Two startups based in Saskatoon won a combined $75,000 in investment prizes at this year’s Uniting the Prairies (UP) conference. At UP’s pitch competitions last week, SolusGuard took home $50,000 from The Firehood, an angel group dedicated to women-led tech innovations. BetterCart received $25,000 from the UP angel syndicate, which is powered by Alberta-based tech hub Startup TNT. SolusGuard was founded by Serese Selanders, who noticed a lack of options for safety alert devices for her father. In her mission of creating a better personal safety alarm, Selander established SolusGuard in 2019 ..read more

Fredericton agtech startup Picketa Systems, which develops technology for plant tissue analysis, has raised a $1.4-million seed round. The New Brunswick Innovation Foundation, an independent non-profit, led the funding, with contributions from a number of investors that focus on the agricultural sector such as Tall Grass Ventures, Emmertech, and Koan Capital. Desjardins Group, as well as members from angel groups East Valley Ventures and Startup TNT, also participated. Picketa said it plans to deploy 10 units of its technology across Canada and the United Kingdom.   Tissue testing allo ..read more

Welcome to the FinTech Times, a weekly newsletter covering the biggest FinTech news from around the globe. If you want to read F|T before anyone else, make sure to subscribe using the form at the bottom of this page. With regulatory approval, Hiive launches VC secondary trading platform in Canada (BETAKIT) Vancouver-based FinTech startup Hiive has rolled out its venture capital secondary marketplace to Canadians after announcing it has received registration across Canada as an exempt market dealer. QED closes on $925M to back fintech startups globally (TECHCRUNCH) QED Investors announced the ..read more

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. If you prefer this update hit your inbox every week, make sure to subscribe to the BetaKit Newsletter using the form at the bottom of this page. Top Stories of the Week ABCELLERA RECEIVES $300 MILLION IN COMBINED GOVERNMENT FUNDING FOR BIOTECH CAMPUS Vancouver-based AbCellera will receive $300 million through the Strategic Innovation Fund to upgrade existing facilities throughout Vancouver and to develop a “state-of-the-art” biotech campus featur ..read more

Digital media publications are dropping left and right these days. BuzzFeed News is gone, Gawker died for the second time, and Vice just filed for bankruptcy. Now, this isn’t tech news specifically, but it is impacted by tech, with new media startups adopting tech’s VC-fuelled approach to rapid scaling (as well as its batting average for success) and sinking or swimming based upon the priorities of Big Tech’s algorithms. More pointedly, the podcast you’re consuming is produced by a digital media publication now more than 10 years old that has lived three different lives: first as a Postmedia ..read more

With so many moving pieces involved in starting and running a company, building infrastructure like hiring, information management, and more can be a process that takes focus away from growth. This is why so many successful ventures are built on the back of existing software as a service (SaaS) companies that provide ready-to-integrate solutions. Here are just a few SaaS companies hiring software developers in Canada to improve services and help businesses run better. Check out all the organizations recruiting at Jobs.BetaKit for more opportunities. Autodesk Autodesk provides software that im ..read more

Artificial intelligence (AI) startup Cognosys has secured $2 million CAD in a seed round. Sangeen Zeb at Google Ventures led the round, with participation from Guillermo Rauch (CEO at Vercel), Amjad Masad (CEO at Replit), Aidan Gomez (CEO at Cohere), Ivan Zhang (CTO at Cohere), and Untapped VC, and managing partner Yohei Nakajima (BabyAGI). The closing date of the round was not disclosed. Cognosys said it will use the funds to accelerate its growth, expand its team, refine its platform, and enhance its product’s AI capabilities. Cognosys users set out a goal for their AI agents, which could ..read more

Startupfest has announced its Big Picture Agenda, highlighting some of the major attractions coming to the Montreal technology festival when it kicks off July 12. The festival’s tent village will return. More than 20 tents will hold an accelerator zone, demo spaces, and the festival’s “famous Grandmother judges,” who in the past have included the grandmother of Shopify president Harley Finkelstein, among others. BetaKit is proud to announce it is now a Startupfest media partner.   In 2013, the grandmothers picked Onavo, a company acquired by Facebook for over $150 million USD. And in 2 ..read more

The Retail Times is a weekly newsletter covering retail tech news from Canada and around the globe. Subscribe to R|T using the form at the bottom of this page to ensure you don’t miss out on the most important retail tech news every week! Lightspeed Commerce makes gains in fiscal 2023, fourth quarter (BETAKIT) Despite the better numbers, shareholders are still not pleased with the company’s performance. At presstime, shares in the TSX-listed Lightspeed had fallen by $2.83 CAD to $17.17, not far off of its 52-week low of $17.06. Fashion Giant Shein Raises $2 Billion but Lowers Valuation by a T ..read more

The Healthtech Times is a weekly newsletter covering healthtech news from Canada and around the globe. Subscribe to H|T using the form at the bottom of this page to ensure you don’t miss out on the most important healthtech news every week! Ailing MCI OneHealth divests five clinics in Calgary to Well Health for $2 million (BETAKIT) In order to support its short-to-medium term operations, Toronto-based healthtech company MCI OneHealth is selling five of its multidisciplinary primary care clinics in Calgary to Well Health for $2 million CAD. FTC signals tougher rules for health companies' use o ..read more