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In 2024, Canada struggled to find its place in the global AI race

2024 was the year that British-Canadian computer scientist Geoffrey Hinton won a Nobel Prize in Physics for his contributions to the field of artificial intelligence (AI).  2024 reinforced that Canada lacks the resources to win the AI war on all fronts. His victory is a reminder of Canada’s strong tradition of AI research and talent, […]

The biggest tech stories of 2024

Congrats, folks, we’ve survived another year. As required for The BetaKit Podcast to maintain its podcasting license, we are here to to review the tech year that was. “We are about to see a bunch of people who are powerful, successful, and feel like they know the best way to do things bring this approach […]

Champagne stays put as Liberals name new FedDev, PrairiesCan ministers in cabinet shuffle

Canada’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Francois-Philippe Champagne is not part of today’s cabinet shuffle as a new year election looks near-certain.  Shuffle caps off a hectic week kicked off by the resignation of Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland. Champagne has been serving as Innovation Minister since 2021, when he took over from Navdeep Bains. The […]

Why Round13 Capital is betting on venture debt

When Silicon Valley Bank’s (SVB) Canadian assets went up for auction in the summer of 2023 following the California-based, venture-focused bank’s collapse, 13 companies submitted bids to claim either a portion or all of the Canadian loan book. Among them was a unique contender: Toronto-based venture firm Round13 Capital. “We knew a lot of [SVB’s] […]

Clio’s record-breaking funding round explains 2024’s public market exodus

Burnaby, BC-based legaltech company Clio made Canadian tech history this year when it raised a record-breaking $1.24-billion CAD ($900-million USD) Series F round at a $4-billion CAD ($3-billion USD) pre-money valuation.  The fundraising itself is one of Canadian tech’s biggest stories of 2024. After all, the round dethroned 1Password’s $744-million CAD Series C in 2022 […]

Glen Ventures lands $5 million CAD from IQ fund to back early-stage healthtech startups

Montréal has a new healthtech venture capital (VC) firm on the block, backed by a Québec government fund that targets pre-seed investments.   The Eurêka investment fund, funded by Québec’s Ministry of Economy, Innovation and Energy (MEIE) and administered by Investissement Québec (IQ), has doled out $5 million to Glen Ventures, an early-stage healthtech fund with […]

Hostaway announces $365 million USD from US investors to fuel European expansion and AI plans

Finland-headquartered Hostaway, which sells management software to short-term rental owners and operators, has announced $365 million USD in strategic growth financing to fuel its European expansion and product and artificial intelligence (AI) development efforts. Once this transaction is complete, General Atlantic and PSG Equity will be “significant minority shareholders.” The round is being led by […]

Koho rolls out AI tool to investigate fraud and scams

Canadian FinTech startup Koho is using a generative artificial intelligence (AI) tool it claims will speed up its investigations of money laundering and terrorism funding. The company says its internal tool now performs the “busy work” of anti-money laundering investigations and reduces the time analysts spend on an investigation from an average of 95 minutes […]