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How the Silicon Valley Bank shutdown might impact Canadian tech (BETAKIT)
The run on Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) has ended almost as quickly as it started, with news breaking Friday that the bank has been closed by regulators, which have taken control of its deposits.
This dramatic and quick downfall for one of tech's most prominent financial institutions is likely to have cascading effects across not only Silicon Valley but Canadian tech.
Qualtrics has $12B offer on the table to go private (TECHCRUNCH)
On Sunday, the company filed an 8-K form with the SEC indicating it has an offer to go private again in a $12.4 billion deal with Silver Lake and the Canadian Pension fund that values the company stock at $18.15 per share.
The principle stockholder, SAP, began looking for buyers in January, and this is the best offer it received. It will probably continue to look for a better one, but if it doesn’t come along, it will surely take this one.
Yaletown Partners hits $200 million final close for Innovation Growth Fund II (BETAKIT)
IGF II, Yaletown’s fourth fund to date, builds on the firm’s first Innovation Growth Fund, which closed in 2019 and totalled $130 million. With this final close of IGF II, Yaletown’s active funds under management now exceed $450 million.
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Meta looks to divest Kustomer amid efficiency drive (THE WALL STREET JOURNAL)
Meta decided earlier this year Kustomer was a noncore asset burning too much cash, sources said. At one point, Meta contemplated selling the business outright; it shifted course and more recently has been planning to keep a small stake in Kustomer when it returns to being a stand-alone business, one of the people said, though he cautioned that those plans could change.
Zenhub closes $10 million to make platform for managing software projects more accessible (BETAKIT)
Zenhub plans to use its Series A capital to support its transition into a more broadly accessible platform for software project management, beginning with today’s launch of its new Zenhub Issues product, which the company has been working on for the better part of a year.
Atlassian cuts 500 jobs as tech sector pain intensifies (THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD)
The redundancies represent 5 percent of the company’s workforce of more than 10,000 people.
Atlassian’s billionaire co-founders, Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar, said the company’s talent acquisition, program management and research and insights teams would be most affected.
Toronto venture funding saw a “return to sanity” in 2022 (BETAKIT)
Toronto’s venture funding in 2022 may have dipped from a record-breaking 2021, but still far surpassed 2020 and 2019, signalling a “return to sanity” for the city’s tech sector. Meanwhile, the Waterloo Region saw a continued decline in venture funding activity throughout 2022, culminating in a four-year low in deal volume.
Oracle banks on Cerner for cloud boost after mixed third-quarter results (REUTERS)
Oracle Corp narrowly missed quarterly revenue estimates on Thursday, but the company remained bullish on demand for its cloud software following the recent acquisition of electronic medical records firm Cerner.
Oracle has been beefing up its offerings with a focus on subscriptions to win large customers and better compete in the booming cloud services market dominated by tech heavyweights Microsoft and Amazon.
Loopio, Reelhouse co-founders launch Barley to help make employee compensation easier, more equitable (BETAKIT)
Barley has secured $5.4 million CAD ($4 million USD) to date in previously unannounced seed funding led by Golden Ventures for its newly-launched platform.
The startup, which helps companies structure, analyze, and manage employee compensation, targets small-to-medium-sized businesses and mid-market firms like Affinity, Flinks, and Properly in the tech, retail, financial, and professional services sectors.
TikTok is Canada's least trusted social media platform: TMU study (BNN BLOOMBERG)
The research published Thursday by Toronto Metropolitan University showed the short video app has nearly tripled its reach since 2019 with 29 per cent of survey respondents on the app, up from 10 per cent.
However, trust levels for social media platforms declined significantly from 2021, with just one in 10 Canadians having high trust in such apps. Trust in TikTok was particularly low, falling so far that the app replaced Facebook as Canada's least trusted social media organization.
Web3 startup Helika closes $4 million seed round led by Diagram Ventures (BETAKIT)
Helika’s platform delivers real-time analytics and onboards new users to gaming studios and popular NFT collections. The startup currently serves brands like Yuga Labs and Treasure, and plans to expand its operations and develop its platform to better serve the Web3 community.
Ten things worth reading on International Women’s Day (BETAKIT)
For International Women’s Day, BetaKit has updated the following list with new talking points, educational tools, and support resources. BetaKit has also updated its list of programs and organizations that support Canadian women in tech.
Six months after petition launch, federal minister calls market benefits plan “essential” to Global Talent Stream visa (BETAKIT)
The Plan requires participating companies in the Global Talent Stream to demonstrate how their hiring of international talent is having “positive impacts” on the local labour market.
It’s an aspect of the program that some in the Canadian startup community see as a time-consuming barrier built into a program meant to streamline hiring talent from abroad.
