Plus: The silly things women’s health entrepreneurs hear from male VCs.
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Vistara Growth secures $200-million CAD initial close for fifth private credit fund
(BETAKIT)
Vancouver-based Vistara Growth has raised over $200 million CAD for its latest technology-focused private credit fund.
Vistara, which targets enterprise software companies, including healthtech, with between $10 million and $100 million in annual recurring revenue, creates tailored investment structures comprised of debt, equity, or some combination of the two to help tech companies finance organic growth, mergers and acquisitions, or shareholder liquidity initiatives.
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Telehealth orthodontics company SmileDirectClub shuts down
(CNN)
SmileDirectClub, the international direct-to-consumer dentistry and orthodonistry company that sold teeth aligners, has shut down less than three months after filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
Because a typical SmileDirectClub teeth-straightening course takes 4-6 months, some existing customers may be stranded in the middle of treatment.
SmileDirectClub had once heralded itself as an affordable alternative to traditional orthodontics with a mission “to democratize access to a smile each and every person loves by making it affordable and convenient for everyone.”
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Notman House is in trouble. What’s next for the home of Montréal tech?
(BETAKIT)
Notman House, the Montréal startup hub run within a 187-year-old heritage building, will likely be put up for sale as government creditors claim years of unpaid debt.
Many are now concerned about what Notman’s uncertain future means for Montréal tech.
A new initiative with a similar mission called Ax-C, which is set to open on the former trading floor of the Montréal Exchange by the end of next year, has garnered $48 million in government support. Meanwhile the OSMO Foundation, which owns and operates Notman House, owes $323,000 in unpaid mortgage fees to the Business Development Bank of Canada and Investissement Québec.
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AI-based drug developer Insilico starts seriously staffing up in Montreal
(THE LOGIC)
Insilico Medicine’s Alex Zhavoronkov says he refuses to engage in geopolitics, but the AI-based drug company is staffing up in Montreal because of tectonic political and economic forces.
Insilico’s Eastern European data scientists mostly moved to the Persian Gulf in 2022, where they’re overseen by a Concordia PhD and see some of the results of their work tested in wet labs in China for a company with headquarters in Hong Kong and New York.
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Six Canadian tech founders share their wins and learnings from 2023
(BETAKIT)
It’s no secret that 2023 has been a tumultuous year for tech. But in some ways, for founders, it was a year like any other: navigating challenges and uncertainty to find opportunity and success.
We asked a group of Canadian tech founders to reflect back on an unpredictable year. They shared their views on adopting new technologies, celebrated their biggest wins, and shared what learnings they’ll bring into 2024.
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‘I’ll Ask My Wife About This’: The Silly Things Women’s Health Entrepreneurs Hear From Male VCs
(MEDCITYNEWS)
What’s a yeast infection? Is it really that frustrating? Is this really a problem? ‘I’ll ask my wife about this.’
Priyanka Jain, CEO and co-founder of vaginal health company Evvy, felt more like an educator rather than an entrepreneur when she first set out to raise funds for her startup.
Do startups that focus on male stigmatized conditions face the same challenges in raising funds?
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How John Raeder would use his $600 million growth fund to scale your startup
(BETAKIT)
After successfully operating businesses through both the dot-com bust and the 2008 Financial Crisis, John Raeder has developed a “paranoia of operational frailty,” always planning for a doomsday scenario.
In a recent #CIBCInnovationBanking podcast episode, Raeder shared how he thinks about growing businesses—and what founders should be doing to set the stage for growth.
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Digital twin company Twin Health secures $50M
(MOBIHEALTHNEWS)
Digital metabolic care startup Twin Health announced it raised $50 million in funding, two years after securing $140 million in Series C funding.
Twin’s product is the Whole Body Digital Twin, an AI-backed model that aims to provide individualized nutrition, sleep and activity guidelines to help people prevent and reverse metabolic diseases such as Type 2 diabetes.
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Kitchener-Waterloo tech leaders launch new community-building platform Waterloo Inc.
(BETAKIT)
CCI has been hearing from innovation leaders in Kitchener-Waterloo and that their sense of local community “atrophied” during COVID-19, and for many, virtual gatherings haven’t filled that void.
Developed in partnership with the Medical Innovation Xchange and Catalyst Commons, Waterloo Inc. marks the first chapter of the Innovator Network of Canada, a brand that the CCI has rolled out in response to demand from its members.
“Waterloo is not in isolation,” CCI president Ben Bergen said to BetaKit.
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Practice Better launches AI tool to transcribe sessions, give time back to practitioners
(FIERCE HEALTHCARE)
Practice Better, an all-in-one practice management software platform, launched its take on an artificial intelligence charting assistant.
It aims to securely record, transcribe and summarize client sessions in a practitioner’s charting workflow. The tool integrates with EHRs and complies with HIPAA, GDPR and other security regulations.
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Startup TNT completes first close of targeted $5-million venture fund
(BETAKIT)
In May 2019, Zack Storms launched what became an Edmonton “Thursday night tradition.” Aptly named Startup TNT, the event began with a simple vision: create a space where local entrepreneurs, investors, and ecosystem stakeholders could mingle, have fun, and collaborate on building great companies.
Over the past four years, Startup TNT has hosted 30 summits, and engaged 375 angel investors to invest over $12 million into more than 90 Prairie-based startups. Now, the non-profit has announced the first close for its first-ever venture fund, for which it is targeting $5 million.
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Google is rolling out new AI models for health care. Here’s how doctors are using them
(CNBC)
Google on Wednesday announced MedLM, a suite of new health-care-specific artificial intelligence models designed to help clinicians and researchers carry out complex studies, summarize doctor-patient interactions and more.
The move marks Google’s latest attempt to monetize health-care industry AI tools, as competition for market share remains fierce between competitors like Amazon and Microsoft.
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How Xero overhauled its customer support function using gen AI
(BETAKIT)
New Zealand-headquartered and Canada-connected Xero recently launched a gen AI solution for its Xero Central self-service helpdesk, built in partnership with Québec-based AI software platform Coveo.
Speaking with BetaKit, Nigel Piper, executive general manager at Xero, explained how the project came to be and what it took to build and implement a solution.
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Oracle’s Q2 revenue comes up short dragged by Cerner business, slower cloud growth
(FIERCE HEALTHCARE)
Oracle’s second-quarter revenue fell short of analysts’ expectations, dragged down by its Cerner business and slowing cloud growth.
The company acquired health IT company Cerner in a $28 billion deal in June 2022 to push deeper into the healthcare market and help boost its cloud business.
Oracle’s total revenue came in at $12.9 billion for the quarter that ended Nov. 30. Analysts had expected quarterly revenue of $13.05 billion, CNBC reported.
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