Canadian VC’s perfect storm, BC’s roaming robo-barns, and a CES tech check

According to the report, 2025 was the worst year for total dollars raised since 2016. It also had the fewest funds closed since 2018.

The report states that 21 Canadian VC funds collectively raised nearly $2.1 billion CAD from limited partners last year. The drop means there is less investment capital available today for domestic tech startups from fewer local firms.

The multibillion-dollar fundraise ​would reportedly nearly double the OpenAI competitor’s valuation, to $350-billion USD. 

The $10-billion USD round could close within weeks, although the size and terms could change, according to The Wall Street Journal.

AI for Earth is a scholarship open nationwide to any Canadian post-secondary student studying environmental science, meteorology, or a related field.

The program offers fully funded access to AI literacy training tailored to the field of environmental and atmospheric science.

Nadella wrote on his personal blog that we need to “get beyond the arguments of slop vs sophistication” and think of AI as “bicycles for the mind,” alluding to Steve Jobs’ description of the computer. 

“What matters is not the power of any given model, but how people choose to apply it to achieve their goals,” Nadella wrote.

Semmelink said his roving barn gave his chickens constant access to fresh grass, evenly distributed their manure, and the exercise resulted in better quality meat.

Semmelink was able to purchase the gadget thanks to an Innovate BC program that has awarded just over $4.5 million in grants to 80 farm projects across the province in the past year.

The specs of The Basic Phone prototype are equivalent to a Samsung Galaxy Pocket 2 from 2014. 

Founder Eric Bouchard unveiled his Canadian creation, a “dumbphone” that’s not too dumb or too smart, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas on Tuesday morning.

As far as BetaKit is aware, a hamster wheel generator was not showcased at CES this week. Unfortunately, “a taint-zapping stick-on” to improve male sexual performance was. 

The Verge showed off some of the weirdest tech its team saw at this year’s conference.

For 20 years, Sprung has supported big-name titles with both user interface (UI) and user experience (UX). 

This fall, the studio launched its first public-facing product, an AI tool called Sonar that captures how players around the web feel about games and scores them accordingly.  

Backboard raised a “substantial” pre-seed round to cure LLMs of their “amnesia.” 

Founded by Assent co-founder Rob Imbeault in April 2025, Backboard lets users pack up their AI interactions and plug the “memory” of their chats into more than 2,000 different LLMs, the company claims.

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