decade,” Kahlon reckoned.

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The minister was at Web Summit on Tuesday to launch a new round of provincial funding, $7.5 million from InBC, an investment fund operated as a Crown corporation, being matched with $7.5 million from Simon Fraser University, to back future SFU spinoff ventures.

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“Everyone will know Photonic and companies like them, because we’re going to need them,” Kahlon said, when it comes to achieving B.C.’s Look West objectives.

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Simmons, who is an associate professor in SFU’s silicon quantum technologies lab along with being Photonic’s chief quantum officer, said she came to SFU because of the university’s intellectual property policy that allows academics to own their inventions.

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In her remarks, Simmons added that the policy is “a competitive advantage B.C. has, and I’m glad we’re ‘double-clicking’ on that side” with the fund, being billed as the SFU innovates venture fund.

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The latest investment in Photonic values the overall venture at US$2 billion, an attractive poster firm for B.C.’s tech sector at Web Summit, especially with the way its founder talks about the province.

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Simmons characterized B.C., within Canada, as “almost a perfect place to run a business,” because of its ability to recruit skilled people in a stable location with “the Canadian brand people want to buy from.”

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B.C. spent $6 million to lure the prominent Web Summit conference from Toronto for a three-year stint, which B.C. Premier David Eby called a strategic part of the province’s Look West plan and “not adjacent to what we’re doing around economic development.”

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Eby is leaning into a bet that B.C. can sell itself as a more welcoming destination for international talent compared with U.S. President Donald Trump’s America first agenda, and Web Summit is giving him a big audience to put some of those chips on.

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Attendance at the 2026 event is up 30 per cent to 20,235 delegates from more than 100 countries, compared with the inaugural event in 2025. The number of investment firms is also up 13 per cent to 768, including top venture capital firms such as Kholsa Ventures, Benchmark, and Insight Partners.