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
Federal #Budget2022 surprisingly heavy on innovation policy
No Canadian DARPA, SR&ED reform is coming, and our clusters are no longer super. #Budget2022 had a lot for Canada’s innovation sector.
Sid Paquette will now head RBC Ventures and RBCx
Nearly two years after joining RBC, Sid Paquette is now the head of both RBCx and Ventures, the bank’s venture arm. Paquette first joined RBC in 2020 to launch RBCx, the technology and innovation banking group.
New report shares stories of the biases women entrepreneurs face raising capital
That women technology entrepreneurs must travel longer routes from startup to scale-up is a fact that resonates with Sampler founder and CEO Marie Chevrier Schwartz.
Eight months after a personal tragedy and a lab fire, e-Zinc has bounced back with a $31 million CAD Series A
“Last August, we had two bad pieces of news,” e-Zinc CEO James Larsen told BetaKit in an interview. The first was the death of the company’s founder, Xiaoge “Gregory” Zhang, at 64, following a battle with cancer. The second was a fire at e-Zinc’s battery testing lab.
With new investment product, is Neo Financial’s biggest competition now Wealthsimple and Questrade, or the big banks?
The three-year-old startup has been vocal about its plans to take on Canada’s incumbent financial giants by creating a full suite of FinTech products. Today, the company officially launches its new product, Neo Invest.
Amid NFT boom, Liquid MarketPlace aims to turn physical sports and Pokémon cards into tokens
While Dapper is partnering with sports leagues across the world to create digital collectibles, other companies are looking to leverage the same underlying tech to offer fractional equity stakes in actual sports trading cards and other rare physical assets.
Latest Funding, Acquisitions, and Layoffs
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VIC – Cognito Health – $1.1M (read more)
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VAN – Legible lays off 23 of its 60 employees (read more)
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SSK – MyComply – $5.6M (read more)
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TOR – Cosm Medical – $4.7M (read more)
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TOR – Uplinq – $4.4M (read more)
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TOR – Cybrid – $3.8M (read more)
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MTL – Spark Microsystems secures $7.1M from SDTC (read more)
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MTL – Sollum secures $2.5M from SDTC (read more)
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MTL – Fintech Cadence receives $400K government grant(read more)
CAN AN APP BE MEDICINE?
“What’s it like when an app doesn’t just connect you to a doctor… it’s the medicine?”
A4i’s Amos Adler and Dr. Sean Kidd join to discuss the difference between telemedicine and digital therapeutics, supporting complex mental health challenges with an app, and the struggles of Canada’s healthcare system.
HOW CANADIAN TECH CAN HELP UKRAINIANS
“There’s such a heavy emotional toll of uncertainty and not knowing what’s going to happen with your life.”
Ilya Brotsky (CEO of VanHack) and Daryna Kulya (co-founder and COO of OpenPhone) discuss Ukraine tech, connections to Canada, and ways to help Ukrainians fleeing war.
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