It’s easy to feel stretched in a thousand different directions right now.
A lot is happening all at once as old battle lines get redrawn: socially, economically, and … geographically? Look, a White House official reportedly wants to renegotiate the Canada-US border, so no line left unexamined, I guess.
As for tech? You can read several stories below detailing how tech intersects with these battle lines and who is lining up on either side. Beyond what I wrote in November of last year and January of this year, I’ll save you my opining (please check out my conversation with AccessNow’s Maayan Ziv, however. You won’t regret listening to what she has to say).
I do want to highlight one battlefront that is easy to overlook. In February, to little fanfare, the feds rolled out a new national cybersecurity strategy. In doing some background research, I stumbled upon this quote in a separate report from the Canadian Cybersecurity Network:
“In a landscape where state-sponsored actors, cybercriminals, and opportunistic threat actors operate with increasing efficiency, the urgency to develop robust cybersecurity strategies has never been greater.”
Ever read something so nakedly true that it just slaps you in the face?
The federal strategy acknowledges a persistent threat to Canada’s economic prosperity and national security. The strategy notes Canada has been targeted because of its NATO membership and support of Ukraine.
The strategy comes with some new funding, partially to train cybersecurity specialists with AI tools, but the document is predicated on finding a way to get governments, industry, law enforcement, academia, and international allies working together.
According to the strategy, securing Canada’s digital future requires forging whole-of-society partnerships. I’ve been looking at my laptop screen all week hoping we have it in us.
Douglas Soltys
Editor-in-chief
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TOP STORIES OF THE WEEK
DEI rollback is the “wrong direction for Canada,” open letter says
Nearly 1,000 Canadian tech leaders, investors, and workers have signed an open letter advocating for the industry to uphold the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) values some companies in the space have abandoned.
The letter notes Shopify as among the “influential tech companies” in Canada that have recently rolled back “protections and support” for underrepresented groups in tech.
“This is the wrong direction for Canada,” the letter reads.
This week, Montréal tech conference Startupfest announced it’s doubling down on DEI efforts for its 14th showing this summer, selling twice the number of Inclusion Initiative passes—which offer a 90-percent discount to founders from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds in tech—than it sold last year.
Shopify’s latest SEC filings show potential to become US-domiciled, TD analyst warns
Shopify has listed its New York City office alongside its normally-standalone Ottawa headquarters in a 10-K filing to the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) this month, taking steps that could accelerate its potential to become domiciled in the United States (US).
First noted by TD Securities managing director Peter Haynes in a series of index bulletins, it’s the first time Shopify filed a 10-K form with the SEC. A 10-K form is required from domestic issuers while, up until now, Shopify had been filing the 40-F form used by foreign issuers.
Haynes said the changes to Shopify filings could accelerate its potential to be a US domiciled company, but also noted that it now meets the criteria to gain membership into US indices, namely the Russell 1000.
“If an issuer thinks it can gain significant incremental index demand from US domestic indexers by switching headquarters to the US, then such a move appears to be a no brainer,” Haynes said.
CMD Capital halts fundraising amid “tough” VC market
Toronto and Montréal-based CMD Capital has halted fundraising and paused its operations indefinitely after failing to secure anchor institutional investors for its first fund, BetaKit has learned.
“It’s a very tough market right now for the whole ecosystem,” CMD Capital co-founder and general partner David Dufresne told BetaKit in an interview. He said CMD Capital saw “little to no appetite” to invest in first-time funds from institutional backers, due to factors including low limited partners liquidity and existing portfolio VC funds returning for re-ups.
This week, Montréal’s Holt Xchange made a rare move for a venture capital firm, announcing that it decided to raise money for its FinTech seed fund through the equity crowdfunding platform FrontFundr.
When asked whether Holt Xchange’s decision to raise capital in this way was informed by today’s challenging VC fundraising market conditions, founding general partner Jan Christopher Arp said “not exactly.”
