Shopify bolsters product design team with acquisition of Molly Studio
E-commerce giant’s new Product Design Studio to operate like an “internal agency.”
AI
Can one venture studio stop Canada’s AI brain drain?
With AXL, Dr. Daniel Wigdor plans to help launch 50 AI companies in the next five years and keep them in Canada.
Caseware replaces the majority of its C-suite as AI comes for the accounting tech stack
CEO David Marquis said he’s focused on “what’s required to win in the future.”
FreshBooks is making embedded finance feel invisible, and that’s the point
Andrew Gunner once tracked expenses from airports. Now, he helps FreshBooks make embedded finance feel seamless.
Databricks opens Vancouver R&D centre as data giant anticipates $100-billion USD valuation
New hub will be led by Ken Wong, who founded Vancouver startup Datajoy.
BDC commits another $200 million to startups building tech for legacy industries
Second Industrial Innovation Venture Fund to have increased focus on critical minerals.
Feds sign new agreement with Cohere to explore AI uses within government services
AI startup partnered with the Canadian government in June on AI research and safety.
Markham’s tech ecosystem helped this founder take on construction’s biggest bottleneck
With early backing from ventureLAB and YSpace, BidBlox AI is modernizing preconstruction across North America.
Vendasta launches AI agents to bring “enterprise-grade” automation to small businesses
Saskatoon software firm aims to make agentic AI more accessible for SMBs.
Cohere remains Canada’s AI hope
Plus: The bright spot in Québec’s gloomy VC landscape.
What can talking to AI teach us?
Former DarwinAI CEO Sheldon Fernandez discusses the virtues of being vulnerable with his ChatGPT-4o instance.
Bankruptcy docs claim faltering sales pipeline sunk Uvaro and Lighthouse Labs post acquisition
Workforce training platform Uvaro acquired coding school Lighthouse Labs this past January.
Healwell plans to offload research, patient businesses as it focuses on AI
Both Healwell and parent company Well Health reported record earnings in Q2.
Cohere secures $500 million USD at $6.8-billion valuation, hires former Uber and Meta execs
Chip giants AMD and Nvidia return as Canada’s Radical Ventures and Inovia co-lead.
US-based Landbase buys team and tech behind Canada’s Adauris to advance AI roadmap
Canadian-founded Landbase says Adauris alums will help it bring “vibe AI” to inbound marketing.