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Raquel Urtasun’s Waabi unveils “revolutionary” autonomous vehicle testing simulator (BETAKIT)
AI and self-driving car expert Raquel Urtasun says the next generation of autonomous vehicle technology is here. Eight months after coming out of stealth mode with her company, and securing $100 million CAD in initial capital, Urtasun has unveiled the capabilities of Waabi’s technology.
Scandit snaps up $150M at a $1B+ valuation for its computer vision-based data capture technology (TECHCRUNCH)
Warburg Pincus led the round, with previous backers Atomico, Forestay Capital, G2VP, GV, Kreos, NGP Capital, Schneider Electric, Sony Innovation Fund and Swisscom Ventures all also participating. The company has now raised $300 million.
D-Wave hopes to raise $431 million CAD as it prepares to go public via SPAC (BETAKIT)
The deal is anticipated to close in the second quarter of 2022, and is expected to give D-Wave a valuation of approximately $1.5 billion CAD ($1.2 billion USD).
Toronto tech institute tracking long COVID with artificial intelligence, social media (TORONTO STAR)
The framework parsed through tweets to determine which are first-person accounts about long COVID and then tallied up the symptoms described.
Odaia secures $17.5 million CAD to help pharma firms focus their sales and marketing with AI (BETAKIT)
Odaia’s platform aims to solve “a really key problem in a very big industry” — how to derive actionable, real-time commercial insights from pharmaceutical sector data. The Toronto-based software startup has secured approximately $17.5 million CAD in Series A funding to expand the reach of its software for commercial teams at pharma companies.
I.R.S. to end use of facial recognition for identity verification (NEW YORK TIMES)
After a bipartisan backlash, the agency will transition away from using a service from ID.me.
11 Canadian tech companies to watch in 2022 (BETAKIT)
ControlHQ’s co-founder is back with his #CDNtech crystal ball. Here’s Kevin Sandhu’s annual list of Canadian tech companies that will make significant strides in 2022.
Forma.ai quadruples annual revenue, sets out to disrupt sales compensation (BETAKIT)
“In this last year, not only have we truly demonstrated that we can handle the most complex of sales comp challenges, but we’re doing it in a way that’s totally disrupting how organizations operate, for the better,” Alazzam told BetaKit.
An ancient language has defied translation for 100 years. Can AI crack the code? (REST OF WORLD)
Machine learning can translate between two known languages, but could it ever decipher those that remain a mystery to us?
Nord Quantique closes $9.5 million seed round co-led by BDC Capital’s Deep Tech fund (BETAKIT)
Lemyre told BetaKit that Nord’s new capital brings its total funding to around $11 million CAD, and is earmarked for the advancement of its bosonic qubit technology in superconducting circuits.
Sony’s AI drives a race car like a champ (WIRED)
The company built GT Sophy to master the game Gran Turismo, but it may help the development of real self-driving cars.
Cyclica spins out startup, Perturba Therapeutics, from University of Toronto (BETAKIT)
“We created Perturba to combine our two approaches to drug discovery for many types of cancers that are really recalcitrant to other techniques,” said Naheed Kurji, co-founder, CEO and president of Cyclica.
Axya raises $3.9 million in seed extension to scale deployment of supply chain software (BETAKIT)
This brings the company’s total funding to $5.4 million in the last year across two rounds of all-equity seed funding. The first round was $1.5 million CAD, and closed in March.