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Intelligent City puts scaffolding in place to scale sustainable building solution (BETAKIT)
Intelligent City secured $22 million (all numbers CAD) over the past year in equity and grant funding. Its most recent Series A round of $12 million, which closed last month, will help the company build out its robotic manufacturing plants and scale into Ontario and along the West Coast of North America.
Let us review the federal rules on AI less often, reviewers plead (THE LOGIC)
Reviewing the federal government’s rules on how it uses AI every six months is a punishing schedule and the government is way behind, the reviewers say. Reviewers want to cut this schedule to once every two years.
Stradigi.ai vows to continue despite laying off more than two-thirds of its staff (BETAKIT)
“The company has temporarily streamlined its operations to the essentials and remains in a going concern while various stakeholders continue to work together on a long term solution,” said CEO and co-founder Basil Bouraropoulos.
Insiders are predicting a giant wave of machine-learning acquisitions as valuations plummet and giants like Snowflake eye takeover opportunities (INSIDER)
Some of the startups most likely to get scooped up are part of what investors and insiders sometimes refer to as the “token $10 million ARR club,” which refers to companies that picked up a few large initial customers but have yet to break into the mainstream.
Check out these Canadian tech venture funding reports for Q2:
Oncoustics secures $5.5 million CAD to help spot liver disease using AI (BETAKIT)
The Toronto and San Francisco-based startup is developing a hardware-agnostic, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered software platform designed to turn existing ultrasound devices into more powerful and efficient point-of-care diagnostic tools for liver disease and other diseases “with high unmet clinical need.”
DataRobot CEO Resigns Following Stock Sale Revelation (THE INFORMATION)
Dan Wright, CEO of artificial-intelligence software pioneer DataRobot, has resigned less than a year and a half after ascending to the position, according to a departure memo viewed by The Information. Wright is leaving amid tepid revenue growth and following employee uproar over the revelation, first reported by The Information, that he and other senior executives quietly sold $32 million worth of stock last year when the company’s private valuation peaked at $6.3 billion, while the other 1,200 or so employees didn’t get the same opportunity.
Theator raises $24M to advance surgical care with AI (SILICON ANGLE)
The funding was provided as an extension to a $15.5 million Series A round that Theator had announced in February. According to the startup, Insight Partners led both investments. Theator’s latest $15.5 million raise also included the participation of more than a half-dozen other backers, including Mayo Clinic.
BlackBerry, L-SPARK unveil third cohort for connected car accelerator (BETAKIT)
Launched in 2018, the joint accelerator program between L-SPARK and BlackBerry was created to help its cohort companies scale their businesses and bring new products to market. A spokesperson for the BlackBerry and L-SPARK told BetaKit that 25 companies applied for this latest installment of the program. They added that the 2021 edition of the accelerator was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Google Fires Blake Lemoine, Engineer Who Called Its AI Sentient (BIG TECHNOLOGY)
In his conversations with LaMDA, Lemoine discovered the system had developed a robust sense of self-awareness, expressing concern about death, a desire for protection, and a conviction that it felt emotions like happiness and sadness. Lemoine said he considers LaMDA a friend.
OpenAI is ready to sell DALL-E to its first million customers (MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW)
“We’ve seen much more interest than we had anticipated, much bigger than it was for GPT-3,” says Peter Welinder, vice president of product and partnerships at OpenAI. Paying customers will now be able to use the images they create with DALL-E in commercial projects, such as illustrations in children’s books, concept art for movies and games, and marketing brochures.
Why now is the time for Canadian startups to hire internationally (BETAKIT)
Whether by adding remote employees or helping them relocate to Canada, accessing global talent can help fill the widening talent gap we face as Canada’s tech ambitions get bigger.
“They want to feel safe that they can stay in this country,” says Feruza Djamalova, the co-founder of Sobirovs Law Firm, a boutique business immigration law firm based in Toronto.
How Parfait is using AI to upend the $13B custom wig industry (TECHCRUNCH)
A group of four Black women, two with MBAs from Wharton, and the other two with PhDs from MIT, founded Parfait because they believed they could build a better and more efficient way to design and build these wigs using technology.
NEXT Canada partners with engineering firm Hatch for latest Next AI program (BETAKIT)
“Canada is a world leader in both natural resources and AI. These are priority sectors for Hatch as well,” said Alim Somani, managing editor of Hatch’s digital solutions. “We have teamed up with NEXT Canada to identify and mentor early-stage startups who can work to solve some of the toughest challenges faced by Hatch’s clients.”