The Canadian gov't gets up to 4,000 complaints a day about its websites. It's testing an #AI chatbot to make navigating 10 million government webpages easier. How to ensure that AI is responsible? Experts at the Ottawa Responsible AI Summit had thoughts

Five of Clado's team members went to high school 20 minutes away from each other in Toronto. Now, the gang is back together as the @ycombinator.com.web.brid.gy alum raises $2 million for its mass-recruitment #AI platform.

The Upside Foundation is handing operations over to the @sickkidsvs.bsky.social’s Charitable Giving Fund. The Foundation allows #CDNTech founders to pledge 1% equity in their startup to charity. Since 2012, it's overseen 21 exits that gave nearly $4 million to 23 Canadian charities.

[email protected] is doubling down on advanced traders with a major product launch. The new suite of investment tools comes amid pressure from competitors like @wealthsimple.bsky.social and @robinhoodapp.bsky.social. Read on for an in-depth look at what Questrade is doing 👇

The federal government's recently proposed budget implementation bill would explicitly ban "screen-scraping." Some #FinTech leaders worry an outright ban isn't the answer.

Check out BetaKit's Josh Scott on the Flagship Podcast, giving an inside look into #CDNTech journalism. Scott and Nectar dig into: - The evolution of tech journalism - How VC really works behind the scenes - Josh’s candid reflections on past stories (and what's coming next)

San Francisco-based data security company Okta has opened new infrastructure, hosted within Canada, that will keep customer data in-country. Meanwhile, the Canadian government is still trying to figure out how products like this fit into Canada's push for digital sovereignty.

👀 In The BetaKit Newsletter this week 👀 ⚖️ Clio secures $500-million, buys vLex 📈 Positive signs in Canada's VC market 💰 Vistara Growth's $321-million friend-raise PLUS all the big leadership changes in the #CDNTech C-suite. Subscribe today 👇🏽

Calgary’s VizworX can transform complex data sets into interactive solutions, including a virtual command centre for battling wildfires. But when it came to SR&ED, they needed help. betakit.com/were-not-gon...

After launching in several US states, Quilt, led by Canadian CEO Paul Lambert, is coming full circle and making its systems available in five Canadian provinces.

Exclusive: Toronto’s Manzil just launched its first halal ETF on Nasdaq (MNZL)—done in 3 months in the US vs a likely 12–18 months in Canada. CEO Mohamad Sawwaf tells BetaKit: “We are now in the big leagues.”

Black founders have received less than 1% of Canada's VC funding since 2020. Now, DEI winds are shifting in #CDNTech and community leaders are pushing for more sustainable support for black entrepreneurs.

Plooto co-founder Serguei Kloubkov sues the company and board (including president John McLane) after Kloubkov was allegedly pushed out for trying to bring former CEO Hamed Abbasi back to the board, following Abbasi's acquittal in a sexual assault case.

Canada is betting on its own cloud. A “sovereign cloud” could help build a home-grown #AI industry, not just host data. Hear Hypertec Group's Simon Ahdoot, SFU president Joy Johnson, and others discuss at tomorrow's Canadian Science Policy Conference.

BDC' Capital's Growth Venture Fund leader Dominique Bélanger is out, 9 months after the project received a nearly $1-billion injection and an expanded mandate. BDC Capital is now hiring a managing partner to lead a new Life Sciences Fund.

🧠This weeks' BetaKit Quiz features Clio’s big raise and U of T’s special scholars🧠 Plus: ⚖️ OpenAI in court 💸 Vistara Growth "friend-raising to the max" 📐 The release 47,000 engineers are waiting on Take the quiz now:

ICYMI: Last week, @wealthsimple.bsky.social and Wise partnered to enable cross-border payment services through Wealthsimple to 30 countries, in more than 10 currencies.

📰Catch up on the latest #CDNTech news with The BetaKit Newsletter: 📌 Is #SaaS dead? Tech leaders debate 📌 Sonder's sudden collapse 📌 Vistara Growth closes $321-million fund

Dominion Dynamics founder and CEO Eliot Pence wants to build Canada’s first “defence prime.” What does that mean? And how does it fit into Canada's continued sovereignty? Listen to the full interview on The BetaKit Podcast:

Calgary’s tech scene is emerging as one of the most important in Canada. Since 2021: 📈 Tech talent grew 61% 💸 $8 billion added to ecosystem value 🧠 New momentum in #AI, neurotech & cleantech The 15th-anniversary Calgary Innovation Week showed how far the city has come.

It was a bad week in court for #AI giants Cohere and OpenAI. Both were rebuffed in court cases alleging copyright infringement.

🍁 Canada is trying to figure out what economic sovereignty looks like when it can no longer rely on the US. Aptum CEO Ian Rae says the government must value competition, not picking winners. 🎧 Listen to the full interview on The BetaKit Podcast betakit.com/what-the-aws...

Tracy Ridler is re-launching Shopify's shuttered Build Native entrepreneurship program. “Shopify closed the program earlier this year. I chose not to let that be the end of our story."

Canadarm3 manufacturer MDA Space reported a 45% year-over-year increase in revenue growth, brining in $409.8 million in Q3. This despite losing a $1.8-billion contract EchoStar in September.

