Category: Tech News

Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne will not seek Liberal leadership

Canada’s Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry François-Philippe Champagne announced today that he will not seek the Prime Minister’s office.  “You don’t take lightly the opportunity to lead a country like Canada.” François-Philippe Champagne With the Liberal leadership contest taking shape, eyes were on Champagne to confirm his intentions during a fireside chat with Taking […]

Uvaro acquires coding school Lighthouse Labs to take on AI-augmented job market

Kitchener-Waterloo, Ont.-based workforce training platform Uvaro has acquired coding school Lighthouse Labs for an undisclosed amount.  Uvaro said in a statement that the acquisition is a strategic move that aligns with wider job market trends, pointing to the Government of Canada’s launch of AI-focused programming and investments in a digitally skilled workforce.  Founded in 2013, […]

Tailscale hits 10,000 paid business clients after doubling customer base in 10 months

It took Toronto-based corporate virtual private network (VPN) startup Tailscale over four years to reach 5,000 paid business customers, a milestone it achieved in March 2024.  Ten months later, Tailscale has more than doubled its corporate client base. The software unicorn recently hit 10,000 paid business customers—ranging from small firms to Fortune 500 companies—and not […]

Ritual CEO, R&D team members to join Shopify

Ritual CEO Ray Reddy announced this morning that the Toronto-based food ordering app’s key talent is ready for pickup by Shopify. Co-founders Reddy and Larry Stinson, alongside members of Ritual’s research and development (R&D) team, are leaving to join the e-commerce giant. Reddy will be Shopify’s new vice president of retail, The Globe & Mail […]

Float raises $70-million Series B CAD led by Goldman Sachs

Toronto-based corporate card and expense management technology startup Float has secured a $70-million CAD Series B round to increase its footprint in Canada.  The round was led by the growth equity arm of Goldman Sachs with participation from OMERS Ventures, FJ Labs, Teralys, and return investor Garage Capital. The Globe and Mail reported the round […]

Canadian tech advocates join movement to free social media feeds from billionaire control

A consortium of open tech leaders is calling for social media feeds to be unbound from the control of tech billionaires like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.  The group of tech entrepreneurs, scholars, and advocates, which includes celebrity signatories such as Mark Ruffalo, launched a fundraising campaign today called Free Our Feeds. “The underlying problem […]

It’s time for Canada to show “spine and toughness”

Along with our friends at National Bank and Fasken, BetaKit took some tech locals out for an evening of theatre this weekend to see The Master Plan. A theatrical dramatization of the emphatic failure to build a smart city in Toronto (based on Josh O’Kane’s book Sideways: The City Google Couldn’t Buy), the production was […]

The biggest tech questions of 2025

The last episode of The BetaKit Podcast was about predicting what will come to pass in 2025. Our first episode of the new year is about open questions: tech happenings we’re wondering might happen this year. “ I’m sure if there’s one takeaway here is that we can all trust Enron to solve the world’s energy […]

BBTV rebrands to RHEI, launches new AI training licensing platform for creator content

Vancouver-based media tech firm BBTV Holdings, which went private in early 2024, has rebranded to RHEI and launched a new data monetization platform called RHEI Data Pro.  “We are no longer in the creator economy. This is the augmented creativity era.”  Shahrzad RafatiRHEI The new platform is meant to help digital content creators, like YouTubers, […]