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
WonderFi to acquire Coinberry for $38.5 million in all-stock deal as Canada’s crypto space continues to consolidate
Less than a month after closing its acquisition of Bitbuy, Vancouver-based WonderFi has inked a deal to acquire another licensed Canadian crypto platform in Toronto’s Coinberry, for approximately $38.5 million CAD in WonderFi stock. As part of this acquisition, Cinaport Acquisition Corp. III has agreed to settle its lawsuit against Coinberry.
Impression Ventures secures $64 million for fourth fund, continues to bet on seed-stage FinTech
Feeling like they’ve hit their stride, managing partners Maor Amar and Christian Lassonde say Impression will remain a hands-on, seed-stage investor with Fund IV. But with winners like Wealthsimple and Symend under their belts, the pair want to be able to better capture the value of their winning bets.
Teachers’ Innovation Platform rebrands as Teachers’ Venture Growth, aims to double size of its portfolio investments
The venture capital and growth equity arm of the $242 billion CAD Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board (Ontario Teachers’), TVG said it will increase its portfolio to comprise seven to 10 percent of Ontario Teachers’ net assets over the next five to 10 years, up from approximately three percent today.
How Lending Loop pivoted from peer-to-peer lending to a cross-border banking platform for e-commerce
The eight-year-old startup was at a crossroads. Knowing that Lending Loop still had expertise and value to provide to small businesses, Pastoll and his team turned to their customers and started talking about alternative pain points they might face on a regular basis.
Toronto venture funding continued to reach new heights in Q1 2022, but tech valuations may be due for a cooling
Toronto’s tech sector once again swept venture funding records away in Q1 2022, but showed signs it may cool off in the coming quarters. Meanwhile, the first quarter also saw Alberta’s tech sector set a new venture funding record, British Columbia see strong results, while Waterloo Region “moved in the right direction,” according to new reports from briefed.in.
Latest Funding, Acquisitions, and Layoffs
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VAN – Responsive – $3.5M (read more)
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EDM – Telus backs new social impact-focused ScaleGood Fund (read more)
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WAT – VueReal – $14.4M (read more)
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TOR – Boxhub – $2.7M (read more)
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TOR – Vetster – $37.8M (read more)
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TOR – Savii – $10M (read more)
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TOR – Thentia – $10M (read more)
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TOR – Canvass Analytics – $5.7M (read more)
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TOR – WorkTango acquired by Kazoo (read more)
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TOR – Versapay acquires DadeSystems (read more)
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MTL – Cycle Capital, Demeter secure first close for $244.5M cleantech fund (read more)
DO CANADIAN FINTECHS WANT BANK KICKBACKS OR COMPETITION?
“That kind of gives me a brain boner. I get pretty excited.”
Changes to the Competition Act are coming. Can a “whole of government” approach break Canada’s oligopolies? Policy wonk Vass Bednar joins to read the tea leaves from Budget 2022.
QUIET TECH TOWNS & TWITTER’S ELON MUSK PROBLEM
“I both love and hate this question.”
BetaKit Associate Editor Meagan Simpson joins for her second AMA episode to answer a complex bunch of listener questions: what did the New York Times get wrong about Toronto tech? Is the Globe anti-competition? What should the banks do with their excess profits? What are the dangers of troll capital?
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