Welcome to BetaKit’s startup stories of the week! Here, you will find the week’s most important news, features, and editorials published on BetaKit.
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Top Stories of the Week
BETAKIT’S MOST-READ MARCH STORIES SHOW #CDNTECH SECTOR STRUGGLES CONTINUE AS GOVERNMENT INNOVATION PROMISES CONTINUE TO LAG
With spring officially here, BetaKit’s most-read stories for the month of March highlight a season of transition for Canadian tech, with ongoing frustrations and challenges met by long-term optimism and an immediate need to reconcile with AI disruption.
Dive into this recap of Betakit’s coverage through the turbulent month of March.
ROUND13 NABS $200 MILLION FIRST CLOSE FOR THIRD FUND AS CO-FOUNDERS BRUCE CROXON, JOHN ECKERT STEP BACK
Round13 Capital has raised $200 million CAD in the first close of its latest fund, as its co-founders Bruce Croxon and John Eckert hand over the leadership reins to Round13 general partners Brahm Klar and Wilson Lee.
ONLINE VEHICLE RETAILER E INC. TO DELIST FROM TSX CITING LIMITED TRADING VOLUMES
According to E Inc., it decided to delist from the TSX because maintaining the listing doesn’t offer “substantial benefits” to the company and its shareholders. E Inc. said it expects to delist its shares from the TSX on or about May 24, at which point there will be no public market to trade the company’s shares.
MAGNET FORENSICS TO DELIST FROM TSX AS $1.8 BILLION MERGER DEAL CLOSES
Following the April 6 closing of Thoma Bravo’s purchase of Magnet Forensics, the latter is set to delist from the Toronto Stock Exchange.
Thoma Bravo struck a deal in January to buy Kitchener-Waterloo-based Magnet for $1.8 billion CAD, take the publicly-traded company private, and combine it with digital forensics firm Grayshift.
DOWN ROUNDS IN 2022 LOWER THAN EXPECTED AMID RELIANCE ON BRIDGE FINANCING: OSLER REPORT
Despite the market uncertainty that played out in 2022, the number of down rounds fell below the three year average between 2020 to 2022. This is one of the findings in the Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP’s second annual report on venture capital and growth equity.
Latest Funding, Acquisitions, and Layoffs
VAN – Ariglad – $1.3M (read more)
REG – Offstreet – $1.2M (read more)
TOR – Kepler Communications – $123M (read more)
TOR – AutoLeap – $40M (read more)
TOR – ChargeLab – $15M(read more)
TOR – Sampler acquires Abeo (read more)
MTL – Mila – $21M (read more)
MTL – MY01 – $12.5M (read more)
HAL – Graphite Innovation & Technologies – $10M (read more)
Osler releases multi-year study of 350+ Canadian VC and growth equity financings
For the second year, Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP has released its comprehensive study of 353 anonymized venture capital and growth equity financings from 2020–2022, valued at more than US$6 billion, providing data and insights for founders, entrepreneurs, investors and advisors contemplating transactions this year and beyond.
Join members of Osler’s Emerging and High Growth Companies Group April 26, 2023, at 12 p.m. ET, for a special one-hour virtual event when they provide insights and analysis from this important report.
Register for our Deal Points Report event
The BetaKit Podcast
IS CANADA READY FOR AN EV FUTURE?
“So this is the big pitch, right? There are all of these problems in the transport system; we are going to invent these new technologies that will solve it“
Flavio Volpe (Project Arrow, APMA) and Paris Marx (Road to Nowhere) join for a conversation on electric vehicles (EVs) and what the future of transportation in Canada might look like.
WAS RENORUN ABANDONED BY INVESTORS OR JUST ANOTHER MANNEQUIN STARTUP?
“Nobody is cheering you on for reaching the top of Everest if you don’t make it back down to base camp.”
Matt Cohen, Managing Partner at Ripple Ventures and host of the Tank Talks podcast, joins to unpack the complicated spot Canadian startups find themselves in.
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The post Canadian startup news of the week (4/16/23) first appeared on BetaKit.