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Cohere closes $125 million USD Series B round led by Tiger Global (BETAKIT)
Toronto-based AI startup Cohere has secured $125 million USD in Series B financing to fuel its United States expansion plans. Cohere, which aims to make natural language processing more accessible, first emerged from stealth in May 2021 and announced a $40 million USD Series A round in September.
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ESentire tops US$1-billion valuation as Georgian, Caisse lead $325-million investment in Canadian cybersecurity firm (THE GLOBE AND MAIL)
ESentire tops US$1-billion valuation as Georgian and Caisse lead a $325-million investment in the Cambridge, Ont. cybersecurity firm.
Mila partners with AI Sweden to bolster AI R&D in Canada and Sweden (BETAKIT)
Mila and AI Sweden joined forces in the fall when the latter took up space in Mila’s office. AI Sweden has placed staff at Mila, essentially giving it a physical presence in Montréal.
Sports media company WSC Sports raises $100 million (AXIOS)
The Israel-based company’s growth reflects the changes rapidly disrupting the sports media industry.
Canadian tech salaries jumped 38 percent since 2019, but attracting talent is tough: reports (BETAKIT)
“Global hiring has never been more popular between pandemic-related office closures, fierce talent competition, and a bevy of online tools enabling collaboration and reducing hiring complications,” the report noted.
Texas sues Meta over Facebook’s facial-recognition practices (WALL STREET JOURNAL)
Meta, which has ended the practices at issue, says the claims are without merit.
The many obstacles to inclusion in startups (and one aid from Innovate BC) (BETAKIT)
As companies globally face the Great Resignation or Great Reshuffle, building inclusive workspaces is necessary to not only fill staffing gaps but also stem the tide of resignations within your organization.
New report on Canadian venture, private equity landscape shows firms failing when it comes to inclusion side of D&I (BETAKIT)
Based on a Diversio survey of 413 individuals, the number of women venture capital (VC) investors has increased since 2019, but still make up less than 20 percent of all partners in Canada.
What the history of AI tells us about its future (MIT TECHNOLOGY REVIEW)
IBM’s chess-playing supercomputer Deep Blue was eclipsed by the neural-net revolution. Now, 25 years on, the machine may get the last laugh.
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.
The Pentagon is spending millions on AI bias detection tools (PROTOCOL)
Money from a $249 million Defense Department blanket purchase is trickling to enterprise AI providers like Arthur and DataRobot.
BetaKit Live: Checking in with BC’s SaaS Unicorns, Clio and Trulioo on February 23rd (BETAKIT)
On Wednesday, February 23rd at 4:00 pm ET, BetaKit Patreon supporters have a front-row seat to hear from both startups on transitioning strategies and searching for growth after attaining unicorn status.
DeepMind A.I. helps control nuclear fusion reaction, potentially producing more energy (FORTUNE)
New research shows that artificial intelligence can be used to more precisely control a nuclear fusion reaction, potentially helping accelerate the development of nuclear fusion as a practical power source.
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).