Harley Finkelstein’s Startupfest talk interrupted by protester
Shopify president asked about support for Israel’s actions in Gaza while speaking with Georges St-Pierre.
Briefs
At Startupfest, Georges St-Pierre and Harley Finkelstein compare notes on fear, focus, and ambition
UFC champ and Shopify president kick off Montréal tech conference with fireside chat.
Ontario gets new fund to back university life sciences spinouts
U of T, McMaster, and Ontario government team up on new $40-million fund.
Alberta invests $37 million into advanced drilling technologyÂ
Funding comes through Emissions Reduction Alberta’s Drilling Technology Challenge and will support 10 projects.Â
Xanadu visits the White House for quantum summit
Toronto quantum computing firm was the lone Canadian representative in attendance.
OpenText lays off two percent of its workforce
Roughly 400 global employees are now out of work, but OpenText says Canadian impact is “minimal.”
Winnipeg adtech Taiv among recipients of PrairiesCAN AI adoption funding
Canada’s AI minister announces $10.2 million for six Manitoba businesses.
Well Health to spin out and publicly list pure-play software business on TSXV
Vancouver-based healthtech has been preparing to spin out Wellstar since 2024.Â
Canada’s telco and banking incumbents form AI consortium
Scotiabank, Sun Life, Telus, and Lightworks team up to build AI infrastructure at the enterprise level.
ElevenLabs to open Toronto office and double Canadian headcount by end of 2026
Max Lemmens will lead AI voice startup’s expansion efforts as new Canadian GM.
Alberta is open-sourcing its AI playbook for government
Province releases series of white papers explaining how it used Claude, Gemini to upgrade government systems.
Canada’s real-time rail system will launch this year after achieving “critical milestone”
After years of consultations and delays, finance minister approves the RTR system’s bylaw and rules.
Mortgage B-lender Haventree launches online bank
Schedule 1 Canadian bank now offers chequing-and-savings accounts and GICs.
Descartes cruises into Latin America with acquisition of last-mile management platform Drivin
Waterloo-based logistics tech firm makes its 37th acquisition since 2016.
Paraito raises $2.65 million to automate grunt work for Québec notaries
Inovia-backed startup out of Montréal is using AI to speed up real estate title searches.