Tuesday, May 28, 2024 Two weeks ago, Google hosted its annual developer conference “Google I/O”, announcing its new wave of inventions and software capabilities. While the conference was geared towards developers, it provides consumers with a sign of what’s to come and how Google is evolving. Pixel 8a: Google’s newest budget-friendly handset hit the market last week. Offering impressive generative AI features at a competitive price of $499. Slate: Google’s Pixel Tablet, Slate, is now available for purchase. Enhanced security features: AI call scanning to identify potential scams ..read more

Friday, May 24, 2024 Last month, Relocalize, a Montreal-based cleantech startup, secured an additional $2.3 million in funding. The funding, which brings this seed round to a total of $5.8 million, will support the development and deployment of its technology-powered micro-factories. Relocalize is hoping to revolutionize the manufacturing and packaging of food-related items by localizing production in their micro-factories. By decentralizing production of the items, Relocalize will help the grocery industry vastly reduce its transportation costs and corresponding emissions, as well as mitiga ..read more

Tuesday, May 21, 2024 A Calgary-based startup, ZayZoon, is making a comeback in Canada. With Earned Wage Access (“EWA”) being one of the fastest growing employee lifestyle benefits in the United States, ZayZoon currently offers EWA to thousands of US businesses and millions of employees. EWA provides employees with the option to access a percentage of their earned paycheck before their designated payday, with the goal of alleviating financial stress and the reliance on payday loans. ZayZoon’s revenue is based on a five-dollar transaction fee for cash advances, distinguishing the startup from ..read more

Thursday, May 16, 2023 In March 2024, a volunteer programmer, Andres Freund, discovered a malicious “backdoor” code which had been planted in Linux, the operating software used by the majority of the world’s web servers. If undetected, this backdoor could have resulted in a potentially devastating cyber attack by allowing attackers to steal encrypted data or plant malware on millions of computers worldwide. Linux is used on the servers hosting most of the webpages on the internet, including Facebook, Google, Wikipedia, and the servers used by banks, hospitals, governments and Fortune 500 com ..read more

Wednesday, May 8, 2024 Further to our previous post. President Biden has now signed off on the Protecting Americans From Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act, which effectively criminalizes the distribution, maintenance or updating of a foreign adversary controlled application in the US. According to The Hill, the now mandated sale of the company is “poised to be one of the most significant and contentious technology transactions in recent years”. Analysts estimate that the U.S. operations of TikTok could demand a price in the tens of billions of dollars. TikTok essentially h ..read more

Monday, May 6, 2024 TikTok has rolled out an Instagram competitor, “TikTok Notes” in Australia and Canada. TikTok Notes is a platform where users can share photo and text content. The app will work harmoniously with the original TikTok app, with photos posted on the original TikTok app uploaded and available in the new TikTok Notes app. Users can opt out from the photos they upload on TikTok being posted on TikTok Notes, and are also able to individually post photos and text in the TikTok Notes app itself. A difference between TikTok Notes and Instagram is users’ ability to create ..read more

Thursday, May 2, 2024 The DMZ, one of Canada’s largest startup incubators, has reportedly been awarded a $500,000 grant by the Embark Student Foundation. The grant aims to help develop DMZ’s Basecamp program, which is dedicated to fostering student entrepreneurship. To date, the Basecamp program has enjoyed success by supporting over 350 students who have created 151 startups. With this funding, the Basecamp program will introduce a new two-phase structure: the initial “Sprint” phase, and the subsequent “Voyage” phase. The “Sprint” phase includes a four-week pitch coaching experience tailore ..read more

Wednesday, May 1, 2024 Webflow, a website-building SaaS company founded in 2013, has acquired its first start-up, Intellimize. Terms of the acquisition have not been disclosed, but Intellimize was reportedly purchased for a price in the “eight-figure” range. The acquisition marks Webflow’s expansion into the market optimization sector. Intellimize is a platform that offers AI-driven website personalization and conversion rate optimization. Founded in 2016, Intellimize has raised over $50 million from various investors at the time of acquisition. Since 2013, Webflow has grown to raise over ..read more

Monday, April 29, 2024 Last month, the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) announced that eleven Canadian companies were selected to receive funding for the development of quantum technologies. The funding follows a joint Canada-U.K. call for proposals, and is intended to support collaborations between Canadian and British companies. The British companies are receiving support from their counterpart public body, the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). According to the NRC, these projects “focus on developing real-world quantum technologies for commercial use in networking, sensing ..read more

Thursday, April 25th, 2024 On April 8, Hootsuite Inc., a Vancouver-based social media management company, announced that it is acquiring Talkwalker, a Luxembourg-based consumer intelligence company. The deal is expected to close in the second quarter of 2024. Talkwalker was founded in 2009, and offers AI-powered ‘social listening’ services – analysis of online conversations to provide consumer behaviour insights. Talkwalker’s analysis covers over 30 social media platforms. Hootsuite and Talkwalker have had a business relationship dating back to 2015, when they first began partnering on pro ..read more