The BetaKit Quiz this week features an OpenAI lawsuit and an Orwellian Toronto billboard. PLUS: 📈 Who raised $700M "friend-raising to the max"? 🚀 Bridgit founder Mallorie Brodie stuck in a sci-fi contraption 🔥 BetaKit's new managing editor How well do you know #CDNTech? Take the quiz now 👇

CereCura Nanotherapeutics wants to leverage tech that powered COVID-19 vaccines to treat disorders like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. The UBC spinout's $1.4 million, all-equity seed was led by WUTIF Capital, with support from eFund, UBC Venture Funds, and HexTwo Capital.

What does #CDNTech think of #Budget2025 now that the static has cleared? The BetaKit Podcast asked Vass Bednar (Canadian SHIELD Institute), Benjamin Bergen (CCI), and Jaxson Khan (Aperture AI) to cut through the noise. Listen now:

Former Deep Sky chief science and commercial officer Phil De Luna has teamed up with UBC researcher Sabrina Scott and Aurora Hydrogen co-founder and ex-CTO Erin Bobicki to develop novel carbon capture technology.

Lightspeed president JD Saint-Martin is leaving the company to focus on supporting the "new generation" of Canadian tech entrepreneurs. He joined Lightspeed in 2019 and became president in 2022. CEO Dax Dasilva said Saint-Martin's leadership "built the foundation for Lightspeed’s transformation."

Aptum CEO Ian Rae says the latest AWS outage was a wakeup call: the physical location of information on the cloud has consequences and firms that don't consider that can end up with big problems. 🎧 Listen to Ian's full interview on The BetaKit Podcast: betakit.com/what-the-aws...

A recent report by Intuit found that small business owners lose an average of seven and a half hours per week switching between tools. The redesigned QuickBooks solves for that.

Eran Ben-Ari is joining Y Combinator-backed Terminal as its first COO. Ben-Ari had worked at BenchSci since 2021, as chief platform officer and later COO

BenchSci has partnered with @mila-quebec.bsky.social for a multi-year push into #AI for drug discovery. Specifically, they're targeting hypothesis generation and assay prediction.

Before Sonder's collapse, it spent nearly $4 million integrating with Marriot for what was supposed to be a 20-year deal. Read BetaKit's full coverage to learn what SEC filings reveal about co-founder Martin Picard's recent departure.

Breaking: award-winning journalist Sarah Rieger (@sarahcrgr.bsky.social) joins as managing editor to lead the newsroom and grow @BetaKit.com’s nationwide tech coverage. betakit.com/sarah-rieger...

Montreal-based Stingray Group is acquiring TuneIn for up to $175 M USD. The deal adds 75 M monthly users, 100 k+ stations/podcasts, and 200+ connected-device integrations.

Damien Steel is rejoining the #VC industry after leaving the top job at Montréal-based carbon capture startup Deep Sky earlier this year, heading to Whitecap Venture Partners to help raise its sixth venture fund.

St. John’s-based CoLab Software has raised $72 million USD ($101 million CAD) in Series C funding as demand balloons for its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered engineering collaboration tool. betakit.com/colab-cashes...

Canada's #VC market was particularly bleak in the first half of 2025 but showed signs of life in Q3. More money flowed, the deals were bigger, but they went to fewer companies. We break down the @cvca.bsky.social numbers (and take a look at PE investment):

VCs are investing in AI tools. Thomas Terrats thinks they should use them, too. Read about how Montréal’s Vessel and CIBC Innovation Banking are modernizing fund management.

Montréal-based Glowtify secures a $3.4-million CAD seed round as it looks to become the go-to platform for small marketing teams. The all-equity round was co-led by Accelia Capital and Graphite Ventures.

Vancouver-based Vistara Growth has closed its fifth private credit fund at $321 million USD after a two-year fundraising process. Vistara has raised $700 million USD across its five funds since 2015.

Wealthsimple has teamed up with UK-based Wise to enable cross-border transfers from user chequing accounts: to 30 countries, in 10+ currencies. Read more to learn what that means for users and Canada's #FinTech ecosystem 👇

At SAAS NORTH, founders wrestled with relevance, results, and the new AI paradigm. betakit.com/is-saas-dead...

💡 Toronto’s NLPatent just raised $3M USD to bring AI to the world of patents. Its goal: become “the operating system" for how patent work gets done in the AI era.

Canadian founders in Dubai got a crash course in global speed. At Expand North Star, 22 startups joined the Canada Startup Association to learn how the Gulf moves faster — where policy, capital, and innovation align.

New funding: $23 million USD Series B funding for Digitail as the veterinary software startup expands its Toronto hub. Five Elms Capital led the all-equity round, with support from Atomico, Partech, Byfounders, and Gradient.

[email protected] reveals a possible new layer to the government's "Buy Canadian" strategy. At Toronto's OneEleven, he said the feds might force companies that get government funding for #AI and digital technologies to buy from Canadian suppliers.

Is Canada sleepwalking its way into a new economy? Aptum CEO Ian Rae says Canada has lost some self-awareness. As the US fractures old ties, it's time for Canada to rethink its economic relationships. Listen to the full interview on The BetaKit Podcast: betakit.com/what-the-aws...

In The BetaKit Quiz this week: 🚗 The Tesla board's new marching orders for Elon Musk 📱 Apple's 10-figure payment to Google? 🏦 Who now runs Canadian open banking? Only the savviest in #CDNTech go 10 for 10. Can you? ❓Take the quiz now❓: