Clio’s big raise, U of T’s special scholars, and BetaKit’s new managing editor

OpenAI’s ChatGPT violated German copyright laws by reproducing lyrics from songs by German artists such as Herbert Grönemeyer, a Munich court ruled this week.

The company trained its AI on protected content from nine songs, including Grönemeyer’s German hits “Männer” and “Bochum.”

Vistara managing partner Randy Garg said the firm is “friend-raising to the max, but we’re running out of friends.”

This week, Vistara closed its fifth private credit fund with $321 million USD after a two year fundraising process, bringing its total raised to date up to $700 million USD since 2015.

Concerns about a billboard in Toronto’s Union station went viral last week after revelations that it was using facial detection technology to track and analyze passerby data, including their age and gender.

Billboard owner Cineplex Digital Media said the tech only detects the presence of a face, and that no images or personal data are stored, with all data processing happening within milliseconds.

The University of Toronto hired three scholars from universities in the United States this week as part of a talent attraction strategy targeting people affected by upheaval in the country’s post-secondary institutions.

The new hires include a married pair of economists, Mark Duggan from Stanford University and Jacquelyn Pless from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, as well as Canadian-born astrophysicist Sara Seager, who is also from MIT.

In an interview with BetaKit, Clio CFO Curt Sigfstead did not offer any timeline for when Clio might go public, but emphasized that the company’s focus is on building a “100-year business.” 

After raising the Series G, which gave the Burnaby-based company a $5-billion USD post-money valuation, Sigfstead said Clio has secured the necessary capital to continue executing on its strategy as a private business.

In a Hot Tub Time Machine at SAAS NORTH, Bridgit founder Mallorie Brodie said she would still start a conventional software-as-a-service business today.

At the event, founders, investors, and tech leaders reflected on how the SaaS industry has changed, and how founders can create value in a world once dominated by their business model.

CoLab claims that, since the June launch of its AI peer checker, AutoReview, the product has amassed a waitlist of more than 47,000 engineers. The tool is trained on internal standards and guidelines to annotate drawings and 3D models to identify errors and non-conformances.

This week, the Newfoundland company raised $72 million USD in Series C funding  to develop new AI agents, build integrations with other engineering and AI applications, and expand partnerships.

BetaKit’s new managing editor Sarah Rieger is bringing over a decade of editorial experience from publications like The Huffington Post, CBC, and Wealthsimple Media, where she helped grow the TLDR newsletter to over 2 million weekly readers.

Sarah will add significantly to BetaKit’s award-winning pedigree. Her writing helped TLDR win a 2024 Webby Award for best business, news and tech newsletter. While at the CBC, Sarah won a Radio Television Digital News Association Canada award for her investigative work.