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
How tech leaders like Shopify are TV-ifying the traditional company meeting
Like the pandemic’s acceleration of remote-first solutions like virtual school and telehealth, the post-COVID era has given rise to another trend, namely TV-ifying the traditional video conferencing experience, where large meetings look less like a standard Zoom call and more like a high-production show.
Canadian tech must embrace Indigenous reconciliation
While Canada is often viewed globally as a thriving hub of innovation, investment, technology, and education within the digital economy, Indigenous communities and practitioners are largely missing from the conversations and spaces about the future ‘smart’ and decentralized technologies.
Shopify reemphasizes brick-and-mortar with new mobile POS hardware
Shopify called Go a net new piece of retail hardware built specifically to run Shopify’s POS. Shopify first launched its POS software in 2013 and then relaunched it in 2020.
NACO report finds SAFEs on the rise in angel investment during record-breaking 2021
The increase in demand came as angel investment surpassed 2019 levels, reaching a record $262 million in 2021, according to the report, the full version of which was released today.
Canadian unicorns Neo Financial, Ada lead LinkedIn’s 2022 Top Startups list
For the fifth edition of its annual Top Startups list, LinkedIn also named (in order) Fable, Shakepay, ApplyBoard, BenchSci, Cohere, Certn, Drop, Dapper Labs, Snapcommerce, Manifest Climate, Irwin, TealBook, and Klue.
Toronto-Waterloo rises, Calgary and Montréal ecosystems to watch in Startup Genome’s global FinTech rankings
Of the regions named to the list, Toronto-Waterloo was the third biggest mover, jumping five spots from its 12th-place finish in Startup Genome’s 2020 FinTech report to seventh in the world, behind only Silicon Valley, New York City, London, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Beijing.
How finance teams can prepare for an IPO
In a webinar presented by Sage Intacct, Michael Lister, Leader, InsightsOfficer, at PwC, and David Appel, Head of Software and SaaS at Sage Intacct, shared the seven steps startup finance teams need to take when preparing to go public.
Important financial metrics every early-stage founder should know
Ali Ladha, a virtual CFO for startups & SMBs through his company Vertical CPA, talks about these problems regularly on his Twitter and YouTube channels. In viral tweet threads and various YouTube videos, Ladha explains the financial metrics every business owner should know, how to calculate them, and how they connect to operational decisions.
Latest Funding, Acquisitions, and Layoffs
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KIT – Avidbots – $70M (read more)
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OTT – Giatec – $5M (read more)
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MTL – HelloSafe – $4.2M (read more)
TWITCH IS DYING AND DEVIN NASH KNOWS WHY
“Essentially, Amazon has failed to make this company profitable. It doesn’t make money.”
Streamer, YouTuber, and Novo CEO Devin Nash joins to explain the myriad ways Amazon’s experiment with Twitch is failing to make money or anyone happy.
IS REAL VENTURES DONE? IS BDC JUST GETTING STARTED? (AMA EPISODE)
“Half a billion dollars for women in Canadian tech. Pretty cool!”
The BetaKit Podcast’s monthly AMA episode answers listeners’ (tough!) questions about bad news coming from Real Ventures and exciting news coming from BDC, with some Elevate highlights thrown in.
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