Toronto-based Buf Technologies Planning on Changing how Software is Built

Toronto startup Buf Technologies (“Buf”) has raised more than $100 million from some of the top names in global venture capital, including Lux Capital and Tiger Global.  For Tiger Global—one of the world’s largest and most prolific early stage investors—this marks itsfourth investment this fall in Canada. Buf’s early success in raising money is another indication of the growth of the Toronto tech scene. A decade ago, many founders were told by U.S funders that they would have to move to the U.S as a condition of funding. 

Currently, Buf Technologies has 18 employees and no revenue, but has plans for changing how software is built,  by making it easier for machines and software programs to communicate with one another. Currently, developers typically use application programming interfaces (APIs) to allow for the communications. Developing these APIs can be a laborious task, with developers stating that it can take up 20% of their development time. Buf plans  on streamlining the development process of the APIs by developing protocol buffers that eliminate a large portion of the code that has to be written to enable the communication between software programs.  With the protocol buffers, developers are able to create and distribute consistent APIs to ensure that the APIs are reliable and never break. The goal is to create repeatable processes that eventually act akin to Lego pieces according to the company’s head of business development, Ahron Seeman. Buf wants to create the building blocks (Lego pieces) that companies can use to create the final product they aspire to provide to their customers without having to code the entire process. 

Buf plans on using the money to focus on hiring up to 100 people and accelerating development. Hiring talent should not be an issue according to Mike McCauley, managing partner of Waterloo, Ont. – based Garage Capital. He stated that Buf could have chosen to build this company anywhere but they chose Toronto because they believe “it is  place to attract the best global talent”.

Author: Erik Axell, 2021/2022 Articling Student-at-law