Plus: Led by ex-Google researchers, OpenAI rival Cohere secures $270M.
Welcome to BetaKit’s startup stories of the week! Here, you will find the week’s most important news, features, and editorials published on BetaKit.
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Top Stories of the Week
COHERE ANNOUNCES $270-MILLION USD SERIES C FROM INOVIA, NVIDIA, ORACLE, SALESFORCE
Toronto-based artificial intelligence startup Cohere, which competes against ChatGPT creator OpenAI, has closed $270 million USD in Series C financing to fuel enterprise adoption of generative AI.
Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang claimed that Cohere has already made “foundational contributions to generative AI,” adding that the company’s service will help businesses globally harness the tech’s capabilities.
HERE’S HOW CANADA’S TOP 10 CITIES RANK IN THE GLOBAL STARTUP ECOSYSTEM
Though Canada maintains the rank of fourth place among 100 countries in StartupBlink’s global index for 2023, the report found that regions within the country experienced significant changes in the last year.
SHOPIFY PLANS TO “AGGRESSIVELY PURSUE” ID OF FUNDERS IN CASES AGAINST “PATENT TROLLS”
After battling patent trolls for years, Shopify has announced plans to fight back by seeking to uncover the identity of people and organizations funding patent trolls suing Shopify.
INTERAC APPOINTS JEREMY WILMOT AS NEW PRESIDENT AND CEO
Canadian payment services provider Interac has announced that Jeremy Wilmot is taking over from Mark O’Connell as the company’s president and CEO, effective August 1.
O’Connell has helmed the company since 2006, led it through its 2018 restructuring, and plans to advise through the transition before retiring at the end of October.
YORK UNIVERSITY PARTNERS WITH ONEELEVEN TO LAUNCH JOINT VENTURE STUDIO FOR NEW TECH MBA DEGREE
York University’s Schulich School of Business is partnering with Toronto-based tech hub OneEleven to establish a joint venture studio.
The venture studio will match students with member companies from both OneEleven and Schulich’s startup communities, who will complete pro bono product and fundraising analysis for select startups.
SASKATOON STARTUPS RIVERCITY, 7SHIFTS TEAM UP TO ENHANCE FOOD TEMPERATURE MONITORING FOR RESTAURANTS
Rivercity Innovations (RCI) has launched the integration of its cold chain monitoring sensors and software with 7shifts, which provides a restaurant team management platform.
In this partnership, RCI will deliver its temperature monitoring services to 7shifts’ more than 40,000 clients.
BC REGULATOR SUSPENDS EX-BLOK TECHNOLOGIES CEO, CFO FROM INVESTMENT MARKET FOR MISREPRESENTING 2018 SHARE SALE
Per the BCSC, ex-Blok CEO Robert Earle Dawson and ex-Blok CFO David Malcolm Alexander have separately agreed to suspensions after Blok failed to disclose that it would retain less than 18 percent of an announced $5.4 million private placement in 2018.
Latest Funding, Acquisitions, and Layoffs
SF – EvenUp – $50.5M (read more)
BC – Pacifican invests over $4 million into two projects (read more)
CGY – Over $110K awarded to startups at Inventures (read more)
MIS – Vive Crop Protection – $11.2M (read more)
TOR – Twig Fertility – $8M (read more)
MTL – GSoft – $125M (read more)
MTL – Oamo – $1.7M (read more)
The BetaKit Podcast
THE COLLISION CONVERSATION IS A MICROCOSM FOR CANADIAN TECH
Is Collision staying in Toronto (and for how much)? Is Collision coming to Vancouver? Why are Canada’s governments paying foreign companies to compete against local events? Are we a branch plant innovation ecosystem? Do we secretly believe we can’t do it ourselves?
People across Canada are asking questions about Collision. The answers say a lot about Canadian tech.
CANADA IS IN A HEALTH CARE CRISIS. WHAT’S THE PRESCRIPTION?
“We are in a time of the worst health care crisis we’ve seen in Canada. It is really close to a collapse of the system across the country.”
Brett Belchetz (Maple) and Alexandra Greenhill (Careteam Technologies) join to diagnose the failings of Canada’s health care system before offering a prescription. How can innovators help? Can a balance be struck between public and private care? The doctors will see you now.
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