The BetaKit Quiz, Nov. 1, 2024

The idea for Revyl stemmed from CTO and co-founder Anam Hira’s time at Uber, where he helped develop a large language model-based mobile testing framework that saved the company more than $25 million in just four months. His current startup, Revyl, has developed a platform that allows development teams to catch and triage bugs before they reach production. Read more about Revyl’s recent YC-backed fundraise here.

In a memorable performance on the Vantage Points panel at BetaKit Town Hall: Vancouver, Taylor described Canadian tech as “kinda weird,” and claimed she and her co-founder Trevor Johnston initially created Jane as an attempt at passive income. She also noted that the amount of funding available to her company almost leads to complacency.

In May, Invest Nova Scotia lost $573,000 to an email breach and phishing attack. The incident went undiscovered for two weeks and was not widely reported until late July. This week, strategic communications director Shawn Hirtle told BetaKit the province’s economic development agency had recovered $571,000 thus far, leaving a shortfall of $2,500.

In a post on LinkedIn, Graham referred to the argument that open banking could destabilize Canada’s financial system as a “zombie idea.” The FinTech CEO was responding to an op-ed written by John Turley-Ewart of Regulatory Risk Management Inc.. The discourse followed the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalizing rules for an open banking system in the United States.

One of AbCellera’s earliest contracts with the US Department of Defense, as part of a pandemic preparedness initiative. At BetaKit Town Hall: Vancouver, AbCellera’s Anne Stevens explained how securing early wins outside of Canada almost pushed the Vancouver-based life sciences company to leave the country.

Fellow Calgary company Tetra Trust, which secured regulatory approval in 2021, was the first registered trust and qualified custodian for crypto assets in Canada. Balance co-founder and CEO George Bordianu said Balance’s approval took the company nearly two years and $10 million CAD of regulatory capital to complete.

Albinson led the creation of the True North strategy and fund for Communitech. Despite departing his role as CEO of Communitech, Albinson will continue to lead the True North Fund.

While initially presented as a Communitech initiative, the relationship between the True North Fund and Communitech is now murky, with a Communitech spokesperson declining to offer clarity. Albinson told BetaKit this week that the True North Fund is an independent organization featuring a partnership agreement with Communitech.

On the Vantage Points panel at BetaKit Town Hall: Vancouver, the co-founder of East Side Games said BC does a “shit job” at helping startups that are just starting out, or making the ecosystem inclusive to young and underrepresented entrepreneurs.

“I think it’s really hard to get those small amounts to be able to start out, to even get to pre-seed, to meet somebody, whereas in other places, it’s not so hard,” he added.

The VCAA offers its members deal flow calls, which it said is unique from its federal counterpart, the CVCA. These calls offering venture firms a chance to see which companies are raising. “To my knowledge, the CVCA doesn’t have something like this,” outgoing executive director Omi Velasco added. “In fact, every person that joins us on the calls from out of Alberta, they’re surprised that we share deal flow, in a good way.”

$20 decillion is a 20 followed by 33 zeroes ($20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000). The fines—a response to Google blocking pro-Russian channels on YouTube—are less than a googol, which is followed by 100 zeroes.