Tuesday, April 16, 2024 As reported by BetaKit, Royal Bank of Canada’s technology and innovation department takes another step in championing women in tech with the launch of the second edition of their mentorship program. Initially introduced in 2023, RBCx Mentor Meetups is a one-on-one virtual mentorship program that is aimed at providing women in tech with invaluable professional advice from RBCx mentors. While last year’s program saw over 180 women receive a total of 175 hours of mentorship from female mentors, this year, male mentors have joined the lineup, seeking to bridge the ..read more

Thursday, April 4th, 2023 On March 21, the U.S. Justice Department, in collaboration with 16 other state and district attorneys general, filed an antitrust lawsuit against Apple. The lawsuit alleges that Apple has engaged in unlawful exclusionary behaviour by establishing an illegal monopoly in the smartphone market. This is said to be achieved through selectively imposing contractual restrictions on, and withholding critical access points from, developers. The Justice Department argues that Apple’s practices undermine innovation for apps, products, and services that would otherwise p ..read more

Tuesday, April 2, 2024 Spotify, a music, podcast, and audiobook streaming platform, is now venturing into e-learning. The platform will be providing its users with video-based courses by partnering up with educational tech companies such as BBC Maestro, PLAYvirtuoso, Skillshare, and Thinkific. This move seems to be the next logical step for Spotify, as approximately half of their 600 million users already stream podcasts and audiobooks on the platform for educational purposes. Babar Zafar, VP Product Development at Spotify said “Many of our users engage with podcasts and audiobook ..read more

March 26, 2024 At its inception eight years ago, PocketHealth set a goal to build an easier way for patients and healthcare providers to access and share diagnostic images. Today, the Toronto-based start-up’s software not only gives over 1.5 million people at over 600 hospitals and imaging centres across North America control over their medical images, but it also helps those patients make sense of those images using artificial intelligence. PocketHealth allows patients to securely access, store, and analyze their own medical image records, including X-rays, ultrasounds, CT scans, a ..read more

March 25, 2024 The social media giant, Reddit, has gone public by way of an initial public offering (IPO) in the United States. Reddit announced they would be offering 22,000,000 shares, with an initial share price of $34 per share under the “RDDT” ticker. However, the company’s share priced jumped 48% by the end of its first day of trading, peaking at $57.80 per share.  In their amended S1-Filing, Reddit stated it intends to use the funds generated from the IPO for “general corporate purposes” and potentially to “acquire or invest in complementary technologies, assets or intellectual pr ..read more

March 18, 2024 YouTube, the world’s largest video-sharing platform, has just unveiled its latest feature: YouTube Create. This mobile app is designed to empower content creators by providing an intuitive and feature-packed video editing experience. This standalone video editing app, distinct from the main YouTube app can be a game-changer for aspiring YouTubers. YouTube Create is a competitor to TikTok’s creative tools, which has been the premier choice for non-technical creators who want to experiment with video but may not have the editing expertise. It was important for YouTube to implemen ..read more

March 13, 2024 On March 4, 2024, Berlin-based Razor Group (“Razor”) acquired Boston-based Perch in an all-stock deal. Both companies are e-commerce aggregators, an industry made up of third-party marketplace sellers that gather products from multiple online brands and sell them in one place. Upon the companies’ merger, Perch’s investors will own about one third of the combined company shares, while Razor’s investors will own the remaining two thirds. The transaction is based on a valuation of US$1.7 billion for the combined company. In connection with the acquisition, Razor raised an addition ..read more

March 11, 2023 The rapid development and mass proliferation of artificial intelligence (“AI”) tools over the past few years has been met with a broad spectrum of response - the excited optimism of many industry leaders on one end has been equally matched by vocal skepticism from individuals fearing a dystopian, technological usurpation of humanity prophesized by sci-fi films and texts. Sam Altman, one of the entrepreneurs behind popular OpenAI chatbot ‘ChatGPT,’ views were somewhere in the middle. Altman had previously publicized his concerns over the potential threat to humanity posed b ..read more

March 8, 2024 YouTube, the world’s largest video-sharing platform, has just unveiled its latest feature: YouTube Create. This mobile app is designed to empower content creators by providing an intuitive and feature-packed video editing experience. This standalone video editing app, distinct from the main YouTube app can be a game-changer for aspiring YouTubers. YouTube Create is a competitor to TikTok’s creative tools, which has been the premier choice for non-technical creators who want to experiment with video but may not have the editing expertise. It was important for YouTube to implement ..read more

March 6, 2024 GeologicAI, a Calgary-based mining tech company, recently announced the acquisition of Resource Modeling Solutions. In a press release, GeologicAI said the transaction will create opportunities for collaboration, innovation and knowledge-sharing. The financial terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. GeologicAI aims to revolutionize resource exploration by developing AI-driven core scanning robots and software. The company has previously received major investments from climate technology fund Breakthrough Energy Ventures and Export Development Canada Ventures. Resource ..read more