"for less than they had raised" - that's actually not true and sloppy journalism from the journalists that wrote it.
If you look at North's funding - the difference between the suspected purchase price of $180M and what they raised ($200M) is a $24M loan they received from the government of Canada [1], which was called back shortly after (because of layoffs) [2].
The remaining $4M difference is probably interest on a standard debt financing loan of $40M they received [3] and some rounding error in the $180M suspected purchase price.
It seems Google bought them for the exact amount raised, in both debt and funding.
If you look at North's funding - the difference between the suspected purchase price of $180M and what they raised ($200M) is a $24M loan they received from the government of Canada [1], which was called back shortly after (because of layoffs) [2].
The remaining $4M difference is probably interest on a standard debt financing loan of $40M they received [3] and some rounding error in the $180M suspected purchase price.
It seems Google bought them for the exact amount raised, in both debt and funding.
[1] https://www.itworldcanada.com/article/north-receives-24-mill...
[2] https://www.therecord.com/business/2019/02/22/federal-govern...
[3] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/north-8daa/company_f...