R|T: The Retail Times – Shopify adds new merchant tools, loses long-time VP
Plus: Shein makes an aggressive pitch to woo US Amazon sellers.
fintech
Graphite Ventures closes $110-million Fund IV as firm builds its national presence
Graphite has added Albertan LPs and VCs, and recently invested in Montréal-based Maxa.
A|I: The AI Times – Cohere releases Coral, Shopify unveils AI suite
Plus: Yoshua Bengio issues stark warning to U.S. Senate.
Neo Financial goes all-in on embedded finance with new suite of credit cards
The FinTech startup is partnering with Tim Hortons, Cathay Pacific to offer rewards.
Luge Capital’s David Nault on making investment decisions through the AI hype cycle
Nault: AI is the “latest shiny thing that a lot of people are running after.”
Hopper to power travel portal for Brazilian digital banking giant Nubank
Hopper brought travel booking to Uber UK and is now targeting Nubank’s 80 million customers.
These two Canadian cities added 115,000 tech jobs in the last five years
Plus: BC and Toronto venture funding bounced back in Q2 2023.
Nuvei, Plaid extend payments partnership to expand to different regions and businesses
The FinTech company and payments startup are joining forces to roll out more features.
Canada’s private tech firms gather to talk AI, growth, global appeal
Steve Wozniak tells Canadian Private Technology Conference to find “reasonable ways” to deal with AI.
Startupfest 2023 awards Hutsy twice while Ora Medical receives BDC prize match
Ora secured BDC, crowd matching investments on top of the $100K Women in Tech award.
Graphite Ventures secures $10 million from AEC to continue Alberta commitment
The Toronto-based VC firm recently invested in the Calgary startup WaitWell.
Tiptap and Omnirobotic pursue restructuring after startups fail to raise additional funding
As VC financing has dried up, a growing number of Canadian tech firms are running out of cash.
A|I: The AI Times – PitchBook says VC is done for 2023, but AI startups continue to raise
Plus: OpenAI’s personal assistant plans may spark a rivalry with benefactor Microsoft.
Feds update talent strategy as cleantech flees south
Plus: PitchBook analysts say 2023 VC funding is “pretty much shot.”
PitchBook analysts say 2023 VC funding is “pretty much shot,” long-term recovery appears likely
PitchBook analyst: “It’s not going to be a six-month turnaround.”