Plus: BDC recommits to seed deals with $50M fund.
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BDC Capital recommits to leading seed deals in startups across Canada with new $50-million fund (BETAKIT)
The Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC) has launched a new $50-million CAD Seed Venture Fund, committing $10 million annually over the next five years to pre-seed and seed-stage software startups across Canada through BDC Capital.
The software-focused Seed Venture Fund will be sector-agnostic, with an eye towards enterprise software-as-a-service, FinTech, healthtech, artificial intelligence (AI), and proptech startups.
The Seed Venture Fund marks BDC’s first foray back into general seed-stage investing since its Strategic Initiatives Program (SIP) ceased making investments in new companies around 2017.
Sam Bankman-Fried Guilty on All 7 Counts in FTX Fraud Trial (COINDESK)
Sam Bankman-Fried defrauded his customers and lenders, a New York jury found after a five-week trial for the FTX founder and former chief executive. Bankman-Fried could spend decades in prison (and theoretically up to 115 years).
“Sam Bankman-Fried perpetrated one of the biggest financial frauds in American history,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said outside the courthouse after the guilty verdicts on all seven charges were revealed. “This kind of fraud, this kind of corruption is as old as time. We have no patience for it.”
RBCx hires former SVB Canada employees to bolster support for seed-stage and life sciences startups (BETAKIT)
The Royal Bank of Canada’s technology and innovation arm, RBCx, has brought on four former Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) Canada employees, becoming the latest in a growing list of Canadian banks to snap up employees from the failed tech financier.
RBCx has hired Filip Stoj, former VP of early-stage startups at SVB Canada, to lead its early-stage banking practice, as well as Andrew Owusu-Sefa (one of SVB’s first 10 Canadian employees) to serve as VP of early-stage banking.
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Intuit Is Closing Personal-Finance App Mint, Shifts Users to Credit Karma (BLOOMBERG)
Intuit is winding down personal-finance app Mint, and pushing users to shift to Credit Karma, a similar service that the company acquired in 2020.
Mint will no longer be available at the start of 2024, the company said Tuesday. Popular features to track personal spending and income are offered on Credit Karma, where users are invited “to continue their financial journey,” Intuit said.
Auditor General to probe SDTC following ISED-commissioned investigation (BETAKIT)
The Office of the Auditor General of Canada (OAG) plans to audit embattled federal cleantech investment agency Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC).
The announcement comes shortly after the Government of Canada suspended SDTC from funding new projects after a third-party investigation discovered evidence of conflict of interest and governance issues at SDTC.
Coinbase Stock Falls After Earnings. Trading Volume Slumps. (BARRON’S)
Coinbase Global beat analysts’ estimates of profits and revenues in the third quarter, despite seeing trading volume continue to slide.
It was the seventh-straight quarter of losses for Coinbase, which has struggled in the wake of 2022’s crypto industry crash and dampened trading volumes.
Bridge the gap: SMB cybersecurity challenges threaten customer trust and business viability (BETAKIT)
Cybercrime is up over 600 percent since the start of the pandemic, but according to new Mastercard Canada research, only 16 percent of Canadian SMB owners surveyed say they know what to do in the event of an attack.
Speaking with BetaKit, Aviva Klein, the Vice President of Digital Payments and Cybersecurity Solutions for Mastercard in Canada, explained the disconnect between the priorities of customers and the actions of SMBs, and how conversations about cybersecurity need to be reframed.
Brazilian fintech QI Tech lands $200M led by General Atlantic (TECHCRUNCH)
Brazilian banking-as-a-service startup QI Tech has raised $200 million in a Series B round of funding led by New York-based General Atlantic. The raise is believed to be the largest in Brazil — across all industries — this year so far, according to Crunchbase.
QI Tech is an infrastructure platform enabling the development of credit, payment, and banking solutions through a modular API.
BetaKit Live: Getting Hybrid Work Right (BETAKIT)
The future has arrived early for Canadian businesses, as hybrid work shifted from a COVID-19 emergency response to a permanent reality: sixty-five percent of Canadian knowledge workers now work in a remote or hybrid format.
In partnership with Intel Canada, BetaKit is happy to present a live-streamed panel conversation on the new best practices to ensure that businesses in 2023 are getting hybrid work right for the long term.
PayPal stock surges as pledge to turn “leaner” keeps crypto concerns at bay (REUTERS)
PayPal added nearly $4 billion to its market value after a pledge to turn “leaner” fired up investors, even as the payments giant disclosed a subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission tied to its stablecoin.
“Simply put, our cost base remains too high,” the company’s new CEO, Alex Chriss, said on Wednesday, adding that PayPal would align its resources to its “most profitable growth priorities.”
Why Canadian SMBs are choosing managed service partners to protect against cyber threats (BETAKIT)
Let’s face it, the pace of business transformation has hit warp speed, especially for SMBs.
Cisco’s Cybersecurity Readiness Index found that Canada falls under the global average in cybersecurity readiness. Only nine percent of Canadian organizations have a “mature” level of preparedness to handle the security risks of our hybrid world, compared to fifteen percent globally.
So how do you pick the right cybersecurity partner?
Buy now, pay later platform Tabby nabs $200M in Series D funding at $1.5B valuation (TECHCRUNCH)
Tabby, previously headquartered in Dubai but now based in Riyadh, has raised $200 million in its Series D funding round, achieving a valuation of $1.5 billion. This positions the shopping and financial services app as the first fintech startup unicorn in the Gulf, underlining its substantial growth and market importance in how customers shop and pay.
OpenSea Slashes NFT Marketplace Staff by 50% (DECRYPT)
NFT marketplace OpenSea, valued at $13.3 billion in 2022, confirmed Friday that it has laid off about half of its staff.
OpenSea previously laid off about 20% of its staff in July 2022, citing “an unprecedented combination of crypto winter and broad macroeconomic instability.”
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