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.
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Top Stories of the Week
ACADEMICS, CEOS PUSH FOR AI REGULATION, AS CANADIAN COMPANIES RACE TO ADOPT THE TECHNOLOGY
Experts and leaders in the technology community are throwing their support behind the federal government’s proposed bill to regulate artificial intelligence in Canada.
Meanwhile, Ada, AlayaCare, Hootsuite, and Unbounce have all rolled out new AI products.
BDC LAUNCHES $150 MILLION SUSTAINABILITY FUND IN REVAMP OF INDUSTRIAL, CLEAN AND ENERGY TECHNOLOGY VENTURE FUND
BDC Capital has launched a new, $150 million CAD venture fund focused on helping Canada meet its sustainability and climate targets.
The Sustainability Venture Fund comes in addition to, and has a different thesis than, the $400 million CAD that BDC committed to its second Climate Tech Fund last year.
KB NAM OFFICIALLY NAMED PRESIDENT OF WATTPAD FOLLOWING RECENT LEADERSHIP CHANGE
Nam assumes this permanent position after Wattpad laid off 15 percent of its employees in March, when he was working as an interim role president at that time. Nam was initially hired as interim president in December 2022, following significant leadership changes at Wattpad.
RAGHWA GOPAL TO RETIRE AS HEAD OF INNOVATE BC, KICKING OFF SEARCH FOR NEW LEADER
Innovate BC has announced Raghwa Gopal, its president and CEO, is retiring in August.
Gopal was appointed to lead Innovate BC in 2019 after the organization’s previous CEO, Shirley Vickers, resigned at the beginning of that year.
YUNG WU TO DEPART AS MARS CEO AT END OF 2023 AS INNOVATION HUB BEGINS SEARCH FOR NEXT LEADER
Over the past five-plus years, Wu guided MaRS through the pandemic, helped MaRS launch its flagship scale-up program, a climate impact program, biotech accelerator, cleantech accelerator, Graphite Ventures, a $100 million private venture capital (VC) fund, and open a new waterfront campus.
BBTV RESOLVES DISPUTE WITH ETHAN KLEIN AS YOUTUBE CREATORS RAISE CONCERNS OVER REVENUE PAYOUTS
Klein argued that BBTV improperly withheld nearly $620,000 from his podcast dating back to December 2020, a concern other creators partnered with BBTV have echoed.
Latest Funding, Acquisitions, and Layoffs
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VIC – Certn – $30M (read more)
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VAN – Yield Exchange – $700K (read more)
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KIT – Miovision – $260M, acquires Global Traffic Technologies (read more)
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KIT – Fairly AI – $2.2M (read more)
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TOR – Flash Forest – $11.4M (read more)
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TOR – Piano Piano buys General Assembly's frozen pizza business (read more)
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TOR – Tab Commerce – $1M (read more)
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MTL – Medfar – $30M (read more)
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MTL – Optable – $26M (read more)
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MTL – Omy – $11M (read more)
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DAR – Ocean Supercluster invests $23M across 16 projects (read more)
Osler releases multi-year study of 350+ Canadian VC and growth equity financings
Osler’s market-leading Emerging and High Growth Companies Group has released its second annual Deal Points Report: Venture Capital Financings, a study of 353 anonymized venture capital and growth equity financings from 2020 to 2022, valued at more than US$6 billion.
This comprehensive report is a must read for founders, entrepreneurs, investors and advisors who are contemplating transactions in 2023 and beyond.
Read the Deal Points Report now.
The BetaKit Podcast
SCALE AI'S COO EXPLAINS HOW CANADA CAN BUILD AN AI-POWERED ECONOMY
"The goal here is not that Canada is the largest market for AI in the world—it's never going to be that. But if we make it the most willing to try new solutions, or to work with startups, that's where we might have an opportunity."
Clément Bourgogne, Chief Operating Officer at Scale AI, joins to discuss Canada's limitations and opportunities when it comes to AI, and why his organization is more focused on supply chains than generative AI.
IS CANADA READY FOR AN EV FUTURE?
"So this is the big pitch, right? There are all of these problems in the transport system; we are going to invent these new technologies that will solve it."
Flavio Volpe (Project Arrow, APMA) and Paris Marx (Road to Nowhere) join for a conversation on electric vehicles (EVs) and what the future of transportation in Canada might look like.
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