Last week, I suggested that the work required to ensure Canada meets the current moment must continue after the ballots are counted. I’m pleased to find many Canadians agree.
Canadian tech certainly wasted no time reminding Prime Minister Mark Carney of his long to-do list on day one. Madison McLauchlan has you covered with a story on the hard work that lies ahead.
At the NACO Summit, buffeted by election energy or perhaps the near-certain death of the capital gains tax inclusion rate increase, the mood was bolder. Alex Riehl has a report featuring Canadian investors discussing leading rounds, which could only make 2025 angel of the year Joe Canavan smile. You’ll find my conversation with Canavan on The BetaKit Podcast below.
If 2024 seemed coated by the uneasy feeling that nothing would change, 2025 is brimming with an optimistic urgency for action. This read is driven partially by the number of LinkedIn posts I’ve seen this week celebrating the miracle of Canadian democracy before politely tapping the metaphorical wristwatch.
It’s a reminder that this isn’t exactly a fresh start. Speaking with SOTI CEO Carl Rodrigues after the election, he said it was “nerve-wracking” that the new group leading the country looks very similar to the old one.
Rodrigues said he will be paying close attention to the forthcoming cabinet shuffle and other decisions made by Carney over the next six months to evaluate whether or not the capital gains walkback was “words thrown in to win the election” or a “recognition that what they were doing before didn’t work.”
The CEO of the global software company didn’t express a high degree of confidence as much as a willingness to wait and see.
“The one thing we Canadians always do: we like to give the new guy a chance,” he said.
Douglas Soltys
Editor-in-chief
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“Hard work lies ahead”: Canadian tech leaders strike urgent tone on policy asks following Liberal victory
As the Liberal Party has secured a fourth consecutive government, the Canadian tech sector is hoping Prime Minister Mark Carney will heed its calls for change on issues it says are critical to boosting innovation and investment.
Industry groups are advocating for a renewed focus on long-standing issues that they say have plagued Canadian tech since well before Carney entered politics: tackling Canada’s flagging productivity, incentivizing investment through tax credit reform, and boosting support for domestic companies amid a trade war with the US.
Cohere Labs head calls “unreliable” AI leaderboard rankings a “crisis” in the field
The head of Cohere’s research division is concerned that alleged unreliability in the rankings of a popular chatbot leaderboard amounts to a “crisis” in AI development.
A new study co-authored by Cohere Labs head Sara Hooker, along with researchers at Cohere and leading universities, claims that large AI companies have been “gaming” the crowd-sourced chatbot ranking platform LM Arena to boost the ranking of their large language models.
“I hope that there is an active discussion and a sense of integrity that maybe this paper has spurred,” Hooker told BetaKit. “It’s so critical that we acknowledge that this is just bad science.”
“Can we just write the cheque?”: angel investors encouraged to be bold amidst economic uncertainty at NACO Summit
If resilience got angel investors through 2024, conversations at this year’s NACO summit indicate a bolder mood for 2025.
The summit gathered 500 investors, entrepreneurs, and senior innovation leaders in Ottawa the day after the 2025 Canadian federal election, and featured discussions on the importance of interprovincial investing, global cooperation, and how to further incentivize risk capital.
The event was also the site of the 2025 NACO Awards, which recognized the country’s angel investor of the year, a lifetime of achievement, as well as Daniel Debow and Arlene Dickinson standing out amongst eight crowned “Nation Builders.”
Antler Canada adds former Quandl CEO Tammer Kamel as VC firm gears up for Fund II
Antler Canada, the Canadian fund and division of Singapore-based global early-stage venture capital firm Antler, has brought on tech entrepreneur Tammer Kamel as general partner.
Kamel is the co-founder and former CEO of Toronto-based financial data platform Quandl, a FinTech startup that was acquired by Nasdaq in 2018. In his new role, he will support Antler Canada in deploying the remainder of its first VC fund, and help raise and co-lead its second.
Dozr founding CEO Kevin Forestell moves to chair while Dave Frazier joins as president
Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont. construction technology scaleup Dozr, which offers an online marketplace and white-labelled software for heavy equipment rentals, has shuffled co-founder Kevin Forestell to chair its board after nearly a decade as CEO.
Dave Frazier, who has a background in both construction and tech and is based in Utah, has joined as president to lead Dozr going forward.
“It’s been a lot of fun, a lot of really, really hard work, but it just felt like now is the right time to move on and try something new,” Forestell told BetaKit in an interview.
Former Plooto CEO Hamed Abbasi acquitted in sexual assault case
Hamed Abbasi, the co-founder and former CEO of Toronto payments scaleup Plooto, has been found not guilty of the charge of sexually assaulting a woman in 2023. The alleged sexual assault took place at a Toronto hotel following a night of drinking between both parties.
Justice Jennifer Strasberg of the Ontario Court of Justice acquitted Abbasi this week after determining that the complainant had the capacity to consent, and that the Crown failed to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that she did not consent to the sexual activity with Abbasi that took place that night.
Shopify rolls back $1-million USD revenue exemption for app developers
Canadian e-commerce giant Shopify is rolling back a revenue sharing exemption that allowed developers on its app store to keep the first $1 million USD ($1.39 million CAD) they generated every year.
Now, the revenue sharing exemption will only apply to the first $1 million USD of a developer’s lifetime revenue, with the 15 percent share on amounts above that remaining unchanged. Shopify said it will use its increased share of the developer revenue to “fund tools, infrastructure, and innovation that benefit developers at every stage.”
FEATURED STORIES FROM OUR PARTNERS
With tariffs and trade dominating the news, Consensus 2025 announced a second wave of speakers including Dave Portnoy, Eric Trump, Robert Hines, and Sergey Nazarov. The conference lineup covers both sides of the US-Canada border, with a record-breaking concentration of Canadian founders and builders who will all be waving the Web3 flag in Toronto this month.
The event will explore how Web3 could offer alternatives to increasingly unstable global systems, and focuses on decentralized technologies that don’t play by traditional market rules. Read more about the speakers shaping North America’s biggest crypto conference.
🇨🇦 Weekly Canadian Deals, Dollars & More
- VAN – Reusables raises $3.6M to help cafeterias scrap single-use
- VAN – CICE invests $2.46M in five women-led cleantech companies
- CGY – OCIF receives $60 million to scale local businesses
- CGY – Veerum closes $12M to develop digital twins for industry
- KW – Axibo secures $12M to open humanoid robotics division
- TOR – Xanadu unveils a pair of new American partnerships
- MTL – Incubator Centech secures $4.5M in provincial funding
- MTL – Brightspark spinout Brio nabs $3M to help VCs manage LPs
- MTL – Five companies selected for Québec Tech’s Stage V program
- DRT – Planetary wins $1.39M from XPrize
- STJ – Kraken Robotics reports strong fiscal year profit and revenue
The BetaKit Podcast — Joe Canavan has a plan for Canada to become an innovation nation
“I feel like doing this is one of the greatest gifts of my life. Working with these people energizes me.”
Joe Canavan, principal at Canavan Capital, is Canada’s 2025 Angel of the Year. Recorded live at the NACO Summit in Ottawa, Canavan discusses his passion and enthusiasm for investing in tech after a career in finance, and what Canada should do to bolster its productivity and economic sovereignty.
Take The BetaKit Quiz – This week: Microsoft vibe codes, a Trump in Toronto, Sam Altman is annoyed
Think you’re on top of Canadian tech and innovation news? Time to prove it. Test your knowledge of Canadian tech news with The BetaKit Quiz for May 2, 2025.
Feature image courtesy NACO.