Plus: Nobul, Hopper top Deloitte Canada’s Fast 50.
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. If you prefer this update hit your inbox every week, make sure to subscribe to the BetaKit Newsletter using the form at the bottom of this page.
Top Stories of the Week
Canadian tech layoffs continue as tough year comes to a close
At least another 10 Canadian tech firms have recently laid off employees as companies prepare for what could be a prolonged economic downturn. Meanwhile, Amazon began laying off thousands of people last week, and its Canadian teams were not exempt.
Attabotics secures $95 million CAD from EDC, Ontario Teachers’ to scale its warehouse robots
With its tech finally ready and $95 million CAD ($71.7 million USD) in fresh “Series C-1” funding, Attabotics founder and CEO Scott Gravelle said the startup is prepared to start scaling.
Former SkipTheDishes COO Howard Migdal steps up to the plate as CEO
As a founder of GrubCanada, Migdal brings over 16 years of experience in food delivery to his new role at SkipTheDishes.
Raquel Urtasun’s Waabi gearing up to hit the road
According to Waabi, the Waabi Driver will soon hit the road for testing. Waabi has set its initial sights on autonomous long-haul trucking, as the firm looks to help the industry address its labour shortage and ongoing supply chain woes.
Bold Commerce swaps CEOs, bringing on PayPal, Intuit alum Peter Karpas
The new CEO previously spent time helping grow e-commerce and payments products at PayPal and Intuit.
Canada’s 2022 Developer 30 Under 30
The Developer 30 Under 30 is a recurring list that recognizes some of the top developers based in Canada. WeaveSphere also added a new award for this year’s conference, which honours 20 technology leaders in the country.
Nobul, Hopper top Deloitte Canada’s fastest growing startups lists for 2022
The consulting firm released its 25th annual list highlighting growth leaders of the Technology Fast 50, Enterprise Fast 15, Clean Technology, and Companies-to-Watch.
The painful changes that helped GSoft scale from zero revenue to $100 million ARR
GSoft hit $100 million ARR in 2021 and is on track to grow that revenue base in 2022, with plans to hire over 200 new employees across Canada this year.
Latest Funding, Acquisitions, and Layoffs
VAN – Apollo Insurance reportedly laid off 25 percent of staff (read more)
VAN – VanHack cut around 24 percent of staff (read more)
SEA – Amazon mass layoffs hit Canada (read more)
CAL – Symend closed $54M, laid off 13 percent of staff (read more)
KIT – Faire laid off 7 percent of staff (read more)
KIT – D2L laid off 5 percent of staff (read more)
TOR – Properly cut around 37 percent of staff (read more)
TOR – Swift Medical appears to lay off nearly one-third of staff (read more)
TOR – TealBook cut 19 percent of staff (read more)
TOR – League appears to have laid off 7 percent of staff (read more)
TOR – Koho cut 4 percent of staff (read more)
TOR – Cyclica – $2.4M (read more)
OTT – BluWave-ai, Tehama secured collective $4.4M (read more)
MTL – Teralys Capital – $40M (read more)
MTL – BoostSecurity – $12M (read more)
MTL – Alvéole – $8.1M (read more)
MTL – Plusgrade among group receiving Scale AI funding (read more)
WILL SOME CANADIAN TECH COMPANIES DIE DURING THE DOWNTURN?
“Are we willing to let companies die in Canadian tech?”
“Yes.”
Special guest and native son of Ottawa, VC Matt Roberts, joins this special live recording of the BetaKit Podcast from SAAS NORTH..
WAVERLY AND THE BROKEN INTERNET
“If any AI startup comes to you and says, ‘we found how to evaluate truth,’ you should hold a reasonable doubt. I don’t think we’re close to this.”
Ex-Googler and former Element AI co-founder Philippe Beaudoin joins to explain why the internet is broken and pitch his new company, Waverly, which hopes to fix it. We hold his feet to the fire.
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