Plus: Solink secures $60 million to scale cloud-based video surveillance service.
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Solink secures $60-million USD Series C and backing from Goldman Sachs to become cloud video surveillance leader (BETAKIT)
Ottawa-based Solink has closed $60 million USD in Series C funding to scale its video surveillance software globally.
The startup’s platform makes existing security cameras accessible remotely via the cloud, pairing footage with point-of-sale data and making it searchable by event. Solink’s camera-agnostic software provides businesses with secure, real-time access to video, leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) to quickly identify trends, flag suspicious behaviour, such as thieves, and improve their operations.
Patently messy: How a $6B deal may spur more IP lawsuits (TECHCRUNCH)
Canadian enterprise technology giant OpenText acquired U.K.-based IT software vendor and consultancy Micro Focus for $6 billion on January 31. Since the deal closed, there have been fears that OpenText could capitalize on the thousands of patents amassed by Micro Focus.
Micro Focus is now set to end its membership of anti-patent troll organization LOT Network next week. What will OpenText do next?
Ontario organizations secure nearly $20 million in federal funds to drive entrepreneurship, job creation (BETAKIT)
$19.5 million in federal funding for Ontario-based companies and business hubs was announced on Monday, meant to drive growth in existing startups and establish new ventures.
Among them, Ottawa-based Solace, which provides management solutions for event-driven data architectures, secured an up to $10-million investment from the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program (NRC IRAP) to expand its PubSub+ event streaming platform.
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France’s Thales to buy Imperva in $3.6 billion cybersecurity deal (REUTERS)
France’s Thales said on Tuesday it would buy U.S. cybersecurity company Imperva in a deal worth $3.6 billion as it steps up expansion outside its historic defence business in the war against bots and hackers.
Thales’ move signals the group is ready to spend large sums to beef up its digital identity and security (DIS) division and take market share in the United States, where Imperva serves some of the biggest companies.
Hopper to power travel portal for Brazilian digital banking giant Nubank (BETAKIT)
Montréal-based travel booking startup Hopper is partnering with Nubank, one of the largest digital banks in Latin America, to power its travel portal.
The travel portal is powered by Hopper’s B2B Cloud offering and is expected to launch next year. Hopper launched its B2B initiative in 2021. Nubank is its latest new client and follows the likes ofCapital One and Uber.
Microsoft Faces European Antitrust Investigation Over Bundling of Teams Software (THE WALL STREET JOURNAL)
The European Union opened an antitrust investigation into whether Microsoft is abusing its dominant position by bundling its Teams videoconferencing app with its popular Office productivity software, marking the first formal EU probe of the software giant in more than a decade.
Microsoft may also have limited interoperability between its productivity suites and other products that compete with Teams, the commission said.
Canadian venture status report: Q2 2023 (BETAKIT)
New data from briefed.in gives an optimistic outlook on the venture health of Canada’s biggest tech ecosystems in Q2 2023.
Following a sluggish start to the year, Toronto and British Columbia’s tech ecosystems saw a resurgence in venture funding in the quarter, mostly due to larger deals between fewer companies.
Alberta tech is on pace to eclipse its 2022, with companies raising a lively $123.8M in Q2 2023. Québec followed suit, maintaining an upward trajectory in the quarter, growing 42 percent from Q1 2023 and 81 percent year-over-year.
Meanwhile, venture deal volume in the Waterloo Region reached a three-year low in the second quarter of 2023, but unreported deals could be shaping an unfair perception of the local tech sector.
OneTrust Raises $150 Million From VCs, Al Gore’s Firm (BNN BLOOMBERG)
Privacy management software startup OneTrust has raised $150 million in a funding round led by Al Gore’s Generation Investment Management.
The deal values the company at $4.5 billion, a high valuation — but still about 18% less than it was during its last funding round in 2021. That lower valuation means OneTrust is the latest in a growing list of unicorns to accept a so-called down round in a historically tight funding environment.
Canadian tech unicorns Ada, Clio, Lightspeed among first cohort of Canada’s Global Hypergrowth Project (BETAKIT)
Canadian tech unicorns Ada, Clio, and Lightspeed are among the eight businesses selected to take part in the first cohort of the Government of Canada’s Global Hypergrowth Project (GHP).
According to the federal government, GHP is meant to help its selection of businesses become “anchor firms,” which it defines as companies with annual revenues of over $1 billion and employees numbering more than 1,500 people.
Apple’s App Store tightens up on user privacy with new rules for app developers (TECHCRUNCH)
Apple will begin to require that developers explain why they need access to select data, under some circumstances, with a new policy designed to crack down on the misuse of APIs.
The change is the first step in policing the data-tracking method known as “fingerprinting,” which Apple doesn’t allow even if users give consent, but has been unable to sufficiently enforce.
PasswordBox, Intel alums build enterprise low-code tool for natural language models (BETAKIT)
Led by a team with a decade of experience building artificial intelligence (AI) and deep technology products, Montréal-based HumanFirst aims to “make working with natural language data natural.”
HumanFirst aims to help with its low-code “natural language data productivity suite,” which is designed to help companies turn that data into business insights and custom AI more easily and cost-effectively.
Source: CrowdStrike is close to acquiring Bionic.AI for between $200M and $300M (TECHCRUNCH)
Sources tell TechCrunch that CrowdStrike is in advanced negotiations to acquire Bionic.AI — a security posture management platform for cloud services — for between $200 million and $300 million.
Cybersecurity continues to be one of the more resilient areas in the tech landscape amid a wider downturn in venture funding and overall dealmaking.
Impact of Canada’s H-1B visa talent grab may go well beyond 10,000 applicants (BETAKIT)
Though Canada’s new H-1B visa program was only announced weeks ago, it’s already having a profound impact. In developing a visa program unapologetically piggybacking on America’s H-1B visa process—and in many ways, offering a clear contrast to its limitations—the IRCC appears to have struck a nerve.
When the program’s online portal launched on July 16, its 10,000 application limit had been reached by the next evening.
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