This morning, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland met with a group of Canadian technology industry leaders in Toronto to discuss the federal government’s recent capital gains tax hikes, which have fuelled widespread backlash from tech entrepreneurs and investors. “If this is going to be as detrimental to our sector as we think it is, and to Canada in general, we’ve got to keep organizing.” BetaKit has confirmed that in addition to Freeland, the meeting’s participants included Council of Canadian Innovators (CCI) president Ben Bergen, MaRS Discovery District CEO Alison Nankivell, Maverix Priv ..read more

A community-led offer to buy back Montréal startup hub Notman House was not accepted by the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) and Investissement Quebec (IQ), BetaKit has learned. The proposal, spearheaded by real-estate startup Guiker, was outbid by another party, according to Guiker CEO and founder Nan Hao and Mission.dev co-founder Gabriel Sundaram. The identity of the party, the value of the potential transaction, and their plans for the historic building are not yet known. “What we know today is Notman House is still open, startups are still renting space, and events are still ha ..read more

Layoffs have dominated the tech landscape since mid-2022, and while much of the conversation has centred around American layoffs, Canada has been significantly affected too. Shopify, one of Canada’s largest software companies, announced in May of last year that it was set to do a second round of job cuts, and would lay off 20 percent of its workforce, less than a year laying off what was then 10 percent of its team. Shopify is not alone. So far this year, Canadian tech companies that have trimmed their headcounts include Lightspeed, Top Hat, Loopio, Wattpad, 7shifts, and BenchSci. As of Nove ..read more

FinTech leaders and industry associations applauded the open banking update in Tuesday’s federal budget, but said there are still unanswered questions about the technical standard at the heart of the future consumer-driven finance system and when it will launch.  The government announced Tuesday the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC)—the country’s top consumer-protection watchdog—will oversee the new system. It plans to introduce legislation in spring 2024 to expand the agency’s mandate. The legislation is also set to include framework elements around the system’s scope and techn ..read more

The Healthtech Times is a weekly newsletter covering healthtech news from Canada and around the globe. Subscribe to H|T using this form to ensure you don’t miss out on the most important healthtech news every week! Google, Bayer team up to develop new AI products for radiologists Healthcare company Bayer has tapped Google for its cloud and artificial intelligence capabilities to build new tech products to assist radiologists. Bayer wants to pair its radiology, healthcare regulator and clinical data handling expertise with Google’s tech muscle and ongoing work in generative AI to speed up inno ..read more

Toronto-based Swtch Energy, which develops electric vehicle (EV) charging and management solutions for multi-tenant buildings, has raised $27.2 million USD ($37.4 million CAD) in Series B funding. Communitech recently added Swtch to its list of Canadian tech companies with the potential to reach $1 billion in revenue by 2030. The all-equity round was led by global impact investor Blue Earth Capital, Alantra’s Energy Transition Fund, Klima, GIGA Investments Corp, and return investor Active Impact Investments. Swtch said the new funding will help it leverage machine learning and artificial in ..read more

INNOVATEwest touched down in Vancouver this week, and several Canadian startups and teams are going home with some sweet, sweet prize money. Thousands of members of Canada’s tech ecosystem gathered at the Vancouver Convention Centre for the inaugural INNOVATEwest conference. The event featured conversations with Canadian tech leaders and investors spanning artificial intelligence (AI), FinTech, SaaS, venture capital, and more. INNOVATEwest featured several pitch competitions and challenges, with all winners announced on The BetaKit Keynote Stage. Headliners at INNOVATEwest included Koho’s D ..read more

Toronto-based venture capital firm Contango Digital Assets has closed the first $5 million of its targeted $10-million Blockchain x AI Seed Fund.  The fund has already invested in a couple Canadian companies from the $1.5 million that has already been deployed. Contango says the fund is backed by Dean Skurka, the CEO of one of Canada’s largest crypto companies, WonderFi. Contango also counts Richard Ma, the CEO of blockchain security firm Quantstamp, and Mario Casiraghi, the CFO of decentralized AI algorithm marketplace SingularityNET, as investors in this round.   Establishe ..read more

The Retail Times is a weekly newsletter covering retail tech news from Canada and around the globe. Subscribe to R|T using this form to ensure you don’t miss out on the most important retail tech news every week! StubHub Plans Summer IPO in New Test of Market Online ticketing marketplace StubHub is aiming to go public by late summer, people close to the company said, setting up another sizable internet initial public offering after Reddit’s IPO last month. And as StubHub has more than $2 billion in debt, many times its estimated profits, the company will test investors’ appetite for companies ..read more

DMZ has received $500,000 CAD from the Embark Student Foundation’s Major Grant Program to expand its student-focused entrepreneurship programming. The Toronto-based incubator specifically plans to expand Basecamp, its hybrid summer entrepreneurship program that helps students turn their ideas into tech solutions for social or economic challenges. Basecamp will now be offered in two phases: “Sprint” and “Voyage.” The Sprint phase will include a four-week pitch coaching experience that gives students the chance to pitch their businesses at tech conference Collision, win a trip to New York City ..read more