Plus: Angel investment in Canada mirrored VC dip in 2022.
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Top Stories of the Week
PADDY COSGRAVE IS NOT FORCING YOU TO COME TO COLLISION
Collision has announced it will return to Toronto in 2024. But the tech conference’s organizer wants you to know it might not be back after that.
Public invitations aside, you won’t find BetaKit onstage at Collision this year. But Paddy Cosgrave did join the BetaKit Podcast to discuss the “much larger” list of North American cities now interested in hosting Collision in 2025, as well as his tendency to lean into controversy.
While Cosgrave details his issues with BetaKit’s reporting on the bid process to keep Collision in Canada—and The Logic’s David Skok—in this episode, you shouldn’t take his criticisms too seriously.
As he says on the podcast, “I decided that it was helpful obviously for almost all parties involved just to have a bit of a public kerfuffle around this stuff, so I did exactly what I knew would work.”
2022 ANGEL INVESTMENT IN CANADA MIRRORED VC DIP, DROPPING 37 PERCENT YEAR-OVER-YEAR
According to NACO, despite record demand, total angel investment in Canada during 2022 fell 37 percent year-over-year to $166 million CAD. Last year, angel organizations facilitated 653 investments in 379 companies.
While deal count rose slightly in 2022 compared to 2021, NACO noted a trend towards follow-on angel investments.
SEMICONDUCTOR WORKING GROUP LAUNCHED TO ADVOCATE FOR INDUSTRY PRIORITIES
Semiconductor industry experts and organizations have formed a new working group called SILICAN: the Semiconductor Industry Leadership and Innovation Canada Action Network.
SILICAN will work with federal and provincial governments to advocate for semiconductor industry priorities and co-develop a made-in-Canada action plan for strategic leadership in the global semiconductor value chain.
QUÉBEC’S QUANTUM SCENE GETS BOOST WITH NEW FACTORY, STARTUP STUDIO
Québec’s quantum sector is getting a boost with a new factory and tech hub being established in the province.
While Canada is losing its quantum staple in D-Wave, which is moving its Burnaby, BC head office to the United States, these two new initiatives could help Québec and other provinces continue to expand their market share in the quantum science category.
SHOPIFY MAKES CHECKOUT SOLUTION SHOP PAY AVAILABLE TO ENTERPRISE RETAILERS NOT USING SHOPIFY
Shopify is making its one-click online checkout solution, Shop Pay, available to enterprise retailers not currently using Shopify.
This Shop Pay expansion marks the latest move on one front of the battle for e-commerce supremacy, as Shopify, Amazon, and other players compete to own the checkout experience.
NEO FINANCIAL LAUNCHES SECURED CREDIT CARD TO HELP CANADIANS BUILD CREDIT
Following Neo Financial’s bet on embedded finance, the FinTech startup has launched a secured credit card designed to help Canadians build a history of borrowing and boost their credit scores.
The launch of Neo Secured Credit, Neo’s latest consumer product, takes place amid a tough consumer-banking market fuelled by high inflation and interest rates.
EDC INCREASES ITS MATCHING INVESTMENT MAXIMUM FROM $5 MILLION TO $25 MILLION
Export Development Canada (EDC) is expanding its Investment Matching Program for small and medium-sized exporting companies.
The program jumps from matching up to $5 million in capital to matching up to $25 million, and is available through qualified venture capital and private equity investors.
Latest Funding, Acquisitions, and Layoffs
VAN – Minutebook – $3.5M (read more)
CGY – Eavor – $80M (read more)
TOR – Rose Rocket – $50.2M (read more)
TOR – Augmenta – $15.57M (read more)
TOR – Altis Labs – $7.9M (read more)
TOR – Train Fitness – $2.5M (read more)
TOR – Masthead – $1.3M (read more)
TOR – Chexy – $1.3M (read more)
QC – Poka to be acquired by IFS (read more)
HAL – Swarmio Media files for creditor protection (read more)
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Multinational leaders in the health technology and life sciences sectors are leveraging Vaughan’s global market access, robust talent pool and rich ecosystem of collaborators.
Your business could be next! Learn more about opportunities to grow in Vaughan.
The BetaKit Podcast
PADDY COSGRAVE IS NOT FORCING YOU TO COME TO COLLISION
“Unfortunately, there’s a long history over the last decade that I tend to lean into controversies around any event that we’re holding anywhere in the world, especially four weeks out, because the volume of tickets that are booked locally is highest in the final weeks.”
BetaKit’s one-on-one interview with Web Summit CEO Paddy Cosgrave on the eve of Collison 2023 after the tech conference announced a (one-year) return to Toronto for 2024.
APPLE’S VISION PRO WON’T MAKE THE METAVERSE HAPPEN
“They’re trying to invent the next product category—that’s what they want to do. They want to have some sort of hardware to push into the future. They just haven’t convinced me that this really is the future yet.”
Apple just announced the most impressive—and expensive—AR/VR/MR device ever made. But who is the device for and how will they use it? MobileSyrup editor-in-chief Patrick O’Rourke joins to answer these questions fresh off of strapping Apple’s spacial computer to his face.
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