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LifeSpeak acquires Torchlight to expand digital education to caregivers (BETAKIT)
LifeSpeak, a Toronto-based employee and customer wellness software company, has acquired caregiver support platform Torchlight for $17.25 million in cash and over 160,000 in LifeSpeak shares.
Innovaccer valued at $3.2 billion in $150 million funding (TECHCRUNCH)
Mubadala Capital led the $150 million Series E round, pushing the startup’s all-time raise to over $375 million.
Nicoya’s $20 million Series A extension enables continued development of digital proteomics solution (BETAKIT)
Healthtech startup Nicoya Lifesciences has raised a healthy $20 million CAD Series A extension to assist in the continuing development and commercialization of its digital proteomics solution Alto, which helps scientists accelerate drug discovery.
Scoop: Amazon Pharmacy leaders demoted (AXIOS)
Amazon Pharmacy leaders TJ Parker and Elliot Cohen have quietly been demoted to roles as consultants for the company, two sources familiar with the matter tell Axios.
SVB report finds Canadian venture activity reached new heights in 2021 (BETAKIT)
Canada is set to finish off 2021 with a new record for venture capital deals, according to Silicon Valley Bank’s State of the Markets report for the fourth quarter of 2021.
Remote care management startup Cadence hits $1B valuation with $100M series B (FIERCE HEALTHCARE)
The company, which launched just months ago in August with $41 million in funding, provides a remote care platform to help patients manage chronic conditions at home and at scale.
Xandar Kardian raises $10 million for contactless health monitoring tech (BETAKIT)
Incorporated in 2017, Xandar Kardian develops contactless health monitoring solutions powered by digital ultra wide-band radar signal processing.
Weight care management startup Found lands $100M at a $600M valuation (TECHCRUNCH)
New CEO and former Bumble executive Sarah Jones Simmer described the round as oversubscribed and pre-emptive, considering the startup “had not planned” on the raise process.
New mandate letter gives Minister Champagne long to-do-list for Canadian tech and innovation (BETAKIT)
The letters came two months after Trudeau announced his new, post-election cabinet on October 26. The shuffle followed the September election, which saw the prime minister lose some of his cabinet ministers.
SoftBank-backed mental health unicorn Cerebral reneged on salaries and health insurance for hundreds of therapists (FORBES)
The company, which raised $300 million at a $4.8 billion valuation this month, changed the status of more than 200 employees from salaried to hourly workers in August and made their health insurance contingent on quotas in 2022.
How the global “phenomenon” of impact investing is heating up in Canada (BETAKIT)
In a recent BetaKit Live, Blair Miller, Managing Partner of the TELUS Pollinator Fund for Good, Chenny Xia, the CEO of Pollinator Fund portfolio company Gotcare, and Amit Bouri, the CEO of the Global Impact Investing Network (GIIN), looked back on how impact investing has developed globally, the growth of impact investing in Canada, and what it means to scale impact.
Whitecap Venture Partners closes $140 million Fund V to invest across Canada (BETAKIT)
Toronto-based Whitecap Venture Partners, which has a portfolio that includes Canadian tech companies like Bolt Logistics and Silofit, has secured $140 million CAD for its fifth fund. Through Fund V, Whitecap plans to expand its geographic investment focus to all of Canada, and allocate more capital towards the seed stage, as it looks to back more B2B software and medtech startups.
Cross-Border Impact Ventures launches with $30 million in commitments for women, youth-focused healthtech fund (BETAKIT)
CBIV plans to focus primarily on medical device, diagnostic, and digital health firms based in North America, Europe, and Israel, with a secondary eye towards commercial-stage companies in emerging markets that possess “global technology transfer potential.”
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