VANCOUVER — Andrew McLeod knows he had a better year than most people. “It’s terrible,” said the co-founder and CEO of Victoria-based Certn. “I hate me for my luck in 2020.”

McLeod celebrated the birth of his first child (who already sleeps through the night), grew the revenue of his company, which provides instant background checks, more than sixfold, and secured a combined $43.4 million in three, somewhat unexpected financing rounds—all amid a global pandemic that he thinks may have swept through his company’s office in early 2020, even before COVID-19 tests were widely available.