Plus: Public servant tells MPs federal chief technology officer lied about ArriveCan app.
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Virtual care platform Mednow announces restructuring, looks for buyer (BETAKIT)
Toronto-based digital pharmacy startup Mednow has been placed into receivership to restructure and identify parties interested in purchasing the company or its assets.
The announcement comes a little over two years after the company raised approximately $37 million CAD for its initial public offering on the TSX Venture Exchange in March 2021.
A group of interested stakeholders “including the former chairperson of the board and CEO” of Mednow intend to submit an offer to purchase the assets and undertakings of the company.
Federal chief technology officer lied about ArriveCan app, MPs hear (THE GLOBE AND MAIL)
A high-ranking public servant told MPs Tuesday that Minh Doan, the chief technology officer for the federal government, recently lied to them at committee when he testified that he didn’t know who selected GCStrategies to build the ArriveCan app.
GCStrategies – a two-person IT staffing firm based in Ottawa – received more than $11-million to work on ArriveCan, more than any other private contractor. They form teams of subcontractors and collect a commission of between 15 per cent and 30 per cent of federal contract values.
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VentureLab’s latest HardTech Summit explores barriers, opportunities facing Canadian deep tech startups (BETAKIT)
At VentureLab’s third HardTech Summit, speakers discussed challenges and opportunities facing deep technology startups across the country and offered entrepreneurs advice on navigating them.
HardTech 2023 featured panels on topics ranging from the hardware that powers artificial intelligence (AI) to the state of medtech and what investors consider when weighing whether to back deep tech startups, which face a slightly different path compared to their software counterparts.
Amazon links One Medical primary care to Prime memberships
(THE WASHINGTON POST)
Previously, One Medical memberships — initially available largely via employer benefits — cost $199 annually. Starting Wednesday, Amazon Prime members can buy One Medical memberships for $99 a year, a price that signals the tech giant is eager to take the next step in its march into mainstream health care.
Sanctuary AI, RainStick among #CDNtech companies named to TIME’s 2023 Best Inventions list (BETAKIT)
Canadian tech companies Sanctuary AI, RainStick, Li-Metal, and Naqi Logix, have had their solutions named to TIME’s Best Inventions of 2023 list.
This year’s list features 200 inventions: Canadian solutions were named among inventions like OpenAI’s GPT-4, Spotify’s AI DJ, and Apple’s Vision Pro mixed-reality headset.
Algorithms are deciding who gets organ transplants. Are their decisions fair? (FINANCIAL TIMES)
Three days after Sarah was born, she was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, a genetic disease that causes severe long-term damage to the lungs, digestive system and other organs, reducing life expectancy. In summer 2021, about the time Sarah turned 28, her liver began to fail.
The “Transplant Benefit Score”, as it’s known, is a number produced by an algorithm that determines who goes to the top of the waiting list. Sarah’s wait, it seemed, was tied to her TBS and the software that calculated it.
Dapper Labs, Nesto, Certn, top Deloitte’s 2023 Technology Fast 50 list (BETAKIT)
Deloitte has announced the 2023 winners of its Technology Fast 50, a list meant to highlight Canadian companies demonstrating rapid revenue growth.
Deloitte said this year’s Technology Fast 50 winners have an average three-year revenue growth rate of 2,213 percent, a significant reduction from last year’s average of 3,093 percent, while Dapper Labs topped the list at a whopping 16,910 percent.
This year’s top three was rounded out by Noibu, an error-detection startup for e-commerce websites, in second place with a 12,865 percent three-year growth rate and BioRender, a Canva-like platform for scientific-modeling, in third.
Genomics data startup launches out of stealth with global partners to drive precision medicine for women (FIERCE HEALTHCARE)
Cercle, a new AI company focused on advancing healthcare for women, launched out of stealth Wednesday.
Leveraging AI, the Cercle Biomedical Graph platform collects billions of de-identified biomedical and genomics data points drawn securely from healthcare clinics and research labs around the world. It then converts often unstructured, fragmented clinical data into insights for researchers and providers.
Report: Diversity gap persists in senior ranks of Canadian VC firms (BETAKIT)
Despite year-over-year gains in the representation of women and visible minorities at Canadian venture firms, senior-level diversity in the industry is still lagging, according to a new report from BDC Capital.
BDC Capital’s report found that overall, diversity at the senior levels of the private asset industry remains low—almost half of venture firms are entirely male owned, while eight percent are entirely visible minority owned and two percent are entirely woman or Indigenous owned. Only 31 percent of venture firms reported having gender parity.
Tax Court disqualifies government loan spending from SR&ED, with potentially devastating implications for Canadian tech (BETAKIT)
In late May the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed an appeal application seeking to overturn an earlier decision by the Tax Court, which deemed below-market federal loans a form of government assistance, excluding them from being used in conjunction with SR&ED.
As such, Canadian organizations may see some of what previously qualified for SR&ED benefits no longer eligible for the widely used tax incentive program if those expenses were paid for via a low or no-interest loan from a federal institution. According to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), SR&ED provides more than $3 billion in tax incentives to 16,000 businesses annually.
Apple and Anthem’s experimental asthma app shows early promise but its future is uncertain (STAT)
Apple has embarked on several systematic studies exploring how its devices might be used to more directly improve health conditions, and after several years, one such effort is beginning to bear fruit.
The company is now beginning to release data from a study, which hints that the tool could help the millions of people who struggle with asthma avoid the worst outcomes of exacerbations.
Government of Alberta proposes changes to clear path for tech firms to use ‘software engineer’ title (BETAKIT)
The Government of Alberta has tabled changes designed to enable technology companies in the province to use the ‘software engineer’ title to attract and retain skilled talent.
Engineers Canada and the country’s provincial and territorial engineering regulators sent a letter to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith expressing strong opposition to the government’s decision to change the province’s Engineering and Geoscience Professions Act.
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Alex Riehl
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