#1. BetaKit recently attended a performance of ‘The Master Plan,’ a theatrical production about which interaction between the tech sector and the City of Toronto?
The Master Plan, inspired by Josh O’Kane’s book Sideways: The City Google Couldn’t Buy, delves into the story of Google’s abandoned smart city project in Toronto. BetaKit editor-in-chief Douglas Soltys recently connected the play’s themes to ongoing debates about Canada being annexed by the US, as floated by President-Elect Donald Trump.
#2. This week, a group of Canadian tech leaders launched a campaign that aims to free social media feeds of what?
The group of Canadian tech entrepreneurs, scholars, and advocates is calling for social media feeds to be freed from the control of billionaires like Elon Musk. The campaign hopes to establish a public service foundation to protect decentralized social networking platform Bluesky’s underlying technology from billionaire capture.
#3. The CEO of Uvaro, which acquired coding school Lighthouse Labs this week, said the best practices of upskilling are “getting thrown out the window” due to what?
In an interview with BetaKit, Uvaro CEO Joseph Fung said that all the best practices of upskilling are “getting thrown out the window” due to AI, as job descriptions get redesigned and rewritten to account for the new tools on the market. Because of this, he said that acquiring Lighthouse Labs is like two puzzle pieces coming together.
#4. Tailscale’s recently appointed senior vice-president of operations Grace Lin most recently helped this company scale to a 2019 IPO.
Lin previously served as head of business operations and Asia-Pacific manager at Cloudflare. Her appointment coincided with corporate virtual private network Tailscale recently hitting 10,000 paid business customers, a list that includes Mistral, Hugging Face, and Toronto-based Cohere.
#5. Which global top-five bank led Toronto FinTech startup Float’s $70-million CAD funding round?
Float’s Series B round was led by the growth equity arm of Goldman Sachs, the second-largest investment bank in the world by revenue. Float said the new capital will be used to broaden its product suite, attract top talent, and expand its leadership in the Canadian market.
#6. This week, two co-founders of which Canadian food ordering app joined Shopify?
Ritual co-founders Ray Reddy and Larry Stinson, alongside members of Ritual’s research and development team, are leaving the food ordering company to join Shopify. This marks the first time Ritual will operate without any of its original co-founders. According to sources that spoke with The Globe and Mail, a separate process is underway to sell Ritual.
#7. This week, League hit 40 million users under contract. What does League offer?
Founded in 2014, League provides a white-label customer experience platform for healthcare providers and payers, such as insurance companies. Its platform allows users to navigate their coverage and claims, participate in rewards programs, and integrate third-party health apps.
League’s user milestone coincided with the company securing a $100-million USD credit facility from RBCx, which will support platform development, sales capacity, and potential mergers and acquisitions.
#8. Which of the following individuals are officially in the running to replace Justin Trudeau as Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada?
Canadian entrepreneur and Member of Parliament Frank Baylis has publicly announced he will enter the leadership bid. Baylis is executive chairman of Baylis Medical Technologies, a company founded by his late mother and former nurse, Gloria Baylis. The company bootstrapped to a $2-billion exit.
François-Philippe Champagne announced this week he is not running for Liberal leadership, joining Mélanie Joly and BC Premier Christy Clark in opting out.
#9. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is reported to be aligning with President-Elect Donald Trump ahead of his inauguration by taking which of the following actions?
In a whirlwind six weeks that caught many employees off guard, Zuckerberg has taken all three actions following a Thanksgiving meeting with President-elect Donald Trump.
He loosened Meta’s restrictions on how people can talk about contentious social issues, and killed Meta’s fact-checking program. Zuckerberg also said he thinks Meta needs more “masculine energy” during an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience this week.
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Feature image courtesy Float.