What a week!
BetaKit pounded the pavement hard over the last seven days to deliver the award-winning Canadian tech coverage you’ve come to expect from us. In this newsletter, you’ll find not only the major national tech news, but oodles of coverage of Canada’s largest grassroots tech event, Toronto Tech Week.
That coverage, of course, includes both BetaKit Most Ambitious and BetaKit Most Ambitious: Town Hall. Words and video from our Town Hall can be found below, but I wanted to use my little corner of the newsletter to highlight select pieces from the issue:
- Like our feature on Dominion Dynamics’ ambition to become Canada’s first line of Arctic defence
- Or our Q&A with Erin O’Toole on how Canada can play catch-up on defence innovation
- Our profile of AI champion Cohere and how the company is selling Canada to the world
- Vass Bednar’s op-ed on minimum viable sovereignty
- A feature on the unassuming Albertan farm that is a pipeline for AgTech innovation
- The Q&A with FCC president Justine Hendricks on how Canada can feed the world
- An interview with Gilles Brassard, Canada’s newest Turing Award winner
- And a brief manifesto on why we wrote the issue in the first place
There is so much more packed into this year’s BetaKit Most Ambitious, so I won’t spoil it all. But I know many of you want a physical copy (or two!) of your own, and I am happy to spoil the solution to that problem: simply drop us an email.
Be bold, Canada. Our moment is now.
Douglas Soltys
Editor-in-chief
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What you missed at BetaKit Most Ambitious: Town Hall
BetaKit kicked off Toronto Tech Week by packing the TIFF Lightbox with 500 leaders from Canada’s innovation ecosystem to discuss our nation’s autonomy, security, and prosperity.
- AI Minister Evan Solomon told attendees that he’s more worried about creating new Canadian unicorns than monopolies.
- Dominion Dynamics founder and CEO Eliot Pence said that in an era of modern warfare, Canada can no longer afford sluggish timelines in defence
procurement. - Waabi CEO Raquel Urtasun believes that if Canada goes “all in” on physical AI, the country could lead the industry for decades.
- Former BlackBerry co-CEO Jim Balsillie posited that, if Canada wants to compete with the United States, it might need to follow its economic playbook.
Tech leaders took the stage at Homecoming
At Toronto Tech Week’s flagship event, Canadian business leaders offered thoughts on how AI will affect the future of business and labour.
- While Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke believes it’s now possible to build a billion-dollar company with one person, he thinks the concept is “bullshit.”
- As Uber invests in autonomous vehicles, the company’s president and COO, Andrew Macdonald, can’t say specifically what its 10.5 million drivers will be doing in 15 years.
- From investor burn books to FaceTiming Serena Williams, the founders of Float, Neo Financial, and Rebel shared the lessons they learned from fundraising efforts.
Talkin’ TTW
As the official media partner of Toronto Tech Week, the BetaKit team captured conversations, announcements, and insights from across the city.
On AI policy:
- The federal AI minister’s parliamentary secretary told attendees at All In Talks that Canada’s long-delayed AI strategy aims to stop IP and value from leaving the country.
- Arteria AI CEO Shelby Austin followed that by saying on stage that she is worried about what Canada is leaving on the table by picking national AI champions.
On AI slop:
- Databricks co-founder Reynold Xin and Ada CEO Mike Murchison argued that recent student backlash against AI “makes sense,” but there’s room for students to reframe their relationship with the tech.
- Award-winning author Ken Liu said that he isn’t afraid of AI slop, but finds the idea of writing with AI “revolting.”
On industry:
- Defence tech founders said they are frustrated with Canada’s approach to “dual-use,” and asserted that Canada needs to reframe its approach.
- Amidst his own battle with OSC, Purpose CEO Som Seif claimed incumbents wield the regulated nature of the financial industry against change.
- Before it was sold to Nvidia, CentML co-founder Gennady Pekhimenko said the startup struggled to find local adopters willing to take a risk.
You can read more about the above and all of BetaKit’s Toronto Tech Week coverage here.
FEATURED STORIES FROM OUR PARTNERS
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As AI increasingly integrates into healthcare, Healthcare AI startups like Heidi Health are leveraging this shift by prioritizing clinical safety and data governance from the start. This strategic focus has successfully fueled their regulatory approval and growth within Canada.
Across Canadian tech
- The federal government is considering amendments to Bill C-22 amid backlash from tech leaders and civil liberties groups.
- The Business Development Bank of Canada now says Canada’s early-stage investment gap is “a sovereignty issue.”
- As SpaceX and Anthropic gear up for the public markets, Wealthsimple says it will offer early access to IPO trading.
- WonderFi has cleared the final regulatory hurdle to be acquired by Robinhood, more than a year after the initial deal was signed.
- A spinoff of the Nasdaq stock exchange is suing Vancouver-based Hiive for patent infringement.
- Fredericton-based identity verification software Lastwall has raised $16 million to defend North America’s critical infrastructure in cyberspace.
- Montréal and San Francisco-based Saris AI has raised a $28.8-million USD Series A round to automate banks’ back offices.
The BetaKit Podcast — AI sovereignty & defence tech at BetaKit Most Ambitious: Town Hall
“Everywhere I go, BetaKit is there. They grill me. Every time I say something, I say ‘I wish I didn’t say that’ because BetaKit recorded it.”
Couldn’t attend BetaKit Most Ambitious: Town Hall? Don’t worry. Enjoy our Vantage Points panel on Canadian defence and dual-use tech, featuring leaders from Dominion Dynamics, Sentinel R&D, and Xanadu, followed by a fireside chat with AI Minister Evan Solomon.
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BetaKit is the official media partner of Toronto Tech Week.
Feature image courtesy Lilac for BetaKit.