S|W: The SaaS Weekly – ApplyBoard co-founder launches new skilled worker startup as feds update talent strategy

Plus: Snowflake expands Canadian engineering hub.

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ApplyBoard co-founder launches Passage to address Canada’s skilled worker shortage with $40-million seed round (BETAKIT)

Martin Basiri, co-founder and former CEO of ApplyBoard, has a new startup that aims to help fill Canada’s skilled labour gap.

Founded this year and armed with $40 million CAD in initial seed funding, Passage is building a software platform designed to match international students and immigrants to Canadian workforce needs and connect them with financing.


IBM acquires Apptio from Vista for $4.6B in cash to double down on hybrid cloud services (TECHCRUNCH)

IBM made a big acquisition doubling down on hybrid cloud architecture: it will pay $4.6 billion in cash to buy Apptio — which has built a platform to track how and where data lives in hybrid environments and how it’s being used, in particular how that tallies up in terms of financial and resource costs.


Immigration Minister details strategy for attracting foreign tech talent, digital nomads (BETAKIT)

Canada is in a global race for the worldwide tech talent pool, according to Immigration Minister Sean Fraser. In a bid to stay ahead of competition, Fraser introduced what he called the country’s first strategy focused on attracting foreign tech workers.


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Snowflake eyes growth in Canada, expands Toronto engineering hub (BNN BLOOMBERG)

With 130 employees in Canada, Snowflake's engineering strength has doubled since it opened its Toronto headquarters last year. Shannon Katschilo, Snowflake’s country manager for Canada, said the company is still going “full steam ahead” with hiring, planning to grow its engineering team three-fold this year alone.


Jombone secures $1 million from FedDev to address industrial staffing needs (BETAKIT)

Toronto-based startup Jombone, which offers a digital staffing platform, has secured a $1-million investment from the Federal Economic Development Agency for Southern Ontario to address the hiring needs of companies in the industrial sector.


Tech Startup Byju’s Seeks to Calm Investors as Crisis Escalates
(BNN BLOOMBERG)

Byju’s, the Indian education-technology firm that lost its auditor and three board members in one week, has begun damage control as regulators and investors amp up scrutiny of a startup that once symbolized the country’s internet boom.


PitchBook analysts say 2023 VC funding is "pretty much shot," long-term recovery appears likely (BETAKIT)

As the economy has deteriorated, non-traditional investors have pulled back from the venture capital space and the IPO market has cooled.

Despite some positive signs recently indicating that the state of play is on its way toward improving, PitchBook analysts believe that it will still take some time for the overall VC market to rebound—let alone reach its previous highs.


New Relic will lay off another 255 in latest restructuring
(OREGON LIVE)

New Relic, long a major Portland technology employer, said it will conduct its third round of layoffs in as many years and eliminate up to 255 jobs, about 10% of its workforce.

New Relic’s software helps organizations monitor activity on their website and the performance of their online tools.


Loopio makes “difficult decision” to lay off nine percent of its team (BETAKIT)

Software startup Loopio has laid off nine percent of its staff, the CEO and co-founder announced on LinkedIn.

While the company didn’t disclose why it decided to downsize, the layoffs come right after Loopio announced its first acquisition as a startup in May.


Inside Thoma Bravo’s Software Playbook (THE INFORMATION)

Thoma Bravo had sold just one company worth more than $10 billion in the past three years. That was, until two weeks ago when Thoma Bravo hit yet another home run by using its playbook, built over years of doing software deals, to sell Adenza to Nasdaq Inc. for $10.5 billion.


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Alex Riehl

Alex Riehl

Alex Riehl is a staff writer and newsletter curator at BetaKit with a Bachelor of Journalism from Carleton University. He's interested in tech, gaming, and sports. You can find out more about him at alexriehl.com or @RiehlAlex99 on Twitter.

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