Temu opens marketplace to Canadian vendors as ‘buy Canadian’ push picks up
Chinese online marketplace Temu is now allowing Canadian vendors to sell their wares on its platform, just as the political climate is pushing more Canadian consumers to buy domestically.
This marks the first time Canadian businesses will be able to sell Canadian-made products through Temu’s online marketplace. Previously, Canadian consumers could purchase discount goods from Temu, which were primarily manufactured in China.
Avitia launches AI-powered cancer diagnostics platform with assets from defunct Imagia Canexia
Montréal-based healthtech startup Avitia has launched its cancer diagnostics platform and closed a $5-million seed round, almost two years after purchasing assets from Imagia Canexia Health, which went bankrupt in 2023.
The seed round was entirely backed by Imagia Canexia’s former creditor and investor, PacBridge Capital Partners. The two startups share a CEO in James Lumsdaine, who is also a partner at the Hong Kong and Vancouver-based PacBridge.
Like its predecessor, Avitia is hoping to make cancer diagnostics more accessible and faster to access. It offers genetic screening for cancer mutations on-site, eliminating the need for cancer centres to send out lab tests to third parties, which can be costly and time-consuming.
Sanctuary AI, Nexera, and Novarc make deals and developments in busy week for Vancouver robotics companies
It’s been a busy week for Vancouver-based robotics companies, as Nexera Robotics, Sanctuary AI, and Novarc Technologies raised funding, made developments to their tech, and struck new partnerships.
Nexera Robotics, which develops robotic grasping technology, secured $4.5 million from BDC Capital’s Industrial Innovation Venture Fund, Defined, and RiSC Capital.
Meanwhile Sanctuary AI has integrated new tactile sensor technology into its Phoenix line of robots. Sanctuary said the integration helps pilots teleoperate the robots with more precision and accuracy.
Finally, Novarc Technologies has struck a partnership with Appleton, Wis.-based arc welding manufacturer Miller Electric to develop artificial intelligence-powered adaptive welding solutions powered for Miller’s Copilot collaborative welding line.
Using AI, University of Toronto team claims development of strongest nanomaterial yet
University of Toronto researchers have developed an “unparalleled” nanomaterial lattice they say combines the strength of carbon steel with the density of styrofoam, making it both the lightest and strongest material of its kind to date. The team claims the material can support over a million times its mass, but is still delicate enough to sit on top of a soap bubble.
The study’s authors see a wide range of potential uses. Nanomaterials have already been used for lightweight aircraft, solar energy systems, and other technologies where they can improve durability and performance. It’s estimated the nanolattices could save 80 to 100 litres of fuel per year in addition to reducing material use.
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CANADIAN DEALS & DOLLARS
- CAN – Feds disperse $39.2M across 22 orgs for CanCode
- VAN/TOR – MerchKit closes $2M pre-seed round
- VAN – Opal secures $1.5M USD in pre-seed funding
- WPG – SkipTheDishes parent to be acquired in $6.2B deal
- TOR – Promise Robotics opens new factory to boost housing supply
- TOR – Vault rebrands to Venn following $21.5M Series A round
- OTT – Rewind inks partnership with software giant Monday
- LAV – Cleantech startup Dispersa secures $5.8M in seed funding
- MTL – TandemLaunch closes $37M Fund IV for deep tech startups
- MTL – Paperplane Therapeutics raises $1.5M
The BetaKit Podcast — Rejecting the rejection of DEIA with AccessNow’s Maayan Ziv
“It feels like my inclusion was optional, and that is a scary message to be told. ‘We were doing you a favour by letting you in the room.’”
AccessNow founder and CEO Maayan Ziv has been working in the accessibility space for over a decade—long enough to know that progress is slow and takes a fight. With DEIA currently being blamed for “everything from bad business decisions to plane crashes,” Ziv joins to explain why she feels the fight is “slipping through our fingers.”
The BetaKit Quiz — This week: Temu and the Oscars buy Canadian, Sam Bankman-Fried weighs in on DOGE
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 Feb. 28, 2025.
Feature image courtesy the Canadian Cybersecurity Network.