Welcome to BetaKit’s startup stories of the week! Here, you will find the week’s most important news, features, and editorials published on BetaKit. If you prefer this update hit your inbox every week, make sure to subscribe to the BetaKit Newsletter using the form at the bottom of this page.
Top Stories of the Week
C100’s new director wants organization to scale alongside Canada’s startup ecosystem
“If you look at where Canada was when C100 started back in 2009, the startup ecosystem in Canada looked very different," said Laura Buhler.
Report: $3.2 billion in VC investments made in Canada last year
BDC also noted that Canadian exits were an “order of magnitude” smaller than in the US, with $18 million versus $164 million in exits, respectively.
#SpotlightSeries: Michael Hyatt says VC money is the “most expensive or cheapest” a founder can take
In his #SpotlightSeries interview, BlueCat’s Michael Hyatt says “it’s expensive to take VC money and not spend it properly.”
Upside Foundation reaches 100 pledge milestone in its mission to turn equity into charity
The Upside Foundation is also the official charity partner of #BetaKit150.
Startup Milestones
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Financeit announces funding capacity of $85 million (Read here)
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With $2.1 million in funding, Zoom.ai wants its automated assistant to be the next Salesforce (Read here)
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Pressboard raises $2 million to develop AI assistant for its branded content marketplace (Read here)
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Automat raises $11 million Series A to build up conversational AI platform (Read here)
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Shopify’s social marketing bot now free for all merchants (Read here)
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RentMoola announces API partnership with Naborly, adds new property management features (Read here)
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LANDR partners with Chance the Rapper’s charity, hits one million users (Read here)
Must Reads
#BetaKit1on1: Real Ventures’ Janet Bannister shares the most important thing Canadian companies should focus on
“I think the most important thing in order to be a scale up and to be the next unicorn is how do you scale your sales and marketing?” said Bannister.
Ask an Investor: What do investors look for in a hardware startup?
In order to separate yourself from the pack as a hardware startup, it is important that you start thinking about ongoing revenue streams from day one.
CanCon Podcast Ep. 71: WWDC roundup + Apple and Google are changing the web (again)
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