VentureLab’s latest HardTech Summit explores barriers, opportunities facing Canadian deep tech startups
Event surveys state of play in Canada for hardware firms in medtech, AI, and other sectors.
AI
Quantum startup Photonic raises $137 million CAD, strikes strategic partnership with Microsoft
Photonic has an “audacious” five-year plan to build a fault-tolerant quantum computing platform.
A|I: The AI Times – Jim Balsillie says “AIDA needs to be scrapped completely” as Biden lays out new executive order
Plus: Thomson Reuters commits $100M a year to GenAI, Google $2B to Anthropic.
NGen commits $19 million to 12 new AI manufacturing projects
Industry contributions bring the total value of the projects to $55 million.
Sanctuary AI, RainStick among #CDNtech companies named to TIME’s 2023 Best Inventions list
The list also recognized neural earbud developer Naqi Logix and lithium tech firm Li-Metal.
Open banking is dead, Techno-Optimists want a war
Marc Andreessen’s manifesto is flawed. But it shows a greater sense of the moment than our politicians.
Electronic circuit manufacturer SMT Intelligence raises $68 million from the Fonds FTQ
SMT uses robotics, AI to produce over eight million electronic circuits annually.
A|I: The AI Times – Google & Nvidia are betting on this Canadian startup to boost ML model performance
Plus: Hinton and Bengio among leaders signing new AI policy letter.
Promise Robotics nets $20.8-million CAD Series A to speed up home building with robots
The startup turns standard industrial robots into plug-and-play homebuilding systems.
Kento Health raises $4.1 million CAD to bring AI to cardiovascular care
Dialogue alumni’s new startup is gearing up to strike hard in the battle against the leading cause of death.
BDC Capital recommits to leading seed deals in startups across Canada with new $50-million fund
VCs applaud BDC’s commitment to direct seed funding, ask for more emerging manager support.
Deloitte spinout Arteria AI closes $46-million CAD Series B to help banks turn documents into data
Backers include GGV Capital, Citi, BDC Capital, Information VP, and Illuminate Financial.
Hinton, Bengio, among 24 expert signatories with policy-focused AI recommendations in new letter
Signatories include multiple CIFAR chair members behind Canada’s Pan-Canadian AI Strategy.
Google and Nvidia-backed CentML secures $37 million CAD to help companies deploy AI amid chip shortages
Toronto startup wants to help AI hardware “starvation period” by optimizing ML models.
A|I: The AI Times – OpenAI employee secondary values company at at least $80 billion
Plus: Why Korean car makers want Tenstorrent’s AI hardware.