In the last week, three Canadian startups have added new members to their teams. Here’s a breakdown of who is joining, and what they bring to the table.
Yuri Takhteyev joins Wealthsimple
Yuri Takhteyev has joined Toronto-based FinTech Wealthsimple as the vice president of engineering.
At Rangle.io, Takhteyev served as CTO for over five years, leading technology and service delivery to help scale the company as it grew from three to nearly 300 people. Prior to that, he spent 15 years working in Silicon Valley and Toronto as an engineer and academic researcher, focusing on interactions between people and technology.
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“There is still so much untapped opportunity to leverage technology to improve the personal finance experience and help people achieve financial freedom faster and with less hassle,” said Takhteyev. “Wealthsimple’s talented and diverse team is perfectly positioned to be a global leader in the industry, and I am thrilled to be joining it.”
Takhteyev will lead Wealthsimple’s engineering division, supporting the strategy and development of the company’s product roadmap and platform for retail and B2B businesses.
Hamnet Hill joins Breathe Life board
Montreal insurtech startup Breathe Life has tapped Hamnett Hill, partner at Diagram Ventures to join its board of directors.
Hill co-founded TotalNet, an early internet service providers, Zero-Knowledge Systems, an online privacy and security company, and Smooch.io, a B2C omnichannel messaging software provider, which was recently acquired by Zendesk. Following the acquisition, Hill joined as a Partner at Diagram Ventures, of which Breathe Life is a portfolio company.
“Hamnett’s extensive entrepreneurial experiences make him a great partner for Breathe Life as we scale the business,” said Ian Jeffrey, co-founder and CEO of Breathe Life. “His hands-on experience creating, growing, and investing in technology companies is an invaluable asset to the Breathe Life team.”
Since its inception in November of 2017, Breathe Life has quadrupled the size of its team, secured $4.5 million CAD in seed funding, and signed several new partners including National Bank Insurance and La Capitale.
Amanda Dorenberg joins FrontRunner Technologies
Amanda Dorenberg has joined Regina-based FrontRunner Technologies as chief data and technology officer and business partner.
“My goal is to develop a seamless analytics platform, leveraging innovative data processing techniques.”
– Amanda Dorenberg
Dorenberg will be responsible for the development of all of FrontRunner’s data and technology product offerings. She will also be tasked with accelerating the company’s presence and influence across North America. Dorenberg has previously served as the chief marketing officer of Centrys, a blockchain and Web3.0 venture consulting firm, as well as the technology and marketing executive with Outfront Media Canada.
“FrontRunner Technologies has a highly disruptive business model with exponential growth potential,” said Dorenberg. “My goal is to develop a seamless analytics platform, leveraging innovative data processing techniques to provide both our advertising clients and our real estate partners with robust insights. We’re looking forward to making some big waves.”
“Amanda Dorenberg is a formidable industry leader,” said Janet Weiss, FrontRunner’s COO. “Her unique grasp of media, analytics and programmatic platforms combine together to position FrontRunner as a disruptive force in the [Digital Out of Home] space. The promising potential that stems from this partnership is exciting.”
